Gregory Glancy

When in comes to herbal "teas," there aren't many I am willing to pay for anymore. I grew up on Mint Medley and Sleepytime blends from Twinings (I think), but I find that I get much better and more flavour if I make a blend myself. With the proliferation of bulk herb and spice sections at many grocery and specialty stores, I just buy 25 cents worth of this and that and play with it until I find something I like. Currently, my evening concoction consists of hibiscus flowers, dried mint, goji berries, and a couple of strands of saffron. Sometimes I throw in a handful of chamomile, too. It's really nice...the saffron adds a layer of flavor that I really miss if I leave it out, and it really isn't too expensive if you buy the Spanish varieties instead of the lovely Kashmiri or Persian stuff. I love to experiment with spices & other flavours in my nighttime brews. I highly recommend getting a Mono Filio or similar teapot (not the Gemini model...haven't tried it yet) for this kind of tea steeping, by the way. They are pretty expensive, but worth every penny in my opinion. I know the Cultured Cup and In Pursuit of Tea carry them most of the time, as they can be kind of hard to find.

On the tea & chocolate idea, I have had excellent results with steeping real Lapsang Souchong leaves (not the powdery liquid smoke tasting teabag type) in the cream used for making a firm ganache for truffles. I just add the tea to the cream when it is cold and heat it slowly over a double boiler until it gets hot. I get the most pleasant results that way...it seems like the results are too smoky and harsh if I steep the tea in cream that is already hot for whatever reason. Then I just strain off the tea leaves and use the cream in the ganache as I normally would. I always add some kind of chile pepper to this, too. The spicy and smoky with the bittersweet of the chocolate is awesome IMHO. This works well with scented teas like Jasmine or Osmanthus, too. I just tend to leave out the chiles. Greg

Has anyone tried the Kuradashi Gyokuro that Hibiki-en has been talking about for a while now? I'm very intrigued by the concept of an aged Gyokuro and would love to hear some opinions and thoughts. Greg

Today I decided to start with what I refer to as "Asian Grocery Store Gold." It is a decent Taiwanese Dong Ding Oolong that cost me a whopping $6.99 for 100 grams vacuum sealed in a metal tin. The company who packages the tea is "Good Young Co., Ltd." out of Taipei, and is marketed as the Tradition Oolong Tea Series. The English description on the can promised a "leisurely and carefree mood at any time." I couldn't resist such marketing, so I bought it and feel like I finally got my money's worth out of a grocery store bought tea. I'd post a picture, but I haven't figured that out on here yet... It is a typical Taiwanese ball-shaped oolong with little to no roasting. I steeped it gongfu style in a Gaiwan, and got three decent steepings out of it. Moderately sweet, tastes a little flat or not super fresh, but it does have that Taiwanese Oolong flavor that I love. Not bad for $6.99. Has anyone else found good values like this in their local markets?