Ice-brewed Sencha

I've half-way typed up so many posts for here but the heat just puts me in this state of 'don't wanna' and leaves so many things unfinished. So, a post about something cool.

All those flavored iced teas and tisanes are well and good, but for a hot day nothing beats ice-brewed sencha, imo. It's cold, it's sweet, and it's just caffeinated enough to give you a little perk up. No contest.

The only downfall, as with all iced-things, seems to be time. For the best results, use a medium to high quality sencha with nothing but ice(meaning you have to wait for however long it takes the ice to melt). Yet, given my heat-induced state of 'don't wanna' as in 'don't wanna wait that long', I tend to go halfway on the ice.

That is, about 9 grams(you can use less, around 5, if going with just ice) in a 9oz. kyusu. Filled half the pot with ice cubes, then poured cold water to fill the rest, and sat down with a sketchbook and tried to

ignore the slow melt of the ice.

In all, using today's batch for reference, it took about half an hour per steep(two good ones and one 'eh' one), and a brief bout of rain, but came out magical* in taste. Heavily concentrated and without even a trace of bitterness, ice/cold-brewed sencha tends to be very sweet and very refreshing.

That said, I'm sure using my new icy-looking hagi certainly didn't hurt.

*Translation: grassy, sweet in a pleasant non-sugary way, and delivering of a bit of a heady feeling

Octopus Tea

One evening I doodled an octopus drinking tea and then I drew a variety of octopus/tea-related things.

Considered posting them all here or all at my art blog thingie, but then they got a little out of hand and since I plan on adding even more later(re: once my computer stops revolting on every program I try to use), I gave them their own blog.

Enjoy?

Shiboridashi Test Drive

TC TASO #3

a.k.a. 'Petr Novák Wood Fired Shino Collection'

So, I got a package today...

They're all so pretty! <3

More/better pics later, playtime now.

:D

Mugicha(麦茶)

Or damaicha, maicha, or boricha, depending on where you are, is a tisane made simply from roast barley.

A drink known for being both refreshing and thirst quenching, mugicha tends to be fairly popular in the summertime. So, with temps heading toward the 90s and humidity pushing past 50%, I figured it was high time to pick some up.

Available in most Asian or international grocery stores, mugicha comes in a variety of forms. For one, there's the pre-made, in a bottle and read to drink. In most east Asian countries you can walk into almost any convenience store and have yourself a bottle without a second thought(well, unless you lack the ability to pay). Some stores Stateside or in the West have this option as well, though it is considerably more rare.

So, moving on, there are two forms for brewing it yourself. Loose, a bag of roast barley or non-roasted barley which you can roast yourself, and tea bags. Unlike with tea, of the camellia sinensis variety, you really don't have to avoid barley in bag form for fear of poor quality as it's pretty hard to get wrong and doesn't need the space tea leaves do to expand. Or, I'm just justifying my penchant for going easy on this and buying it in bagged form, lol.

Either way, brewing is fairly straightforward. Regardless of brewing temp, the measurements tend to be about 10g to 1 liter of water. That said, for hot-brewed, resulting in a stronger taste and bolder color, brew with just above boiling water for about 10 minutes then strain out the barley and stick it in the fridge or freezer until cool(unless drinking it hot appeals to you). Since it's going to end up that way no matter how it's done, I tend to just go with cold-brewed. Using room temp or cold water, allow it to brew in a large pitcher, or similar, in the fridge for about 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on taste(longer obviously meaning stronger), then strain and serve.

For some it can be acquired taste, yet for many it's just plain delicious and a great part of a hot summer day.

Just Batty

And that brings me up to three bat-related pots(on top of several other bits of bat-related teaware). I know what I like. This one was marked as 100ml, though it feels a little larger than that, might measure later.

Review of Den's Tea's Shincha Kunpu and a few other things soon.

Eating Tea

I suppose a blog on vegan food and tea should have at least one post on combining the two. That is, about, more or less, about eating tea.

First of all, as some know, you can easily use tea, as a liquid, in cooking by simply...

* Replacing any water in a recipe with tea(especially in baking).

* Using it as a baste(ex. I tend to use a slightly oversteeped black tea to baste tofurkey).

Yet, this is merely the beginning in use. Since it's typically considered wasteful to toss the leaves and not everyone has a compost heap/garden they can feed with them, here are a few things I've been known to do...

* Eat them as is. Japanese teas, especially good quality ones, tend to taste pretty fantastic on their own or with just a dash of soy sauce. When feeling lazy, I've been known to take a spoon or chopsticks and eat them straight out of the pot.

* Make tea leaf pancakes. (1 c. flour, 1 c. water, all the leaves from one session mixed together then cooked over med. heat in a frying pan with veg. or canola oil. Use a spoon or fork to spread out the batter so the pancake ends up rather thin. Flip a few times until brown on both sides, makes about 3, cut into fourths or bite-sized pieces. Serve with dipping sauce of your choice-as always, I like chopped garlic + Korean soy sauce).

* Combine them with other tasty things to use as a filling for onigiri, buns, or jiao zi.

* Dry or just set aside the leaves to use as topping for ochazuke.

* Toss them in a stir-fry/fried rice. Greens and oolongs especially.

In short, you can throw them into almost any dish, so definitely play around to see where they add the most to your meal.

Though wait! There's more! Most people who think of cooking with tea tend to think of matcha, with good reason, there are grades of matcha marked only suitable for such(typically cheaper and sold in larger portions than drinking matcha). So, a few suggestions...

* Blend a teaspoon or so with fruit, tofu, soy milk and yogurts for smoothies.

* A few dashes in any baked good adds a green tint and underlying tea taste to the final product.

* Same goes for making sweets, such as green tea mochi.

* Sprinkling it over meals bound for the oven can add an interesting flavor.

As always, the key is to experiment.