Yes Bank Art Bengaluru 2016 in association with Sublime House of Tea recently hosted a bunch of enthusiasts for a Tea Appreciation event where Anamika Singh, a Tea-Taster by profession engaged the audience by sharing her extensive knowledge about Tea and everything that revolves around it. This was followed by a tasting session of different samples from Sublime House of Tea. The event also featured tea infused cocktails and a chicken preparation which was cooked under the influence of tea. I was here to experience this wonderful event along with other Tea lovers and aficionados, the purpose of which was a casual round of interaction aimed at equipping every one of us know more about Tea and spread good word about it.

Our evening began with an interactive session and Anamika ensured that the crowd was curious all throughout by giving out lot of inputs in the form of facts and figures. This post will try its best to summarize all that was discussed and will try to introduce tea in the most casual and informal way 🙂 How many of us actually sip tea the right way? Yes, you read it right. Tea is supposed to be sipped! Drink is the word which is usually associated with beer and water and goes wrong when it comes to Tea! A connoisseurs tea will be the one which is debarred from Sugar and milk, mainly because the aroma, aftertaste and notes go underground the moment these additives shares space with tea powder in your cup of tea. Although we are familiar with famous tea growing regions like Darjeeling, Assam and Munnar which are known to produce some of the top quality tea in India, they are also procured from other lesser known localities of Dharamshala, Bihar and Dehradun.

Glassware, Water and Everything Else:

It is always wise to use a round pot which is transparent to prepare tea, this helps you connect with the preparation visually. Using a rounded bottom gives the tea leaves more surface area to breath which is very important. Water forms the base of tea and it is advised to not boil the water completely and it doesn’t matter if you are using a 2000 per KG tea or a 50,000 per kg tea, the moment you boil the water the tea becomes flat. Sublime suggests you to heat the water till you see tiny bubbles on the side, this equates to 90-92 degrees which is ideal. Ratio of tea powder to be used is usually 1 teaspoon in 200-250 ml. The quantity can be increased or decreased in same proportions.

Tea powder is better off outside the kitchen. But most of us prefer storing tea in the kitchen which slowly degrades the quality of tea powder because of various factors like temperature and smell which keeps varying. Also, prefer a metal container over the conventional plastic ones.

Black Tea Samples:

Darjeeling Tea and Assam tea made rounds in tiny bowls for us to understand their visual differences and Sublime House of Tea has managed to keep its originality intact. Darjeeling tea has a rich muscatel aroma which turns out to be light, flavorful to offer a distinctive taste.

Assam tea on the other hand is the most popular black tea in the world. Its characteristics are defined by a strong and malty taste which is more robust. Assam Tea is powdery as compared to that of Darjeeling tea which is more leafy.

White Tea Samples:
Rose In Bloom: First thing that strikes you is the floral aroma. One spoonful slurp was enough to understand the high quality of preparation you get at the end of it. The aroma does linger for a longer time giving you a sweetish flavor overall.

The wonderful talk by Anamika concluded and Chef Michael Swamy took over who showcased the infusion of tea in cocktails and explained the usage of tea in preparing various food items. So you can take Tea leaves and expose them to hot water which is then supposed to be put in cold water for over two days, this can then be used as a condiment with peanuts and other side dishes.

Ingredients

We can also use Oolong tea along with garlic, salt and pepper to make pesto which can be again be used as a supplement for various food items.

Chicken Salad infused with Tea

We also had all of this in a platter along with Chicken breast cooked in a marination made from tea, garlic, ginger and lime. At the end of it, these are various examples which show that we can include Tea as a healthy ingredient in our day to day cooking.

Sublime House of Tea can be bought online from their website by clicking here.

They are also available in leading online shopping sites like – Amazon, Flipkart and Big Basket, and also from Retail Supermarkets.