Having a bit of an experiment going on does any one have any know
how about falvouring green tea such as sencha and bancha. There are
many different ways to do this and I am struggling to find recipes and
wether to use oils or natural flavours or even natural identical ?
Any one have any expeeince.
Thanks
Maurice

On Jun 14, 8:55 am, magicleaf > wrote:
> Having a bit of an experiment going on does any one have any know
> how about falvouring green tea such as sencha and bancha. There are
> many different ways to do this and I am struggling to find recipes and
> wether to use oils or natural flavours or even natural identical ?
> Any one have any expeeince.
> Thanks
> Maurice

There are a few I enjoy, mainly in the summer or iced. The best (IMO)
being organic strawberry sencha. It has chunks of real mostly
dehydrated strawberry and a medium quality sencha.

I have had an organic peach sencha which is good iced but not hot made
in a similar manner.

Other than that I like the sencha/matcha blend sold in a local Asian
grocery.

Of course you always have the standards, Jasmine, Lotus flower,
ginger, lemongrass, etc. Which I always enjoy. I tried making a Haw
(hawthorn) berry green blend once which failed miserably.

Stay away from the oils and use the real thing, even then a lot of the
times just the essence is all that is needed like with jasmine.

- Dominic

Some ??? years back I did this quite frequently.
For a touch of Vanilla I´d use scraped-out and dried vanilla beans,
those left from cooking desserts.
Collect a few of them in your tea container and let time take care of
the rest.
For Earl Greys I used natural essential oils, since I can´t stand
artificial flavors. You can either very carefully spray those oils on
your tea, or pour some drops on a piece of tissue paper and put that
on top of the tea in your storage container and wait a couple days to
allow the aroma to permeate the tea.
These days, whenever I feel like it, it´s mostly all kinds of rose or
chrysanthemum petals dropped right into the pot, and of course Nepali
chai, chai, chai ...

Hope this helps,
Karsten [XY golden Yunnan in gaiwan]

Hey Dominic why is oils a stay away, do they go stale after a while
make the flavor musky. I like your concept with the real thing that
seems the best solution. I will go back to my lab and start the
experiments .: /

I stick with dried fruits and flowers. I don't like liquids even
honey because they're usually a concentrate and you need to keep an
eyedropper near by. It's amazing what you see in a well stocked
herbal store. I'm not a fan of hidden scents. I should see something
in the cup I know is alien. I think oils in generally would be
immiscible and give the tea an appearance of being dirty. I'm talking
about Chinese green tea which I think is a little more forgiving than
it's kelpy Japanese neighbor. In that case you are looking for
tisanes that go good with fish like roasted rice.

Jim

magicleaf wrote:
> Having a bit of an experiment going on does any one have any know
> how about falvouring green tea such as sencha and bancha. There are
> many different ways to do this and I am struggling to find recipes and
> wether to use oils or natural flavours or even natural identical ?
> Any one have any expeeince.
> Thanks
> Maurice

On Jun 15, 4:19 am, magicleaf > wrote:
> Hey Dominic why is oils a stay away, do they go stale after a while
> make the flavor musky. I like your concept with the real thing that
> seems the best solution. I will go back to my lab and start the
> experiments .: /

As always, I'm not an expert in this area... beyond drinking a lot of
flavored greens over time. Every time I have a really good flavored
green it involves real flavoring, and almost every time I have a less
than stellar one it is an oil/artificial flavoring.

Many greens are delicate and strong oils can be potent, and I think it
would take a lot of experimentation to get the balance right. I'm not
saying it can't be done, just that it is more likely than not that it
will always be slightly off. I guess if it is all you have and you're
not afraid of ruining some tea in the process go for it. Natural,
whole, flavorings are just easier to deal with.

I've laid a piece of coffee filter on top of some green tea in a glass
jar and then laid in some jasmine petals and sealed it up. Then I
removed the filter and petals and enjoyed the tea which was perfectly
lightly flavored.

HTH, experiment away and let us know how goes it.

- Dominic

But, but, but... Early Grey is made with an essential oil
(bergamot)... and essential oil is "natural." There might be various
best methods to scent the tea with the bergamot oil at home (spray?
inserting scented sheets in the tea?) but let's not throw the baby out
with the bath-water (hum-- strange images float to mind using that
metaphor in a tea group...)

On Jun 16, 8:38 am, Thitherflit > wrote:
> But, but, but... Early Grey is made with an essential oil
> (bergamot)... and essential oil is "natural." There might be various
> best methods to scent the tea with the bergamot oil at home (spray?
> inserting scented sheets in the tea?) but let's not throw the baby out
> with the bath-water (hum-- strange images float to mind using that
> metaphor in a tea group...)

Sure, but I'm certain you've had some bad Earl Greys that used natural
essential oils too. Like I said it isn't so much that essential oils
are bad, just much harder to get right and consistent (especially at
home and in small batches). I've had Earl Grey with real bergamot zest
twice and both times it was out of this world... so I'm still sticking
to the real original form is best theory. It was a similar thing with
Monk's Blend (pomegranate and vanilla with ceylon) I thought the stuff
I had been drinking was good which used essential oils and then I had
an organic, hand-blended one that used the real deal and it was mind
blowing.

- Dominic

I have tetsed some tea with madagascar vanilla pods that I cut up and
mixed with the leaves, and I also sprayed some leaves with a ALL
NATURAL vanilla spray which is alchol based , the alcol evaporates
leaving the essence on the leaf. By far the natural vanilla is King
( tatses so much better) however when it comes to something like
pineapple It may be a bit more difficult to get natural pieces to
enjoy its true flavor. I agree with Dominic that the real is best, A
lot of companies use natural identical which supposedly tatses and
smells better but it is classified as a chemical.
Maurice

On Jun 17, 9:36 am, magicleaf > wrote:
> lot of companies use natural identical which supposedly tatses and
> smells better but it is classified as a chemical.
> Maurice

They´re not more chemical than their natural counterparts, they´re
simply synthetic.
Back to "natural essential oils" [NEO], since they´re natural products
there are huge differences in quality, akin to the differences in e.g.
olive oils. Some years back I used to practise aromatherapy and with
natural Bergamot being one of my personal alltime favs I´m stunned by
the differences among the different brands in my collection, not only
smellwise but also when it comes to how my entire "system" or that of
a patient reacts to each individual oil, despite all being labelled
"100% natural Bergamot".
BTW: regarding its powerful effects in aromatherapy [mood lifting,
relieving fears, ... > google] I´m not surprised that you can find
Bergamot in almost any western fragrance these days. How far this
plays a role in why Earl Grey has become such a popular classic could
be worth a little discussion for itself.
And yes Dominic, organic Bergamot zest would be the way to go, but they
´re pretty hard to come by over here.
Back to tea.

Karsten [xy Golden Yunnan in tazza]

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:09:56 -0000, "Dominic T."
> wrote:

>Earl Grey with real bergamot zest

What is "Bergamot zest"?

I thought Bergamot oil _was_ the real thing.


Lars
Stockholm
Visit the big ACF freeware wiki:
http://freeware.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Bergamot zest, like any citrus zest, is the outer peel of the fruit,
which contains a huge amount of essential oils.

-Brent

Vanilla flavoring is a popular scent the French like with their tea.
I prefer that over the British bergamot. I've seen vanilla leaves at
a herbal shop. I'll put that on my list of tisanes.

Jim

magicleaf wrote:
> I have tetsed some tea with madagascar vanilla pods that I cut up and
> mixed with the leaves, and I also sprayed some leaves with a ALL
> NATURAL vanilla spray which is alchol based , the alcol evaporates
> leaving the essence on the leaf. By far the natural vanilla is King
> ( tatses so much better) however when it comes to something like
> pineapple It may be a bit more difficult to get natural pieces to
> enjoy its true flavor. I agree with Dominic that the real is best, A
> lot of companies use natural identical which supposedly tatses and
> smells better but it is classified as a chemical.
> Maurice

"Dominic T." > wrote in message
ps.com...
> On Jun 16, 8:38 am, Thitherflit > wrote:
>> But, but, but... Early Grey is made with an essential oil
>> (bergamot)... and essential oil is "natural." There might be various
>> best methods to scent the tea with the bergamot oil at home (spray?
>> inserting scented sheets in the tea?) but let's not throw the baby out
>> with the bath-water (hum-- strange images float to mind using that
>> metaphor in a tea group...)
>
> Sure, but I'm certain you've had some bad Earl Greys that used natural
> essential oils too. Like I said it isn't so much that essential oils
> are bad, just much harder to get right and consistent (especially at
> home and in small batches). I've had Earl Grey with real bergamot zest
> twice and both times it was out of this world... so I'm still sticking
> to the real original form is best theory. It was a similar thing with
> Monk's Blend (pomegranate and vanilla with ceylon) I thought the stuff
> I had been drinking was good which used essential oils and then I had
> an organic, hand-blended one that used the real deal and it was mind
> blowing.
>
> - Dominic
>

Dominic, I'd be very interested in hearing where you got teas such as this,
I am so frustrated when I look at tea shops online (Specialteas and probably
Upton to some extent, among others) that use the oils or "natural flavors"
but then throw pieces of stuff in that aren't there for flavoring but
for...whimsy factor. So please tell me, where'd you get the zest Earl Grey
and the Monk's blend, also do you know of other places that sell teas
flavored with the "real deal"? This makes me think about putting some lemon
zest in with some Ceylon or something...(or maybe cinnamon stick and orange
peel).

Melinda

On Jun 22, 2:24 am, "Melinda" > wrote:
> "Dominic T." > wrote in message
>
> ps.com...
>
>
>
> > On Jun 16, 8:38 am, Thitherflit > wrote:
> >> But, but, but... Early Grey is made with an essential oil
> >> (bergamot)... and essential oil is "natural." There might be various
> >> best methods to scent the tea with the bergamot oil at home (spray?
> >> inserting scented sheets in the tea?) but let's not throw the baby out
> >> with the bath-water (hum-- strange images float to mind using that
> >> metaphor in a tea group...)
>
> > Sure, but I'm certain you've had some bad Earl Greys that used natural
> > essential oils too. Like I said it isn't so much that essential oils
> > are bad, just much harder to get right and consistent (especially at
> > home and in small batches). I've had Earl Grey with real bergamot zest
> > twice and both times it was out of this world... so I'm still sticking
> > to the real original form is best theory. It was a similar thing with
> > Monk's Blend (pomegranate and vanilla with ceylon) I thought the stuff
> > I had been drinking was good which used essential oils and then I had
> > an organic, hand-blended one that used the real deal and it was mind
> > blowing.
>
> > - Dominic
>
> Dominic, I'd be very interested in hearing where you got teas such as this,
> I am so frustrated when I look at tea shops online (Specialteas and probably
> Upton to some extent, among others) that use the oils or "natural flavors"
> but then throw pieces of stuff in that aren't there for flavoring but
> for...whimsy factor. So please tell me, where'd you get the zest Earl Grey
> and the Monk's blend, also do you know of other places that sell teas
> flavored with the "real deal"? This makes me think about putting some lemon
> zest in with some Ceylon or something...(or maybe cinnamon stick and orange
> peel).
>
> Melinda

Honestly some of the best teas I've ever drank in my life have been
basically accidents. I'll come across some little out of the way place
(which are the kinds of places I tend to seek out when I travel) and
most of the time they outwardly had no relation to tea.

I was on vacation and at a small bakery/sandwich shop and saw on their
board that they had "Fresh Earl Grey" when I asked about it they said
that they made some sort of tart with bergamot and it had just been an
idea one day, it was amazing.

Others I have searched high and low for over a year for an exact tea,
like the Monk's Blend... which I ended up finding online.

Other than that, I'm never afraid to just experiment. When you start
with good tea and good ingredients, you're pretty sure you'll get
something decent... except my horrible Haw experiment which was sour
and terrible and not at all what I had hoped for. But they all can't
be winners.

- Dominic

Have fun!