Tea! (The drink kind)

What's so special about making tea?

To me, a lot of things make tea special, it hones in on a range of flavors (particularly floral) that I enjoy very much. Also be warned I'm not a plain tea fanatic

Additionally, it's a lot more forgiving than making things like food (cooking/baking) since both of those require some kind of chemical reaction. The only thing that involves heat in making tea is steeping it, and you don't even have to use heat to steep tea (It ultimately depends on the flavor you're looking for)

This entry will mostly document my findings and "recipes" of things I've created. (I don't measure anything i mostly eyeball it, how you want to ration out your ingredients is up to you)

ps: i'm not an expert in anything like i've said and know nothing about taste theory or whatever. I just find it interesting how making tea is almost like making fragrances.

Picking tea

Tea is very ranged to say the least! The tea I drink the most is green and black. I haven't done much with the others (like white or oolong) but perhaps update this once I get my hands on it.

My personal notes on tea (obviously subjective)

• Black (plain): Very rich, smells very deep and dark. Has a malt-like warm flavor. Good in milk tea
• Earl Grey: A lot more fragrant than plain black tea, has a mild citrus sweetness from the bergamot oil in it.
• Green Tea: Delicate and herbal, mildly vegetal. More refreshing than the previous and I've often seen it used as a base for fruit tea.
• Jasmine Green Tea: The jasmine scent is notably strong on this one! Very aromatic. Also works good as a base for fruit tea
• Matcha: Rich vegetal taste, kind of earthy.

Tea is very diverse in flavor, so what kind of drink you want heavily depends on the base you use. ALSO the flavor can depend heavily on where you buy them. I normally buy my teas at asian groceries since they have pretty good quality imports. Yamamotoyama is my go to brand for jasmine green. Hazo makes earl grey that uses buddha's hand citrus (which is the one i prefer since the flavor is very strong)

Enough nerding here I'll start talking about stuff I've made. I don't take measurements so if you try to make these at home good luck (Maybe i'll try to measure it out if people really want that....)

Earl Grey Lavender Milk Tea

• Flavoring: Torani Lavender Syrup
• Tea Base: Hazo Earl Grey Tea (Since its milk tea, make the tea more concentrated, I reccommend doubling the amount of tea steeped)
• Use whatever milk you want I don't think it matters

Notes: Earl grey goes best with lavender since lavender's scent is, rather than super floral, more woodsy and pine-ish while being kind of sweet, it's not a delicate flavor but rather pungent! and I find that earl grey helps elevate that flavor from the mild citrus fragrance and deep black tea. Though all of these flavors are (as i previously mentioned) very strong, so milk helps pacify those flavors a bit and makes for a pretty soothing and fragrant drink.