' TEA JELLIES.'

Tea Jelly Tastings of Arctic fire Black tea, Yerba mate, Lemon & Ginger Green tea, with Rose water gelee & syrup, honeycomb and stevia sweeteners. 

                  I love my tea and all the different types, processes, flavours and countless blends on offer, but as far as drinking tea I would honestly have maybe a few cups a year. Maybe because of my superior love for its rival the coffee bean, despite having a tea plant in the garden I think maybe because its not thriving I'm not so passionate my self. I do remember a time when tea was high on the beverage list, but as for now tea is used in my kitchen for many other purposes such as flavouring asian dishes eg. noodles or tea smoking salmon, duck or chicken, this is quick smoking method and flavours are spot on. Anyway back to the days when tea was fashionable for me (early 90's) there was a tea and coffee speciality shop in the block of shops I was working a the time and they recommended the arctic fire black tea blend and this is still the best blend of black tea I've ever tried . The arctic fire blend is a scented china black tea, with flavours of tropical fruits and has blue corn flowers. Yerba mate comes from South America where it was first cultivated in southern Brazil. The taste resembles boiled veggies,    grass and some types of green tea, the taste is quite pleasurable and even more so with stevia the South American alternative sweetener herb or some honey.                                                                              
                   To make these tea jellies it was very easy, I just simply made three separate tea brews and a rose water and water with pink colouring mixture. One at a time I measured out 250 ml. and added 1.5 grams of agar agar powder, bringing to the simmer whisking to dissolve the agar then poured each one into separate moulds. Placed them into the fridge to set, before turning out and slicing for presentation.   For the Arctic fire I used half strength agar and presented this mashed, for the green tea I used ginger and lemon in the brew to flavour and sliced this jelly thinly and folded them on the plate. The Yerba mate was brewed with fresh stevia leaves from the garden and half a teaspoon of honey, to serve I cut the jelly into various sized cubes and so to the rose water gelee. To make the rose water syrup I placed rose water, pink colour, water and xantham gum in a saucepan and simmered until thickened, before setting aside to cool. Xantham gum is a polysaccharide produced by the fermentation process of glucose, sucrose or lactose and used at 0.5 % in most dishes is a great sauce thickener.
                    I presented this tasting simply by using the four corners of the plate for the jellies, with the rose syrup used for dipping the teas, placed under the rose water gelee. In the middle of the plate I centred the honeycomb and on top of that I put fresh stevia leaves.