Healing Foods—Cooking With Tea
By Brooke Berlin

Teas are branching out. Green, black, oolong—they’re emerging from their silk sachets and iron teapots and plunging into the world of food. Along with exotic flavors, they bring with them an impressive brag sheet of antioxidant-powered health benefits.

Most recently in the limelight—green tea and its healing properties. In a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, for example, researchers examined the green-tea drinking habits of more than 1,000 seniors. They found that those who drank a cup or more a day had significantly better cognitive function than those who drank three cups or less a week.

Other research has found a link between green tea consumption and a lowered risk for cancers of the breast, stomach, colon, prostate, and skin. Don’t give up your black and oolong teas though. Clinical and population studies suggest strong antioxidants in these teas may reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke—most likely by lowering cholesterol and oxidative damage to blood vessels.

While eating tea bestows similar health benefits as drinking it, perhaps the best reason to add it to your kitchen pantry may be the superb flavor and ingenuity tea brings to your culinary creations. Professional chefs have only scratched the surface of the flavor combinations possible, especially since cooking with tea is a relatively new concept in the culinary world. Just as chefs experiment with their dishes, so you can at home.

“This is the newest field of study for one of the oldest beverages in the world,” says Lenny Martinelli, owner of the Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder, Colorado. He relishes the complexity and flavors tea infuses into a food, and indeed, with the many varieties available (like white, black, green, oolong, and puerh) and innumerable flavors, including everything from black ginger peach to green lemon ginger, the creative possibilities seem endless.

Reem Rahim, cocreator and owner of Numi Organic Tea, agrees: “You can substitute tea in a recipe anywhere it says water,” she says. She also cooks with sweet herbal tisanes (blends of herbs and flowers containing no tea leaves), often infusing milk or soy milk with them. For example, “honeybush is a complex herb with layers of flavors: light spice, depth, earthiness, and vanilla,” Rahim explains.

Along with tea leaves and tisanes, tea oil is also gaining popularity—its subtle, light texture has a slightly sweet finish. “It brings out the best flavor of the foods it’s served with and allows the flavor of the cuisine to shine through,” says Marideth Post, minister of enlightenment at The Republic of Tea.

To enter the “cooking with tea” world yourself, try one of these five basic methods:

Steeping involves immersing the tea leaves in hot water to produce a concentrate that you can use for sauces or broths. To make a concentrate with black tea, bring 2 cups of water to a boil (212 degrees), and steep 3 tablespoons of loose tea or at least two tea bags for three to five minutes.

For a concentrate with green or white tea, add the same amount of leaves, but let the water cool slightly (to about 170 degrees) before adding the tea and only steep three minutes to prevent bitterness. When the concentrate is strong enough (it should have a darker color and fuller flavor than a cup of tea you’d drink), strain the leaves out. For a more intense concentrate, increase the quantity of tea leaves used rather than increasing the brewing time. Steeping tea for too long leads to a more astringent taste, says Martinelli.

Infusing vinegar or unflavored oils like safflower oil with tea leaves creates a subtle and unique flavor that enhances the dressing, especially on salads. Put 1/2 cup of the tea leaves into 1 quart of oil or vinegar and let sit for a week in the refrigerator so the oil absorbs the essence of the tea. Flavored teas, such as mango Ceylon, are made using essential oils and pass their taste onto dressings nicely, says Martinelli. To expedite the process, slowly heat the oil or vinegar on a stove to 140 degrees, remove from the stove, add the tea leaves, seal the container, and store in the refrigerator for at least 2 days. If kept in an airtight container in the fridge, the infusion will last for up to a year.

Rubbing mixtures of tea leaves and spices onto meat, poultry, fish, or tofu adds extra pizzazz to your food as well. “The percentage of tea in the mix varies depending on how much you want to push its flavor,” says Martinelli, who suggests starting with 1 part tea to 3 parts other spices and adding more tea to taste.

To make a rub, grind the desired tea leaves in with other spices, such as pepper, coriander, and salt. Rub the mixture onto the chosen protein; let it sit for at least an hour, but preferably a day. Sear it in a pan or on a grill. Martinelli particularly recommends Lapsang Souchong tea as a rub for pork and beef because of its strong smoky, wood-fired scent.

To use the entire leaf, steep the leaves in lukewarm water (about 140 degrees) for 30 seconds. This rehydrates the leaf enough to bring out the flavors and soften the texture without releasing the bitter compounds called tannins. Use in food dishes the same way you would any other spice. For instance, pinch some into a pot-sticker filling, or chop and sprinkle a little onto plain rice, says Martinelli.

Finally, tea oil has a high burning temperature (called the smoke point) of about 485 degrees, making it excellent for cooking. The Republic of Tea’s Stir Fry Tea Oil, for example, is produced by cold-pressing the seeds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), and it works well for sautéing veggies and meat. Cook with tea oils as you would other oils to impart a fresh, unique flavor to your meals.

No matter which cooking method you choose, don’t be afraid to experiment—you never know what you’ll discover.

Tea-Time Trivia
•• According to legend, a Chinese emperor discovered tea about 5,000 years ago when tea leaves accidentally blew into his cup of hot water.
•• Black, green, white, and oolong tea all come from the Camilla sinensis plant and vary according to how long the leaves are left to oxidize. Herbal teas, which lack C. sinensis, are more correctly called infusions or tisanes.
•• Tea contains less than half the caffeine of coffee.