March 2011 Archives

Ten years ago, coffee changed its image from a fairly uninteresting drink into a fashionable and stylish beverage which came to dominate the British high street. So can tea do the same thing?

Well it seems there's no end of unusual tea products vying for attention and plenty of ways to serve them.

Take DōMatcha for instance. Matcha is the powdered green tea traditionally reserved for the Japanese Tea Ceremony (Sadō).

High quality matcha is always hand-picked to assure that only the unopened tea bud and the accompanying top two leaves are chosen. The leaves are then carefully steamed to prevent the nutrients from oxidation and keep the tea fresh and green. After that, all the stems and veins are removed and the leaves are ground in traditional granite stone-grinders to a very fine, talc-like powder.

Japan only exports about 4% of its matcha and it's proving popular in cafés, health shops and smoothie bars in the USA in western-style beverage creations, like matcha lattes and green tea smoothies.

Celebrity fans include Eva Longoria, Dannii Minogue and Gwyneth Paltrow so if you want to attract some A-listers, try pepping up your tea menu with DōMatcha's recipes.

We've all heard of Pink Gin, the cocktail which owes its pink blush to a dash of Angostura bitters. Well now there's a gin that's actually pink and its blush derives from extract of pomegranate.

Original Pink from Edgerton is made in the distillery that gave us the Original London Gin.

Besides the traditional gin botanicals, Edgerton has made use of the smoky, slighty minty taste of Damiana from Mexico and Grains of Paradise from West Africa.

This gives the gin "citrus top notes, a smooth, delicately spicy even slightly floral development, and echoes of fruit and flower that follow all the to the back of the mouth" according to chairman Martin Edgerton Gill. 

I understand that pomegranates are very good for you, so if I use Original Pink does that mean I can count a G&T as one of my five-a-day?