Tea Recipe: Layered Tea Jelly Mold

I have become a bit obsessed with jelly molds lately.  I started picking up vintage copper molds at thrift stores, and I've even started collecting photgraphs on a Pinterest board.  The need to make a tea-based layered mold wasn't a huge leap.  After all, tea jelly has been around forever.  In Japan, jelly desserts are plentiful and beautiful, and when tea is added, it is often a green tea, perhaps matcha.  In Taiwan, jasmine tea and oolongs are favored, and cubes of the resulting jelly are often diced into bubble tea as an alternative to tapioca.

For my layered mold, I wanted to highlight the beautiful colors you can get from the liquor of different kinds of tea.  I wanted a pale white, a brilliant green, and a deep black tea.  (I chose a white tea with pom from a local tea shop, Joy Luck green tea, and Twinnings English Breakfast, but you can choose your own favorites).  I alternated these with milky layers that incorporated the tea from the layer above.  The bubbles at the top are filled in with a pure white milk jelly for contrast.  The tea layers are only lightly sweetened, which balances the very sweet milky layers.  The following recipe is for a 5 cup mold.

Layered Tea Jello Mold

1 1/3 c. room temperature brewed white tea
1 1/3 c. room temperature brewed green tea
1 1/3 c. room temperature brewed black tea
3 tbsp. sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
5 packets unsweetened geletain

To make the cream bubbles: combine 1/4 of a packet (appx. 2 grams) geletain with 1 tablespoon cold water and allow to bloom for two or three minutes.  Pour 2 tablespoons boiling water over this, and mix until the geletain dissolves.  Add 2 tablespoons of condensed milk.  Use an eyedropper to fill the "bubbles."  Place in the referigerator for 15-20 minutes, or until set.

 To make the white tea layers: Meanwhile, pour 1/3 c. of the white tea into a dish and add 1 packet and an extra 1/2 teaspoon of geletain. Stir and let bloom.  Heat the remaining cup of white tea to boiling.  Pour over the geletain mixutre.  Add 1 tbsp. sugar.  Stir until sugar and gelatain dissolve.  Measure out 1 c. of this liquid and allow to cool to room temperature.  When cooled, spoon or cerefully pour into the mold.  Return mold to referigerator until sticky-set (15-20 minutes.)  To the remaining liquid, add 1/3 cup condensed milk and stir until well combined.  Pour this over the transparent layer to make a creamy opaque layer.

To make the remaining layers:  Repeat the above steps to make a transparent and milky green tea layer, then a transparent and milky black tea layer.

Let set overnight, then unmold onto a plate.  If your jelly is resistant to unmolding,dip it in a bowl partially filled with hot water for a few seconds (being careful to keep the water from getting on the jelly), then loosen the edge with a flexible spatula or a butter knife.

Tea of The Week: Celestial Seasonings Honey Lemon Ginsing Green

When I visited my mom, I told her that we don't do sodas anymore, and asked her to get us some ginseng greeen tea.  This is the one she came up with.  It wasn't what I was expecting, but I liked it a lot.  Celestial Seasonings has a long history of adding herbs to tea, which started back in 1969, when the owners harvested and dried their own herbs in the Rocky Mountains. 

Liquor -- Pale gold

Aroma -- The lemon scent is very pronounced.

Body -- Light

Flavors -- The lemon flavor is the first thing that hits the tongue.  It has a hint of natural sweetness, which makes the ginsing flavor almost disappear.  The taste of the green tea is there, underneath everything else.  It is a very light tea with only a touch of astringancy. 

Other -- This tea is a flavored blend.

NOTE: I evaluate tea blends on this blog based on what came in the canister, so these tasting notes do not reflect any addition of dairy or sweeteners.

Tea of the Week: Republic of Tea Daily Green Ginger Peach

I usually go for Peach Black Tea, but I happened to see this Ginger Peach Green when I was at Central Market, and I must say it is nice. 

Liquor -- light, but with a warm golden tint

Aroma -- Peach is the overwhelming note, but there is a sweet "greenness" that I associate with green tea

Body -- Light

Flavors -- The vegatal taste of the tea is stronger than the peach, which comes through almost as an aftertaste.

My Favorite Mug

I've been ill for almost a month now. First I got the flu (no, I didn't get tested to find out if it was H1N1 or not), which turned to bronchitis, which has now mutated into some hideous sinus thing. In short, I've been living on orange juice and tea. This month nothing has made me feel better than hot Earl Gray in my favorite mug. It's not a teacup. It's not even an elegant mug. It's bright pink, oversized, really heavy, and it has a picture of Tweetie Bird on it. I guess when you're sick, there's really nothing like comforts remembered from childhood.

But there are legitimate reasons for drinking tea when you're sick. The American Society for Microbiology confirms tea's antimicrobial effects (and yes, that includes plain old black tea), which folk-remidists have long suspected. The article states that tea only inhibits certain kinds of bacteria, but they include some of the things that cause stomach problems and the bacteria that causes strep throat. The Society for General Microbiology has gone a step further, stating that green tea, when taken in conjunction with antibiotics, can increase the effectiveness of the antibiotics up to "99.99%." I guess that means that I'll have to switch from Earl Gray to the delicious strawberry green (As an added bonus, strawberries have tons of Vitamin C!) I got in Austin a couple of months ago. But I'm not switching the mug!