FavorFlavs #20

We all have them: favorite flavors, ingredients, and kitchen tools. FavorFlavs that we always reach for again and again. These are ours.

Tea

It’s the first thing we drink in the morning and often the last thing before we go to bed: tea. And by that we don’t mean sprigs of mint in a vase-sized glass. Nor other leafy herbs (verbena), flowers, or needles (rooibos) steeped in hot water. Those are infusions. Sorry.

We mean the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water and coffee. Brewed from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. And that beverage ranges—depending on how the leaves have been processed—from green via oolong to black.

Black period

Our favorite varies depending on the time of day. But after a green and an oolong period, we have entered our black period. And not just any black tea, but Chinese black tea (called ‘red’ there): bai lin gong fu, one of China’s oldest red teas.

With its aroma of dark raisins, deep red color, and full flavor, it’s the ideal winter tea. And it also has notes of caramel and chocolate, without them having been added artificially.

Image: Marjan Ippel