Tracing the teavolution
May 21 is International Tea Day, and it’s safe to say that the humble tea has progressed over the years. Chefs all over the globe are blending unique flavours with meats, cocktails and desserts either by infusing, smoking, braising or grinding leaves.
“I was first inspired to cook with tea when I was creating a hand-rolled pasta dish and wanted to create more flavour without adding butter or extra fat. I thought about using a flavourful cooking liquid like juice or stock but suddenly decided to infuse tea flavour to the pasta dough and sauce. I immediately steeped some more tea and used that as the cooking liquid for my pasta as a stock which added a whole different dimension to the sauce,” says chef Pawan Bisht.
An additional attribute of tea is its antioxidant characters, feels chef Nishant Choubey. “Right from compressing to reduction, it complements very well to the protein, and from matcha to elderflower, the uniqueness which can be created using tea can’t be neglected,” he adds.
Cooking with tea and infusing the leaves also has several health benefits. Mamta Dagar, a nutritionist, fitness and lifestyle coach, says,
“Infused teas give an energy boost and have enormous health benefits. For example, ginger benefits the sinuses, chamomile aids in improving the metabolism, lemon aids in increasing alkalinity in the body.” She also suggests spicing up the regular green tea by adding seasonal fruits such as peach, apple, kiwi, melons or leaves like basil or mint.