The ‘tea bombs’ explosion!
Shikha Jain talks about the recent beverage trend that is pretty, yet healthy
Step aside, hot cocoa bombs. Tea bombs, beautiful herb-filled delights, are taking over the drinking scene. They are cute, they are cozy, and they are breaking the Internet! “Tea bombs are a great treat to our eyes, it's so colourful, glittery and as the hot water is poured on it, it starts to pop up and the magic unveils...releasing the fragrance and flavours of the edible flowers, herbs and tea. It is not only eye appealing but is healthy too. And yes it depends on what tea bombs do you actually choose to consume,” says Culinary Expert and Chef Consultant Reetu Uday Kugaji.
How to make it?
Tea bombs are made with melted sugar or isomalt that’s placed in silicone moulds to make the ball shape. After the sugar is completely set and hardened, you can fill one side with loose tea, tea bags, or flowers before bringing the two sides of the bomb together. And just like hot chocolate bombs, pouring hot liquid over these will melt the exterior shell to give way to a dreamy cup of tea. Experiment with different flavors and shapes…or just order some pretty ones online; that’s totally allowed too. But part of the fun of this trend seems to be not just the pleasure of drinking tea, but of making the colourful, creative spheres. Food bloggers have taken it up a notch with flowers and all sorts of fancy ingredients to make their tea look stunning.
Health benefits
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, many people on social media are coming up with tea bombs that feature immunity-boosting herbs like chamomile, hibiscus, turmeric and peppermint. “Depending on the ingredients used to prepare the tea bombs, they can be great for burning calories too. For example fruit tea bombs help boost metabolism. Chamomile is known for its calming effects, helps in relieving stress. Try making Sheer Chai / Kashmiri Noon Chai tea bombs and ease the stomach bloating; make Kahwa tea bombs and witness the benefits one can attain from consuming it,” recommends Chef Reetu. Tea bombs have antioxidant properties too so it will boost heart health and help reduce blood pressure.
Talking to the Ex Chef, Anurag Ashok Singh at St Regis we found out that these healthy tea bombs contain less than 15 calories in a single tea and one can even count them as we are the ones to make it.
Trend or fad?
People are loving tea bombs. They are so excited that the hot chocolate bombs trend has lead to something for tea lovers. But Chef Anurag feels people will get bored of it after a point of time as it takes time and effort to prepare these cute little spheres. “It’s same as Dalgona coffee, people used to be so crazy when it came, but eventually went back to normal coffee and forgot Dalgona.”
Chef Reetu has a different opinion about it. She believes, “Time, its popularity and health benefits will decide whether it is here to stay or fade away. But one thing is that it can be super beneficial, if prepared with the right ingredients, because it will help our body and mind to be in a healthier state. I think it is here to stay. My view is that when a trend witnesses a lot of trust and proves to be beneficial it stays. Tea Bombs might be visually beautiful and delicious in taste but everything has its pros and cons.”
“According to me it is only a fad and as a nutritionist we don’t recommend these types of hacks in our diet plan because our biological requirements are completely different. The more we depend on packaged or processed food, lesser will be our life span,” points out dietitian Sarika Mishra.