Purely Tea

Serendipitea’s Fiji is a loose green tea blend flavored with wild pineapple and papaya. Before steeping, this aromatic tea smells exactly like my mother’s pineapple upside-down cake cooling on the kitchen counter. Freshly brewed, Fiji offers a mild, sweet, almost tropical fragrance. (For those of you who read my Lapsang Souchong review, Fiji falls at the extreme opposite end of the olfactory spectrum.)

Fiji is a superb tea blend that somehow manages to equal even more than the sum of its parts. The flavor is a seamless synthesis of pineapple, papaya, and quality green tea - one of those unusual flavored greens that maintains a perfect balance among all of the ingredients. This tea achieves a flawless synergy, with no single element overwhelming or detracting from the others.

I first sampled Fiji at Ruby Foo’s on Manhattan’s upper west side. The food was decent, the company excellent, and the tea absolutely sensational. It paired nicely with the mildly flavored pan-Asian cuisine, and even carried us through a delectable dessert of chocolate banana spring rolls. I purchased my own supply the next day and have been enjoying Fiji every evening as a dessert tea with just a touch of sweetener. Highly recommended!

Tip: Fiji is available directly through Serendipitea, but if you purchase it through Amazon using the A9 discount, it’s slightly cheaper.

I’m about to submit my first recipe to Adagio’s TeaChef contest. The sample of this month’s tea, Lapsang Souchong, came packaged in a cute, reusable tin. Adagio describes it as a smoky black tea and says, “you’ll either love it or hate it.” I was eager to figure out which group I would fall into.

For some reason when I hear “Lapsang Souchong,” my mind does this weird word association thing and calls up an image of a Lhasa Apso (a long-haired Tibetan dog, for those who aren’t familiar.) When I first opened my tin of Lapsang Souchong and breathed in the aroma, I almost wished it was a Lhasa Apso. The smoky scent was so overwhelming I was tempted to chuck it in the trash right away.

While I wasn’t prepared for the olfactory assault, I decided to bravely persevere by brewing a cup to taste. The scent of brewed Lapsang Souchong is not nearly as intense as before steeping, but the flavor just isn’t subtle enough for my palate. I tried adding some sweetener, but decided that as a beverage, this tea just isn’t for me.

Fortunately, Lapsang Souchong seems to mellow out when combined with selected foods and actually made a wonderful recipe ingredient. I prepared Smoky BLTea Crisps using Lapsang Souchong as a marinade for the bacon. The tea imparted a subtle smoky flavor to the bacon and the strong stench smell was virtually gone by the time I removed the crisps from the oven.

So, the final verdict on Lapsang Souchong: I don’t intend to keep it in the house, but if a restaurant had a Lapsang Souchong-based dish on the menu, I might be tempted to try it. I’d love to get comments from others who’ve tried this tea. Tell me about your first Lapsang Souchong experience.