TEA

Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub (bush) native to East Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some, like Darjeeling and Chinese greens, have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral or grassy notes.

Tea originated in Southwest China, where it was used as a medicinal drink. It was popularized as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking spread to other East Asian countries. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century. During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among Britons, who started large-scale production and commercialization of the plant in India. Combined, China and India supplied 62% of the world's tea in 2016.

The term herbal tea refers to drinks not made from Camellia sinensis: infusions of fruit, leaves, or other parts of the plant, such as steeps of rosehip, chamomile, or rooibos. These are sometimes called tisanes or herbal infusions to prevent confusion with tea made from the tea plant.

Culinary Uses

• The fresh young, light greens leaves contain about 4% caffeine and are harvested for tea production.
• The leaves are steamed and dried for green tea, or fermented and dried for black tea.
• For ordinary home use the leaves are infused in hot water and used as the drink that is commonly known as tea.
• Cold tea can be used as a soaking liquid to flavour dried fruit and ham.
• Leaf extracts are fermented to make kombucha.
• The seeds of Camellia sinensis can be pressed to yield tea oil, a sweetish seasoning and cooking oil.

Parts Used

• The shoot tip and the first two to three leaves are handpicked every second week throughout the growing season from plants over three years old - to be dried for later use.
• The seeds are pressed for oil.

National Apple Cider Day

November 18th is National Apple Cider Day in the United States. I don’t know when it became an official Holiday.

Apple cider (also called sweet cider or soft cider) is the name used in the United States and parts of Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in those areas, it is not to be confused with the alcoholic beverage known as cider throughout most of the world, called hard cider (or just cider) in North America.

Once widely pressed at farmsteads and local mills, apple cider is now easy and inexpensive to make. Apple cider can be differentiated from apple juice in that apple juice is typically filtered to take out apple particles, pasteurized to maximize shelf-life, and sugar and water are often added to the beverage. Because of its limited shelf-life, untreated cider has become a seasonal beverage produced mostly in fall and winter months, making it a popular holiday beverage.

Today, most cider is treated to kill bacteria and extend its shelf life, but untreated cider can still be found. Apple cider is a seasonally produced drink of limited shelf-life that is typically available only in autumn. It is traditionally served on the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and various New Year's Eve holidays, sometimes heated and mulled. It is the official state beverage of New Hampshire.

Apples are not a fruit native to the North American continent. After finding only inedible crab apples on the continent, apple seeds were brought to America by colonial settlers from England in the 17th century. The first apple orchard in North America was planted in Boston in 1625. Seeds from Europe were cultivated on Colonial farms as well as spread throughout Native American trade routes. John Chapman, known by many as “Johnny Appleseed,” traveled ahead of western-bound settlers in America and began to plant small cider apple orchards across the Midwest.

The Fall is a perfect time to make a nice warm cup of cider and enjoy as the snow hits, leaves fall, and the temperature drops. If you’re lucky enough to be in a city where fall doesn’t really exist, then there’s nothing wrong with some chilled cider either. Cider can be enjoyed cold or “mulled” by making the cider hot and adding spices like clove and cinnamon.