Tea and Terroir

Newly opened in Soho.
Photo courtesy of Palais des Thes

Not too long ago, I attended a fascinating tasting at the newly opened U.S. flagship of the French tea company Palais des Thés.  The Prince Street shop opened hot on the heels of the brand’s first foray into the U.S. on the Upper West Side. Leading the tasting was company founder François-Xavier Delmas, who, it turns out, is a treasure trove of knowledge on all things tea from cultivating to tasting.

Tea brewing is an exacting art, Delmas explained, so it’s important to follow brewing directions to the letter, or number, in this case. Filtered water is best, and when a tea calls for a temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it won’t cut it to heat water to 110 degrees and then cool it. Water shouldn’t be reheated, either, since boiling depletes the water’s oxygen, which is not restored upon cooling or reheating. The bitterness sometimes detectable in tea is not a negative, we learned, as long as it is balanced with acidity.
  

Aurelie Bessiere, who with her husband Cy heads the company's
U.S. expansion, left, and Delmas.

Delmas suggests using an electric kettle with temperature settings, noting that in some tea-drinking countries, it’s an art to be able to detect hot water temperature by different sized bubbles forming on the water’s surface. I love the descriptions born of this pre-electric-kettle method because they’re the kind you won’t forget:“shrimp eyes” and “fish eyes” are two such descriptors.

We learned that color does not necessarily indicate quality, as there are beautiful “white” teas (a delicate mix of immature buds and leaves, steamed lightly and unfermented) that are nearly colorless, and that smell is more important than taste when judging tea. Tea tasters swish and slurp tea much as wine tasters do, as the tea liquor must be aerated in order for the full spectrum of its tastes to register on the palate. Delmas also suggests that tea drinkers lean forward slightly when drinking tea, as bitterness is detected at the back of the tongue. Once again, as I noted in this tea-related post, the parallels between tea and wine are striking.

Darjeeling and Bao Zhong grand crus
Photo by Alex Kotlik Photography

Among the 200 or so different varieties Palais des Thés offers are 15 grand crus teas, which are grown in small batches on single estates and distinguished by their extraordinary quality, balance and harmony. We tasted two grand crus: Darjeeling Puttabong “Muscatel,” a limited edition second flush (“flush” refers to which harvest of the new season the leaves hail from) of a rich copper color that was astringent then fruity and woody on the palate, and a first flush 1999 Bao Zhong “antique” tea from Taiwan.

Delmas noted that more recently, the idea of single cépages, or varietals, has taken hold. He is especially interested in understanding which prized tea characteristics are attributable to terroir (the unique characteristics of the soil in which the tea bushes are cultivated) and which from cépage. Happily, tea exchanges are underway between tea research centers in Indian, China and Japan. In one, Delmas notes, “Japan is trying to produce ‘Japanese teas’ in China.” Other exchanges involve experimenting with different cultivars and propagation by cutting, seed exchanges and comparing disease fighting and organic growing methods.

Tea cuisine: tea leaves and katsuobushi (shaved dried skipjack).
Photo courtesy of Palais des Thes

You can get an even more detailed education in tea by reading Delmas’s charming and informative book Chercheur de Thé: Discovering Tea, a collection of the first year’s worth of his blog posts. Thanks to this book, I now know how my beautiful tea canister covered in Japanese cherry wood was made, about the turbulent movement to create a separate state in Darjeeling, the ongoing belief in yeti in Nepal (some of them are quite short, less than a meter tall!) and unusual dishes such as the one above from Asahina, Shizuoka Prefecture, made with wet tea leaves, katsuobushi (shaved dried and fermented skipjack) and soy sauce. Delmas, a sympathetic and open-hearted traveler, pronounces it “absolutely delicious.”

Palais des Thés

156 Prince Street (between W. Broadway and Thompson St.)

New York, NY 10012

646-513-4369

194 Columbus Ave. (between 68^th and 69^th Sts.)

New York, NY 10023

646-664-1902

Tasting Table Expands Its Reach

Last night afforded me a glimpse into one configuration of the new food media landscape. The event was the cocktail party launch of Tasting Table's new test kitchen and dining room, a sleek brick-walled, fabulously outfitted loft space on the second floor of a non-descript Broome Street building

Guaranteed to evoke kitchen envy in all New Yorkers, the Eric Cheong and Loren Daye-designed space signals the eating and drinking e-mail list's entry into the big time. Plans include major content generation, master classes, recipe development, partnerships with large-name business (Williams-Sonoma, MasterCard and Jenn-Air, which supplied the appliances for the new space), and the beefing up of big city bureaus. They're moves that make MTV founder Bob Pittman's investment in the site look as canny as his Daily Candy buy and sell.

The site is no Yelp or (the recently purchased) Zagat, explains Kai Mathey TT's director of communications, because it relies on the judgement of seasoned critics. It's no Urban Daddy, because its not about being first to broadcast the latest arrivals on the scene. In fact, in content and scope, it sounds a lot like the old fashioned magazine. The difference, of course, it that the old three to six months' lead times are gone, and as with online news, the cycle is 24-hour and non-stop.

TT has brought on as its executive chef Brendan McHale, formerly of Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar and Barbara Lynch's The Butcher Shop in Boston, who is excited about a series of "artisan access" dinner he's designing that include cheesemonger Anne Saxelby and the purveyors of heirloom grains Anson Mills.

The pace of TT's growth and the scope of its plans are dizzying, although the source of my vertigo could have been the influence of  mixologist Franky Marshall's (The Clover Club) dreamy Royal Sparkler (a pretty concoction of St. Germain vodka, champagne, simple syrup, lime, English cucumber and raspberry), and McHale's addictive pork belly croquettes.

These are big plans backed by big money, but I hope there is still room for the quality independents in the field, such as the meticulously curated Cravings, where yours truly is a contributor.

My in--town vacation at Despaña with a serial eater/blogger

I took a trip to Spain yesterday via Broome Street in Soho. My portal to the Basque country and beyond was via the food emporium Despaña, which has a beautiful selection of cured meats, sausages, cheeses and assorted olives, spreads, piquillo peppers, and other specialty items, all imported from Spain. In the back of this handsome boutique there is a take-out counter and a comfortable white-tiled seating area.

I was there playing sidekick to a crazy food blogger named Hagan Blount, who goes by the handle The Wandering Foodie, and whose self-imposed mission is to try 93 different restaurants, diners, cafés, truck vendors and delis over 31 days in New York City. Nearing the end of his quest, his digestive system fatigued, Hagan told me he was looking forward to vegging out in a recliner, watch a mindless movie (a comedy, and one he had already seen—he was that unwilling to expend energy) and sip a glass of sparkling water. Seven more days, Hagan!

Lydia Sanchez, the boutique’s gracious manager, was our host and guide, carting out a cascade of Spanish delicacies, which seemed to arrive at lightning speed and threatened to overwhelm our critical faculties with its volume and deliciousness. First was a lovely, smoky estella red bean soup and Despañ’s signature blood sausage, morcilla, which the store’s owners manufacture at their Queen’s facility. The satisfying morcilla was gently spiced and bathed in a sweetish sauce of tomato, garlic and onion.

Lydia explained that the boutique likes to include in its take-out dishes products that the store sells. Eat-in customers reap the benefit of a fantastic condiment tray filled with boutique products, including imported sea salts, vinagre de Jerez and Spanish olive oils.

A selection of pinxtos, Basque-style small-bite sandwiches was next in the festive parade starting with brandada de bacalao, a mixture of salt cod, mashed potato and béchamel on a supercrispy thin wafer of country bread. There were two croqueta, or croquette pinxtos, one featuring Serrano ham and cheese, and another bacalao, both perched daintily on a round of Despañ’s crusty bread. A plate of imported pulpo (octopus), thinly sliced, marinated in Don Bocarte olive oil and resting on a bed of soft, thinly sliced potato did not wow Hagan, but won me over with its elegant simplicity. Like many of Despaña’s dishes, it was subtly seasoned, not the kind of bold, brash flavors that, say, Julian Medina of Yerba Buena traffics in.

If you like small plates, Despaña’s tapas and flautas will appeal to you. The latter are mini versions of the store’s made-to-order sandwiches (bocadillos), and are pre-made and ready for take-out or a quick sit-down snack. Among my favorites were the Castañas, an unusual layering of chestnut cream, goat cheese, salchichon sausage, and piquillo peppers, and another made of the morcilla, manchego cheese and a layer of quince cream.

We rounded off the feasting with Despaña’s rustic, delicious flan, made from Lydia’s mother’s own recipe from the Basque country, a blueberry cheesecake and some churros and thick hot chocolate.

I left with a jar of squid packed in ink, which Lydia advises eating over rice, and some quince paste, souvenirs from my in-town Spanish vacation.