STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 45 queur. Duplais's recipe for Crème de Thé calls for the 'spirit of tea', angelica root, alcohol, sugar, and water. The term "crème" is used to designate a liqueur with a higher sugar content, which leads to a more velvety texture. In 1862, the first published recipe book devoted solely to al- coholic drinks, "The Bar-tender's Guide, How to Mix Drinks or the Bon Vivant's Companion," featured a variety of tea liqueurs and liqueur bases. Bartender/author Jerry Thomas included three recipes using various teas. Eau de Thé combined Hyson and Souchong; huile de thé (oil of tea) used Imperial; liqueur de thé employed Hyson. Recipes for generic tea liqueurs, which any liqueuriste or sa- loon keeper could produce, continued to appear. But, as specific liqueur brands emerged, they created their own proprietary reci- pes for the liqueurs they produced, including those that made tea liqueur. The Evolution of Tea Liqueur Brands With its long history of tea culture, Japan has produced and con- tinues to produce several tea liqueurs. Some very rare bottles of Japanese green tea liqueurs from the 1960s, including those from Suntory and House of Koshu O-Cha (produced by Russian confectioner Morozoff), still exist. Green tea continues to serve as a base for Japanese tea liqueurs. Suntory currently produces Kanade Matcha Liqueur; Choya uses green tea from the Uji re- gion, employing a cold-brew process to extract the tea's character. As more tea-infused spirits–Silent Pool's Black Juniper Gin uses Nepalese Himalayan black tea and Indian Cloud tea, as well Tea cocktails that contain tea liqueurs and infusions have become extremely popular all around the world. as Suntory's Roku Gin with Sencha and Gyokuro green teas–ap- pear on the market, more liqueur makers see the value of tea as a botanical. Gabriel Boudier's iteration uses Darjeeling, smoked black tea is a key component in Joseph Carton's Thé Noir Fumé, and Edmond Briottet's Liqueur de Thé Vert Hibiscusa contains a combination of green tea and hibiscus. While Boudier, Carton, and Briottet are all French compa- nies, many other brands exist. When Eamon Rockey founded Rockey's Botanical Liqueur in New York, he desired a "strong dose of tea," as he describes it. Wanting a product that comple- mented multiple spirits in cocktails, he tried first green tea and then black tea, settling on a mixture of both. He notes that the result is a blend of green tea's grassiness and black tea's earthiness. "I always say that the tea makes [this liqueur] a 'grown up beverage'… once the tea is added to the mix, the spirit becomes far more complex and structured." Slovakia's Tantratea line includes over a dozen tea-based li- queurs, primarily black and white, but also rooibos, as the base. The liqueurs were inspired by a tradition that evolved in the snowy Tantra mountains, where travelers would be offered a hot cup of alcohol-fortified tea. Tantratea also steps into the amaro sub-category of liqueur with both a tea-based digestif and bitters. And, in England's Cotswolds, Liqueurious produces three tea liqueurs: Ryokucha uses green tea, while Camellia and Decaf Camellia use black tea. Just as the world of tea is vast, the world of liqueurs is ev- er-expanding, offering more and more creative choices. Tea li- queurs are finding a happy home, both sipped on their own or incorporated into inventive cocktails. While tea may not be a physical elixir of gold as many of the alchemists hoped, it is a deeply pleasurable elixir that lends its delicate, aromatic proper- ties to the liqueurs it graces. Rockey's Botanical Liqueur balances the grassiness of green tea with black tea's earthy qualities. Photo courtesy Rockey's Botanical Liqueur

• Cover