Tea Cuisine essentially is using tea as an ingredient for cooking. In Chinese culture, maintaining good health means taking care of choosing what you eat everyday. Food nourishes your throat when you have a cough, or drink “cooling tea” in hot summer day.

Tea Cuisine is actually an age-old tradition in many parts of Asia. For example, in Tibet, tea is enjoyed like soup, served with butter and salt to compliment their diet which is mainly meat. In Japan, tea liquid is mixed with a thin stock and pour over rice to make a simple quick meal.

But not all tea is suitable for tea recipes. It is because some tea is very delicate in taste. If you cook with a light tea, its taste will totally disappear once other flavours are added. One good example is Silver Needle white tea, it has such a light taste that it really should be enjoyed by itself.

The other end of this tea-in-cooking spectrum is probably tea that suits cooking better than drinking!

By that I mean the green powder tea, Matcha. Matcha is a flour-like grounded green tea which has a very strong taste and is traditionally used in the Japanese tea ceremony. So the best way to enjoy this antioxidant powerhouse is to add it to dishes, or drinks. Just a tiny spoonful of Matcha can add a fusion touch to your vanilla milkshake, cookies or waffles.

There are also tricks to make tea a better cooking ingredient. For example, in our recipes:

• Smoky c & Corn Buns – the Russian Caravan tea is coarsely grounded before adding to the dough;
• Hot Cross Ice cream – replace the water component in your recipe with a strong tea – such as black tea and make it double strength;
• Rose Oolong Scones – infuse the tea in milk before adding the milk component to your recipe.

So what you are waiting for? Tea Cuisine is fun – arm yourself with your favourite tea and charge to the kitchen!

Great tea recipes can be found in our About Tea / Recipes section.

Writer: teas.com.au