The Tea Keepers – Quince and Plum
This here Quince and Plum green tea is the first non-black tea I’ve had from The Tea Keepers. It’s no coincidence that this has lingered in the tea stash longer than their Earl Grey, Earl Grey with Vanilla, Apricot Tea and Belfast Breakfast. I always reach for a black blend before one of its more delicately flavoured unoxidised siblings.
I like green tea—I really do—but it doesn’t sustain me as well as black tea. I need all the oomph I can get to get me through all the things I need to do in my life that aren’t reviewing cups of tea.
Teas like Tea Keepers Quince and Plum do make me wonder if I should review that outlook, though. This is a great-tasting blend of Japanese sencha, quince, plum, hibiscus, marigold blossom, and cornflowers. It is delicate—there’s no getting away from that—but it’s also satisfyingly fruity and delightfully tea-y.
It’s a bit of a cheat having both apple and quince in the recipe but only mentioning quince in the name. Quinces are apple-y pear-y things (technically known as pomes), so it’s tricky for a fruit amateur such as myself to determine which is which in a tea taste test.
But then I’d have difficulty distinguishing either of them from the plums if I didn’t have the ingredient list spoilers in front of me. Plums aren’t even pomes; they’re drupes. ‘Pome’ and ‘drupe’ are both very pleasing words. They ought to come up in Scrabble more often than they do.
In doing my quince-based research (because what do any of us know of the quince other than knowing that the owl and the pussycat dine on slices of it), I found out that prophecy-peddler Nostradamus included several recipes for quince jelly in his book Traité des fardements et confitures (Treaties on confections and jams.) He describes one recipe as “fit for a king”. Sugar was insanely expensive back then, and Nostradamus is actually recommending this recipe to people who entertained royalty at their homes. It is probably the only time the phrase “fit for a king” in a recipe description has been intended literally.
I’m unlikely to be entertaining any members of the royal family at Tea Fancier Towers any time soon. But if any do swing by, I’d happily offer them some Tea Keepers Quince and Plum tea. Or whatever they fancy, really. I’ve got all sorts here.
Today’s book pairing is Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa.
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