“Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage.”

– Catherine Douzel

Buenos Aires – I have no idea who this Catherine Douzel is – according to Google, the above quote appears 1,020 times on the internet, but I can’t find any information about her – perhaps it’s one of those misspellings (of a similar name) that just got picked up and requoted all over the ‘net. Regardless, I like the quote as much as 1,020 others do. And, I can’t believe that I haven’t written up last weekend’s trio of tea dinners – I actually thought I had – this is what happens when you get overly busy with things you hadn’t planned on…. The idea of the dinner, inspired by being the anniversary of the completely irrelevant Teapot Dome Scandal, was to use teas and herbal infusions as a primary component of each dish. All the teas were blends that I sampled through and picked up from Inés Berton at Tealosophy, arguably one of the best tea shops in the world.

The tea for the first course was a blend called Spring Mint – a blend of mint leaves, wild strawberries, and a touch of other red fruits from Patagonia. I infused vinegar with this tea for a day and then used it to make a simple vinaigrette with olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, and garlic. The vinaigrette was tossed with fresh peas that I’d blanched and shocked, red onions that had been quickly sauteed in olive oil, spinach leaves, pistachios, and feta cheese.

For our soup course, I wanted to offer a simple soup that showcased the Calm tea blend of lemon verbena, chamomille and rosehips – so I made a large pot full of the tea and then used that as the “stock” for a potato soup – simply simmering them in the tea until soft, adding in leeks and onions that I’d sauteed in duck fat and smoked salt, and then pureeing the whole thing. The first night was a little chilly, so we served the soup warm, the second two nights we served it chilled.

For those who’ve followed along in the adventures of our Italian cooking class, you’ve seen the whole wheat langanelli, or malformed pasta tossed with sauteed chickpeas, celery and olive oil. This is the same dish, except with the addition of cubes of chicken breast that I’d rubbed with a ground up tea called Indian Market – a blend of black assam tea, coriander, ginger, cardamom, and black pepper.

Of course, a green tea had to come into play, and the Chinese Soul blend of green tea leaves, dried pineapple and peaches, and wildflowers seemed the perfect rub for some salmon fillets, which I baked in the oven and then served atop polenta (more influence from the Italian cooking class creeping in). Drizzled over all of it was a brown butter spiced with szechuan and pink peppercorns, grains of paradise, and sea salt. Definitely my favorite course.

Peaches are in season, and a peach custard tard sprung to mind as I was thinking about what to do with them. The milk used in the custard is flavored with the Rooibos Cream Caramel infusion – rooibos is a tea from Africa that is quite popular these days, and with the addition of caramel to its red fruitiness, made a beautifully flavored custard.

And that, was our tea-infused dinner!

 Tea is the language and art of hospitality.”

– Inés Berton, Tealosophy

Buenos Aires – I once went to afternoon tea at some fancy hotel in London, and I know I went once or twice over the years at different hotels in Manhattan – I recall The Plaza having a nice one. But that’s about it. Normally, for me, tea is a solitary pleasure – a cup here and there, whether brewed from bag or loose leaf, to be sipped while watching television or seated in front of the computer doing whatever it is I may be doing at that moment. It’s not something I normally spend much time thinking about, and certainly even less talking about, so when the opportunity came up to write an article for the upcoming Time Out issue on “taking tea” in Buenos Aires, I jumped at the chance. It gave me the opportunity to get out there and try a few spots, from neighborhood tea shops, a five o’clock tea at the Hotel Alvear, a bastion of formality and tradition, to the opportunity for a long conversation with the passionate and effusive Inés Berton, owner and master tea blender of the local Tealosophy shop.

Now, afternoon tea – not high tea, which is more of a meal taken at the dining table – at the Alvear is something that any visitor to Buenos Aires ought to take in. It ranks up there in the people (read, porteña) watching world with things like Café Tortoni or a polo match. It is elegance personified. We headed off late last week – dressed up a tad, after all, it is the Alvear, though not everyone apparently goes by that dictum – to take our tea. We knew we were in for a bit of a splurge, but the menu listing tea at 55 pesos for the basic tea with sandwiches and pastries still gave us pause (65 pesos if you want a kir royale served with your pastries). And then our waiter told us we could only select one tea to share… we asked if we could select two different teas, he said yes, though it would be quite a bit of tea, and an added charge (14 pesos)… at that point you’d think that two reasonably bright individuals would have figured it out, but no, not until the bill came did we realize that it’s a flat charge for the table – with one pot of tea, and then a series of trays of first, finger sandwiches (excellent!), then small savory and sweet pastries (good), followed by a rolling pastry cart with a large selection of tarts and cakes (we just couldn’t). And therefore, the extra charge for a second pot of tea, and, a much better deal than we’d initially thought. There’s sufficient tea for 2-3 people, and more than sufficient sandwiches and pastries.

I highly recommend the hotel’s own blend (put together for them by Inés), a delicious black tea with delicate flavors of almonds and wildflowers; or the Blue Earl Grey, scented with both bergamot and lavender, which will leave you never willing to sip what normally passes for Earl Grey again…

I’m told by sources local that it’s also worth checking out the 5:00 teas at the Cesar Park, the Park Hyatt, and the Claridge hotels… so they may just be getting some visits in the late afternoons.