Green tea, lemon grass and

PARK PLAZA HOTEL

grapefruit juice are mixed with

champagne for a Citrus Teaser
at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel.
 BEVERAGE TRENDS

TEA TIME
for Cocktails
Black, green, herbal and otherwise, tea makes a return engagement
in both hot and cold bar drinks

BY JACK ROBERTIELLO

hen Rye House opened in Manhattan late now springing up across the country, tea has been

W last fall, a quick glance at the drink menu

gave many indications that this was a bar
where cocktails were taken seriously. The list of bourbons
beckoning other bartenders as well.
Hot tea spiked with a little whiskey is as old as, well,
whiskey, but until recently, hot-tea cocktails were
and ryes is appropriately long, befitting the establishment’s overshadowed by winter drink menus favoring fancy,
name, and the cocktail menu is filled with the dessert-like coffee and cocoa mixers. At 508 Restaurant &
contemporary bartender’s favorite ingredients: bitters, Bar in Manhattan, however, Bar Manager Nick Freeman
house infusions, amaros, egg whites. last winter offered such tea drinks as Blueberry Fields, with
Taking prime position is the Rye House Punch, black tea, amaretto and Grand Marnier.
featuring chai-infused rye along with lemon, grapefruit, The Norwegian Wood combines orange pekoe, dark
bitters and absinthe. It’s just another sign that tea, in all rum and vanilla vodka, and Freeman’s Jalice features chai,
its guises — chai, black, green, white, herbal tisanes, fruit- bourbon and lemon juice. With 508 located on the windy
flavored, smoked — is increasingly moving onto the Hudson River side of Manhattan, chilly guests welcome
cocktail-ingredient list. the handcrafted hot drinks.
“I enjoy the idea of working with natural flavors,” says
HISTORICAL TEA Freeman. “I also enjoy the time spent on a drink’s
It’s not a revolutionary change; Colonial-era American construction; there’s a distinct pleasure in the steeping
punch recipes, now returning to the bar scene, were process and in making a proper cocktail. The enjoyment
traditionally built on a base of freshly brewed tea that knit of working in a restaurant setting is [that you have] a
together the tang of citrus, a bit of sugar and the zap of generally more captive and appreciative audience.
brandy and rum. Since punches started appearing on Experimentation with anything, including recipes,
menus in the speakeasy and pre-prohibition-themed bars requires one to play with proportion and order.”

www.flavor-online.com Winter 2010 FLAVOR & THE MENU 109

BEVERAGE TRENDS

TEA’S ATTRACTION guest’s interest is usually the documented

Some bartenders are taking advantage of the health benefits of tea, but what interests me are
explosion of bottled-tea products to tweak the flavor profiles, textures and aromatics. They
their cocktail programs, while others, hewing are tremendously fun to play with. You can use
to a do-it-yourself culinary approach, are tea to add brightness, add depth or complexity,
crafting their own teas, tea infusions, syrups balance or highlight different flavors or
or tinctures for use in drinks. textures. The possibilities are endless.”
Since the Clock Bar’s opening at the Gold notes that balance is key when
St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco two years introducing any ingredient; the resulting
ago, one of the most-popular drinks is the drink should not taste too strongly of tea.
English Breakfast, made with Earl Grey-infused “It just needs to be altered for the better in
gin, Grand Marnier, orange marmalade, fresh some way that you could not have achieved
lemon juice and egg white, topped with a spray without the tea,” she says.
of black-tea liqueur. At Buddakan in New York Tea’s entry into bar programs has bemused
City, bartender Joe Thompson serves the some in the tea world. “It’s sort of a paradox to
Tranquility, made with citrus vodka and use tea as a mixer in a bar environment, with tea
lemon-grass-infused oolong tea. having such a healthful reputation, but as the
Tea as a bar ingredient has become popular bar has opened up to a range of mixers, tea with
enough to sustain an annual cocktail alcohol creates a sort of yin and yang,” says Jage.
competition at the World Tea Expo, held in The Boston Park Plaza, where Gold works
Las Vegas every June. The three-day business- with an exceptional tea menu, is well known
to-business show and conference hosted the for offering “tea cuisine” dishes, such as
competition finals last year, which turned out jasmine-tea-cured salmon, tea-rubbed pork
to be a big hit, says George Jage, president of tenderloin and tea-infused port. She’s created
the World Tea Expo. The winner, Beverage a full line of tea cocktails and signature tea
Manager Max Solano of Emeril Lagasse’s blends served at the hotel’s Afternoon Tea, in
Table 10 in Las Vegas, whipped up Genevrier addition to her signature white port, infused
Verte, a mix of blackberry-jasmine iced green with black tea, lavender and rose petals. Her
tea, lemonade, gin, coca-leaf liqueur, Tea Nog, a traditional egg nog enhanced with
vanilla/clove syrup and fresh lime juice. tea and spiced rum, is an annual winter
Tea’s attraction is on many levels. “Tea can favorite at the hotel.
add a wide variety of things to a beverage or Other beverage folk, newer to the culinary
Mixologists appreciate dish,” says Cynthia Gold, tea sommelier at The and mixology potential of tea, are just as
tea’s flavors, textures Boston Park Plaza Hotel. “What catches the interested in its properties.
and aromas in mixed
drinks, and its health
benefits help sales.

DRAGON PEARL

110 FLAVOR & THE MENU Winter 2010 www.flavor-online.com

BEVERAGE TRENDS

HOT AND COLD

“I’m a big proponent of pushing the envelope,
The and having grown up in the Southwest, I’m
big for tea in drinks,” says John Rothstein,
FLAVOR PAYOFF beverage director of BLT Restaurants, with 18
restaurants under the banner BLT Steak, BLT
Fish, BLT Burger and other concepts.
Tea tips from an industry leader “I think of tea as adding a cooling
sensation, and it provides a nice balancing act
to citrus and sweeteners in most cocktails,”
Cynthia Gold, tea sommelier at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel, is well
says Rothstein. “I also like to think of it as a
known for incorporating her love of tea into food and beverages.
glue; it adds coloration, softens and relaxes
Her work provides pointers for getting started with tea:
the complexity that’s already in the cocktail,
> Start with familiar and popular drinks, like martini variations giving a soothing, colorful effect.”
> Blend tea with fruit, always a refreshing mix Iced tea’s cooling and soothing effects
come in handy at BLT Steak Camelback, in
> Infuse clear spirits with tea for subtle flavoring
Scottsdale, Ariz., where the menu includes
> Use spiced chai blends and warm spirits (like cognac or the Elderflower Pimm’s Cup, made with
spiced rum) for dessert-like drinks Pimm’s No. 1, elderflower liqueur, fresh lemon
juice and sparkling jasmine tea, garnished
For more inspiration, here is a brief list of Gold’s greatest hits:
with cucumber and mint leaves.
Ginger Mar-Tea-ni — Vodka slowly infused with Japanese green tea, While opening the company’s 17th
ginger and citrus zest, finished with additional ginger and pineapple restaurant in Waikiki recently, Rothstein
and lime juices discovered a local favorite called the
Plantation, a mix of iced tea and pineapple
Keemun Cream — Baileys Irish Cream and vodka infused with
juice. It made sense to develop an adult version,
Keemun Hao Ya (black tea and spices); finished with whipped cream
so he tinkered with the proportions and added
Green-Tea Mar-Tea-ni — Vodka infused with Chinese green tea, peach vodka. He now serves it as the BLT
dried peach, dried quince, mallow blossom and vanilla bean, finished Plantation and notes that peach is a flavor that
with a splash of peach schnapps melds well with drinks using black tea.
Nick Liberato, bar manager of 18a (named
Yin and Tonic — Gin slowly infused with Chinese Ti-Kuan Yin
for the 18th Amendment), the bar at
Oolong and spice, finished with tonic water
restaurant Comme Ça in Los Angeles, has
Strawberry-Basil Mar-Tea-ni — Vodka infused with green tea, orange been experimenting with things like chilled
peel and lemon grass, muddled with fresh strawberries and basil chamomile tea in shaken cocktails.
“I love chamomile; it has such nice
Spiced-Apple Mar-Tea-ni — Apple Martini made with aromatics, it mixes nicely with a number of
vodka that has been slowly infused with black tea, spirits and has this
dried pear, ginger and black pepper beautiful flavor that
Champagne Tea Cocktails — Variations on a works well with rum
Bellini with a tea and fruit syrup added and bourbon.”

Plaza Citrus Teaser — Coconut rum infused

with green tea and lemon grass and finished with
fresh basil, grapefruit juice and champagne
PLAZA HOTEL

Tea Nog — A December-only version of egg

nog made with milk that has been simmered Spicy teas and chais
BOSTON PARK

with tea and spices for around six hours, then complement creamy
chilled and made into egg nog; available with or drinks and warm spirits.
without the addition of tea-and-spice-infused
cognac

112 FLAVOR & THE MENU Winter 2010 www.flavor-online.com

 BEVERAGE TRENDS

The key to including tea in any drink, hot

or cold, is the supporting ingredients.
Sometimes tea is there to offer depth and be a
bridge between the other ingredients or to
balance those ingredients while adding
another layer of complexity.
“The issue is how easy or difficult it is to
come up with the right flavor combinations,”
says Gold, who has been creating tea cocktails
for about 12 years, five of them for The Park
Plaza. Vodka, of course, is considered easiest
to mix with teas; Jage points out some
bartenders are infusing vodka with teas and
using finely powdered green tea as an
ingredient to create an instant tea-infused
vodka. Other spirits, especially those with
strong tannins, need more care. Smokier
Scotches can be tough, as are the more-
intense single-batch or barrel whiskeys, due to
their increased astringency.
“[Mixing] can be more complex than
simply the type of alcohol,” says Gold. “For
instance, with gin, the particular proprietary
formula of juniper and other spices will react
HEARTY BOYS

with the teas in a different way. One gin will

give a different result from another, so you
need to do your taste tests with the exact
A “Teani” of Zen green tea Last winter, Liberato was drawn to tea’s same gin you plan to serve.”
liqueur, Laird’s AppleJack warming properties and served hot tea drinks, She likes using Earl Grey with gin and
and apple juice is one of
including an Earl Grey Buttered Rum and a bourbon and green teas with sake and gin.
many “classics, retooled”
at Hearty Boys in Chicago. Whiskey-Tea Toddy. Ceylon tea goes with bourbon, gin with
oolongs and Scotch with Assam and high-
BALANCED TO A TEA oxidation oolongs. Rum goes with most teas,
Like many other bartenders, Liberato uses she says. Her best sellers include a Green-Tea
herbal mixes, including lavender and kaffir- Mar-Tea-ni, vodka infused with green tea,
lime leaf, when making syrups for cocktails. dried peach, quince, mallow blossom and
He’s also worked with green tea in a drink vanilla bean. Gold notes that her Spiced-
with Japanese whiskey, muddled shiso leaf Apple Mar-Tea-ni is a safe transition into tea
and egg white. cocktails due to the popularity of the apple
martini in the earlier part of the decade.
Liberato says a lot depends on the palate of
the mixologist and customers, how balanced
TAKE-AWAY TIPS
drinks are and how they pair with a
restaurant’s cuisine. As with other potentially
GO EASY: Use tea as a supporting flavor rather than letting it
overwhelm the cocktail powerful ingredients, Rothstein says, “The
key to any cocktail is balance; if you put
TIP THE BOTTLE: Use a splash of bottled tea for an easy foray into
tea mixers
something in that’s going to overpower, be
aware of its strengths.” &
PLAY FAVORITES: Create tea-infused versions of best-selling drinks

GET FAMILIAR: Use recognizable tea flavors (honey-lemon or JACK ROBERTIELLO writes about spirits,
ginger) to begin with cocktails, wine, beer and food from Brooklyn,
N.Y.; he can be e-mailed at [email protected].

114 FLAVOR & THE MENU Winter 2010 www.flavor-online.com