OMG a Recipe: Gin, Tea and Anne Marie

There's nothing wrong with having a civilized cocktail now and then, right? Maybe two..? The Prime was thankful to be given a bottle of the new Beefeater 24 London Dry Gin to sample and get all amateur mixologist with. The resulting experiments were both delicious and as the British like to say, truly capitol! So, cheerio and away we go on our magical gin-tastic journey!

Meet sweet little Anne Marie - she's pretty, but she packs a PUNCH! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

So what makes this gin so unique? Beefeater 24's tale explains that it took a full day -- hence the "24" in the name -- for the gin to acquire its distinctive flavors of Japanese Sencha and Chinese Green teas. They were steeped in the gin, releasing their aromatic botannicals before the spirit was finally distilled. This extra layer of flavors adds a more heady fragrance to the gin, and while it's fine with a bit of lime and tonic, the complexity works better with a variety of flavors, like different kinds of citrus and herbals like sage or rosemary. It still has that woodsy pine botannical typical of gin, but with the added teas, it makes the flavor more delicate and out of a lack of a better word, fancy. But not in a bad way. The bottle design reflects this dressy layer of fancy-ness, with its beautiful floral textures, the crimson-dyed bottom that reflects a dramatic red hue, and if you look very closely, you can find a raven holding a key, representing the old tale that when the ravens that roost in the Tower of London leave, the monarchy will fall. I won't tell you exactly where the raven is, but the photo can give you a hint...

Feed the birds... tuppins a bag. See if you can find the birdy on your gin bottle! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I was given a list of cocktail recipes to try out and the English Breakfast seemed a befitting drink to christen the new bottle of gin. This requires a little bit of prep, as the gin needs to be infused with English Breakfast Tea before mixing the cocktail. I let a tea bag of English Breakfast -- basically a black tea -- cold steep in about a cup's worth of the Beefeater 24. I let it sit for about an hour, but I think if I were to do this again, I'd cut the time by half or dilute it with the un-infused gin, just so the tea wasn't too overpowering with the other flavors. It's got both the sweetness and citrus kick of orange marmalade, which made for a great drink ingredient, as long as you strain out the pulpy bits before serving. I opted not to do the egg white foam, mostly because I knew my arm would feel like falling off if I tried to shake it the way the pros do, to get that perfect, creamy foam finish. Curse my short, stubby arms!! But the cocktail was nicely balanced and serving it in a pretty teacup makes you feel like less of a lush having one of these before noon. Yes, I used way too big of a garnish, as I don't have a zester that produces the elegant curls, so apologies for the giant wedge!

English Breakfast
1 3/4 oz English Breakfast Tea infused Beefeater 24
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz pasteurized egg white (optional)
1/4 oz sugar syrup
1 spoon of marmalade (about half a tablespoon)
Shake and strain into a chilled glass (either a tea cup or cocktail glass) and garnish with a zested orange peel.

This ain't Earl Grey - Photo by Wasabi Prime

As to the matter of the second drink, it's the lavender-dressed photo at the top of the post. It wasn't in the list of cocktail recipes to try, I put this one together myself with my own Wasabi hands. It took cues from the other recipes that infused the gin with tea. For this one, I infused the gin with some chamomile, a less heavy tea with a more light, flowery taste. Where the English Breakfast infused gin had more of a caramel color, the chamomile left the tea with a lemony amber hue. This cocktail is girlish and springtime-fresh, taking flavor cues from the chamomile with a dash of lavender infused simple syrup, and rounding it out with the sweetness of St. Germain's elderflower liqueur. As to the origin of the name, at the risk of being placed number one with a bullet on the Bad Influence list, it's named after the soon-to-be-born daughter of a good friend whose supply of lavender from her garden gives this drink its intensely floral notes. Good Parent of the Year I'll never be, naming a cocktail after a baby, but it's an ode to the babymama who appreciates all these flavors and provided the key ingredient for this drink.

Anne Marie Tea Blossom
1 1/2 oz chamomile infused Beefeater 24 gin
1 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz lavender infused simple syrup
Shake and straing into a chilled cocktail glass, rimmed with superfine sugar and a light sprinkle of dried lavender buds to garnish.

Enjoying a cuppa tea (and gin) with Beefeater 24 - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Much Wasabi Thanks to Beefeater for letting me play mad mixologist in Wasabi Kitchen Stadium, and getting a chance to sample this lovely new spirit.

Mixed Plate: Teatime With Wasabi

One of the benefits of having a garden full of fragrant herbs is you'll most likely wind up with excess, which can certainly be used in a pesto sauce, but I wanted to try something different: oven-drying aromatics and making custom mixes of herbal teas!

Call me Ms. T, where the T stands for... well, Tea - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Admittedly, this has been a longterm project that I've been working with since early spring -- our lemon balm and mint perked up and really went crazy, so I was snipping leaves from those first. I do regular walks on the trail that runs through Duvall, which has tons of greenery growing wild, including wild roses. My green-thumbed friend, Ms. SSG had talked about using rose hips before, so I started plucking the very heavily scented flowers, along with the buds. After much nitpicky labor, the flowers and buds were cleaned, separated and washed. Everything was put on sheets of parchment paper and dried at the lowest setting on the oven, just around 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

The bright and fresh "before" pics of mint, lemon balm and rose hips - Photos by Wasabi Prime

For small leafy things, it takes maybe three to four hours of low, slow oven drying. The parchment paper is key, as the leaves will definitely want to stick to everything as they dry and my Silpats always feel forever oily and I didn't want that getting into the leaves. Overall, the rose hips were surprisingly strong in terms of flavor; I thought the small handful of dried petals wouldn't yield much, but it definitely added a surprise punch of sweet fragrance. The mint and lemon balm seemed to mellow considerably through the drying process, so for the ratios of flavor, I'd say go heavy with the mint and lemon balm, but light with rose hips. This first batch of home DIY tea was just mint, lemon balm and rose hips, making a pretty mild herbal tea.

OK, get all those t-bag jokes out of your system, I know you want to - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The second attempt had different ingredients -- ginger and citrus rind, along with the same usual minty/lemon balm suspects, although this round yielded rosebuds along with the petals. The warmer temperature was producing smaller flowers and more buds, which I unceremoniously pulled off as many plants as I could. At the risk of getting lots of weird sidelong glances by joggers passing by, I probably plucked a few cups' worth of rosebuds. I had extra ginger and saved the rind from a couple of lemons and an orange, so I loaded up the oven with everything for another drying session. The ginger and citrus rind took longer to fully dry, nearly double the time of the leafy herbs.

Rosy buds and a good use for extra ginger and citrus rind - Photos by Wasabi Prime

This time I put all the ingredients in separate plastic bags, so that I can custom-mix each brew. As the summer gets more into swing, I'm thinking more along the lines of iced teas or even fragrant cocktails and unique seltzers. I'd still brew the mixture of aromatics like a tea, but then chill, flavor with simple syrup or honey and carbonate, or just introduce the herbal elixir to my dear friend vodka. I'm also hoping to stockpile the dried aromatics for beer brewing, as Mr. Wasabi has been feeling the itch to brew again, and many recipes call for citrus rind. The nice thing about drying your own aromatics is once you get that liquid out properly and store it somewhere dry, they'll last quite a while and can have multiple uses.

I'm hoping to get lavender from our garden to have a nice stockpile of it for teas or baking. I'm already dreaming of a rose hip and mint shortbread, or a lemony lavender tea cookie! Stay tuned to see what other experiments come out of Wasabi Kitchen Stadium!

Kampai to ghetto-fabulous herbal teas! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: Tea With Radish and Wasabi

There's something wonderfully civilized about tea. Making it into a little event, complete with a good friend and teeny sandwiches makes it all the more special. Ms. Wasabi did her ladylike best to host a tea lunch with friend and fellow blogger, Ms. Radish and Rosé, and it was a delightful afternoon of sharing funny stories, happy memories, and trading thoughts on living la vida blogger. So raise a delicate cup with pinkie fingers up -- no wiping your face on the sleeve -- it's teatime with Radish and Wasabi... and yo, tuck that shirt in!

Tea and macaroons -- so freakin' charming, it hurts - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of the greatest luxuries in life isn't in the material world -- no pimpin' houses, blinged-out dentistry, or exotic pets that will most likely attack you out of fatal irony. The most valuable asset is free time, and the luxury to spend it on simple pleasures. Life in a cubicle world definitely moved faster, the steady paycheck was really nice, but it felt like I was spending more money to essentially slow it down so that I could actually enjoy what little free time I had. Situations change, life happens, and the blessings show themselves. This was a nice opportunity to share an afternoon with a friend and to pull out my grandparents' vintage tea and dessert set from Japan that is so sadly underused. Brewing up several pots of Earl Grey tea, we chatted about cookbooks, movies, and all the little joys we were thankful to have.

In honor of Ms. Radish, I made sandwiches of toasted bread smeared with butter and layered with thin slices of radish and salt. Simply delicious and pure French countryside, all the things Ms. Radish loves and writes about in her adorable blog that features all her charming favorite things. Lovely macaroons are one of her favorite things as well, and she was a doll to bring little mini ones in a beautiful painted bowl -- an early and sweet Valentine's Day gift! It's Ms. Radish's most favorite holiday, so if you can, please drop by her blog on the 14th to send her pink heart Valentine wishes!

A bouquet of radishes -- elegant and edible! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Along with butter and radish sandwiches, I made curried egg salad and cucumber sandwiches, because you can't have tea without those things. Don't ask me why, just ask the Queen, because I'm sure she digs them too when she's not chasing after her pack of little Corgi dogs. The combination of the savory crunch of radish and the creamy spice of curried eggs was a delicious pairing. I toasted the bread, but I don't think I'll do that next time because while it holds the shape nicely, it can do a savage number on the roof of one's mouth as you bite into them. Ouch. I think I was concerned that the bread would become too soggy from the ingredients, but the sandwiches were immediately om-nommed, so sogginess is clearly not a factor worth considering the next time I make these. Lesson learned.

Bacon brittle -- come on, you know you want some. Photos by Wasabi Prime

Served alongside the sandwiches were clementines and a special gift from Ms. Radish -- Sir Francis Bacon Peanut Brittle. Yeah, you heard that right -- bacon peanut brittle with a sly nod to Western philosophy! How foodie-pimp is that?? In a word, it's smoky. It doesn't feel like you're biting into a slab of bacon, but it's definitely got that hearty smoked flavor, paired with the caramel brittle. The packaging is brilliant and it comes in the perfect sparing amount, as it's easy for the strong flavor to just overwhelm after a few too many bites. It was a great salty-sweet addition to the sandwiches and fruit because, really, when is bacon a bad idea? Admittedly, Mr. Wasabi thought the flavor was a bit strong for his liking, but I think if the brittle was crushed into smaller bits and sprinkled over a creamy vanilla ice cream, it would balance it out nicely for even the most skeptical of palates. Bacon brittle vanilla milkshakes anyone? Maybe for another post.

I knew those tiered cake stands would come in handy - Photo by Wasabi Prime

We concluded our tea with cranberry orange scones, a gift from another dear friend of ours. Dabbed with a pat of rich, sweet brandy butter, it was the perfect indulgence to go with our last pot of Earl Grey. The whole afternoon was a reminder of how very grateful I am to have a good friend like Ms. Radish -- I knew her before I started Wasabi Prime and she's one of the people I credit as being the encouraging voice who helped inspire this blog's existence. She's been a longtime reader of blogs in general, and would share favorite posts over morning coffee, introducing me to this magical world. This is an open thank-you note to Ms. Radish, for her support, her positive influence, and for her generous and kind soul.

Something to note, her writing has gotten some local attention, as it well-deserves -- you can see her blog, Radish and Rosé, noted on the News section of the Heathman Hotel's Trellis website. It's one of her favorite local spots for breakfast, and she has much love for their freshly-made doughnuts. If you're in the Kirkland area for breakfast at Trellis, tell 'em Radish and Rosé sent you!