This month I am excited to highlight our Strawberry Green Tea. This is one of the first teas that I made inspired by going strawberry picking with my boys. I wanted a strawberry tea that really captured the taste of fresh picked strawberries right out of the field on a hot spring day. This tea is full of real strawberries which capture that flavor. I enjoy the contrast of the green tea with it’s crisp vegetal notes to balance the sweetness of the strawberries. Get some at Perkins Orchard, Ideal’s Sandwich & Grocery or online here: somscafe.com/product/strawberry-green-tea/.
I was inspired to make a Strawberry Basil Green Tea for our recipe of the month by one of our newest customers, Ideal’s Sandwich and Grocery. They have an Italian inspired grocery and sandwich shop and we were discussing how fun it would be to make some custom blended teas with Italian spices. Check them out here https://idealsdeli.com/ for one of the best Italian gourmet sandwiches you will ever taste and you can get our Strawberry Green Tea there.
I have really enjoyed playing with savory herbs in tea this summer. We don’t usually think of savory Italian spices in tea, but it is a magnificent combination. My first “aha” moment with this was when I added sage to the Moroccan Mint green tea in the spring. The sage flavor is very subtle in the tea but it is a beautiful base note to the recipe that allowed the mint to shine and added a special depth to the recipe. It also enhanced the refreshing quality of the tea when iced.
My second experience was going to visit Table Rock Tea Company this summer and tasting their Westminister Apricot Sage Green tea. I picked out this tea because of how much I enjoyed the sage in my Moroccan Mint and was pleasantly surprised at the delightful sweet and savory combination of this tea. The sage was much stronger than in my Moroccan Mint but it was lovely complemented by the sweet Apricot. It was reminiscent of the classic ginger peach combination but with a nice twist. You can order that tea and find out more about Table Rock Tea, a real American Tea Farm below: https://tablerocktea.com/. (Left real tea plants, right me with owner Jennifer Lorch at their tea packaging facility bagging some of our Som’s Tea.)
This Strawberry Basil Green tea recipe is really fresh, pretty, and delicious and is sure to be a winner at summer events. Read below to learn how to make it.
Ingredients
- Som’s Strawberry Green Tea
- Dried Basil
- Fresh Basil and Fresh or Frozen Strawberries to garnish and enhance the flavor. (Optional).
Directions
- Start by making a tea concentrate using double strength tea. For individual cups of tea use 1.5 tsp Strawberry Green Tea & 1/2 tsp basil per 8 ounces. For a gallon of tea use 1/2 cup of Strawberry Green tea and 1/8 cup basil. Put the loose leaf tea into an infuser.
- Heat filtered water to 175°F. Heat the cup or pitcher by pouring some of the heated water into the vessel, swish it around, and pour it out to keep the temperature constant.
- Fill up the cup/pitcher 1/2 full with hot water and put in your loose leaf tea. Cover the vessel and steep for three minutes.
- When it is finished steeping, extract the flavor from the tea by squishing the tea leaves with a spoon or tea tongs and dispose of the leaves.
- Add any sweetener of choice and stir.
- Fill the rest of the cup/pitcher with ice.
- Optional, add some fresh or frozen strawberries and fresh basil to garnish and enhance the flavor.
