Tag Archives: drinks

Huatulco

A Beginner’s Guide to Tea

Leave a comment

By Randy Jackson

For many years, I’ve been as addicted and habituated as anyone to coffee in this Western coffee culture. Recently, however, I’ve found myself drawn to the more gentle allure of tea over coffee’s bold kick. I began this transition without realizing just how deep and rich the world of tea truly is, steeped in centuries of tradition and boasting a great many varieties. So, for beginners to tea, I’ve formulated four key questions and their answers to provide a foundational understanding of the world’s most consumed beverage.

WHAT PLANT DOES TEA COME FROM?

All non-herbal teas come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The history of using the leaves from this plant to make tea dates back at least to the third century CE in China. The variety of teas from the plant arises from how the leaves are processed.

Green tea is made by steaming and drying the leaves. Green tea has a delicate flavor. It has about 37% as much caffeine as coffee.

Black Tea is the most popular type of tea, with the most familiar names for teas, such as Darjeeling, English Breakfast, and Chai. Black tea is made by fermenting the leaves (oxidization). Black tea has a robust, relatively strong flavor compared to other teas. A cup of black tea generally contains about 58% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee.

Oolong Tea is partially oxidized and has a less intense flavor than black tea. Its flavor is more complex than black or green tea. The caffeine level of Oolong tea is about 42% of that of coffee.

White Tea is made from naturally dried leaves, with no oxidization. White tea has a delicate flavor. The caffeine contained in white tea is about 26% of that of coffee.

Pu-erh Tea is made using a microbial fermentation process and aging. It generally has an earthy and rich flavor. The caffeine level of Pu-erh tea is about 53% of that of coffee.

Matcha is a powdered version of green tea. The tea plants are kept in the shade for three weeks prior to harvesting. It has a slightly grassy, vegetal taste. Matcha contains the most caffeine of all the teas, about 74% of the amount in coffee.

HOW DO TEA FLAVORS VARY?

In addition to the different flavors of the teas listed above, the flavor of tea is affected by where the tea plant is grown. Like wine, the climate, elevation, and soil produce a range of flavors in tea. For example, Darjeeling tea is often called the champagne of tea because the soil in the Darjeeling area of India produces a delicate and fruity tea.

Furthermore, there is a distinction between pure tea and flavored tea. Pure tea, as the name implies, is a tea that has not been blended with herbs or spices. For tea connoisseurs and enthusiasts, pure tea offers aromas and flavors that are particular to the type of tea, the area where it is grown, and the method of processing used. Not surprisingly, there are tea sommeliers or tea masters, a title earned by years of education, training, and experience.

The type of tea most casual tea drinkers consume is flavored tea, which includes all the most familiar varieties, such as English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Chai. English Breakfast is unique among flavored teas as its flavor arises from blending certain black teas from different geographical locations rather than using additives. Earl Grey tea is primarily flavored with bergamot oil, an oil extracted from the bergamot orange peel, giving it a light citrus flavor. Earl Grey tea is mostly commonly made with black tea, but other types of tea, such as green tea, are also made into Earl Grey tea.

Chai tea is typically made from black tea, but other types of tea are also used. Its flavors come from spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and black pepper.

For Canadian readers, the massively popular Red Rose Tea, like English Breakfast, blends certain black teas from different geographical sources.

Herbal teas, also known as tisanes, are made from various herbs, spices, flowers, fruits, and roots. They contain no caffeine. Chamomile, peppermint, ginger, hibiscus, and rooibos are the five most common herbal teas.

HOW IS TEA CONSUMED IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES?

In the United Kingdom, drinking tea is a cultural touchstone. Tea leads all other beverages in terms of consumption. Black tea with milk is the most typical way tea is consumed in the UK.

In India, tea is also the most consumed beverage. Chai, made from black tea and typically brewed with milk, sugar, and spices, is the leading drink of choice.

China, like many other Asian countries, has a broad preference for various types of tea. Black, green, oolong and herbal teas are all popular, reflecting the region’s rich tea culture.

Another tea-drinking country is Argentina, where mate is the most popular beverage. Mate is made from the leaves of the yerba mate (mah-TAY) plant and is a type of herbal infusion rather than traditional tea.

On the flip side of tea’s popularity is Mexico, where tea doesn’t make the top five beverage list at all. After water, coffee is the most consumed beverage in Mexico, followed by soft drinks, agua frescas, and cerveza.

In the United States, particularly in the southern states, most tea consumed is iced tea. Iced tea can be made with any type of tea, but the most common is black tea. Beyond water, in terms of popularity, tea ranks third behind coffee and soft drinks.

According to the market data portal Statista, the top five tea-drinking countries in 2016 were Turkey, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and Iran. Canada was ranked 22, the United States was 36, and Mexico trailed at 56.

WHAT THE HECK IS BUBBLE TEA?

Until now, at least, my haphazard tea education has lacked any understanding of the cultural phenomenon of bubble tea. Silly me, I thought some sort of machine was used to blow air bubbles into a cup of tea.

But that’s not it. However, it does start with tea – green, black or oolong. The tea is cooled, and milk is added: whole, soy, condensed, or even coconut milk. Also added are tapioca pearls. These are small, chewy balls made from tapioca starch. The pearls are cooked until they reach a jelly-like consistency. This adds a texture to the drink. Despite common misconceptions, the “bubble” in bubble tea originally referred to the frothy foam created when the tea is shaken.

In the interest of research (and curiosity), we headed to a bubble tea place to try it. I chose dirty bubble tea, a drink made with cooled oolong tea, cold milk, brown sugar syrup, ice, and a handful of black tapioca balls. The drink required shaking to mix the layers. A large-diameter straw allowed the tapioca pearls to be slurped up as they sank to the bottom of the glass. The pearls were quite dense and chewy but without any real taste. I could detect the taste of tea in the drink mixture, but overall, it seemed like a beverage a long way from the centuries-old practice of sprinkling dried leaves into a cup of hot water and serving.

So, there you have it: from 3rd-century China, with monks sipping hot green tea in a monastery, to a trendy bubble tea shop in the foothills east of the Canadian Rockies, a beginner’s journey to the story and flavors of tea. I’m not that far yet in my tea journey, but I appreciate the words of a tea guru, James Norwood Pratt, who once wrote, “Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty.”

For contact or comment, email box95jackson@gmail.com.

Huatulco

Atole y más

1 Comment

By Julie Etra

Atole is a prehispanic corn-based beverage consumed throughout Mesoamerica and South America, albeit in different forms and with varying ingredients. The word atole is derived from the náhuatl word atolli , which means “watered down” or watery, due to its root of “atl” = water. It is synonymous with atol as it is also called in Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela.

The Purépecha, indigenous people of the northwestern Mexican state of Michoacan, call it kamata. In Mayan it is known as sa’, in Costa Rica it is called chicheme and champurrado in Peru and Argentina. Its basic ingredient is milled corn or corn flour. In prehispanic times it was likely prepared with water, and perhaps honey, but with the conquering Spaniards came sugar, added as a sweetener. Of moderate viscosity from cornstarch, atole was historically prepared as hot as possible.

Ingredients
Other contemporary additions to the basic beverage include milk, honey, piloncillo (see below) cinnamon, vanilla and other sweeteners, such as fruit juice or fruit pulp. There are dozens of ‘recipes’ with additional ingredients as variable in flavor and texture as chiles, epazote, blackberry, plum, mango, coconut, walnut, and cheese. In Colombia eggs are added.

Piloncillo
As an interesting aside, Mexico produces a type of sugar called piloncillo. With its origins in Asia, sugar cane crossed the Mediterranean, landing in the Iberian Peninsula, and from there brought from Spain to the Island of Hispaniola, (modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), by Christopher Columbus; sugar mills and refineries were operating on Hispaniola by 1516.

Piloncillo is commonly found in the produce section. It is brown, cone-shaped unprocessed raw sugarcane. The canes are crushed, the juice extracted and boiled to create a thick syrup which is then poured into molds where it hardens. Currently (and historically), the largest producer of piloncillo in Mexico is San Luis Potosí where it was originally cultivated by the Spaniards, although the states of Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Nayarit, Jalisco, Hidalgo and Colima are also producers.

Pinole
Atole should not be confused with pinole although they rhyme. Pinole is a grain mixture, made predominantly of heirloom blue and purple maize that’s roasted with raw cacao beans, then ground into a fine mixture (yes, cacao is native to Mexico). It’s most commonly combined with milk to form a thick, warm porridge. In addition to cacao it is mixed with a combination of cinnamon, chia seeds, vanilla, or other spices, to make a beverage called pinolillo.

Champurrado
In Mexico, Champurrado is atole with chocolate, although masa (the same dough used for tortillas) is used instead of harina.

Chilate, Arroz, and Horchata
Atole should not be confused with another beverage, chilate, from Costa Chica, Guerrero. This beverage is prepared with cocoa, rice, cinnamon, and sugar, and is served cold. It is not to be confused with chilate in Central American countries such as Guatemala, where its base is corn. Rice, a component of this and other beverages like horchata, arrived after the Spanish conquest. Rice, of Asian origin, arrived in Mexico via the port of Acapulco, Guerrero, shortly after the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in 1565 by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (Spain ruled the Philippines for over 333 years). Approximately forty years later Spanish ships known as the Manila Galleons brought rice to Mexico from the Philippines. Remember, dear readers, the fall of Mexico occurred in 1521.

Mexico does grow some of its own rice for domestic consumption, but the majority is imported from the United States. The popular beverage horchata comes from North Africa which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula with the Moorish conquest of Spain in the eighth century.

Pox
Pox (pronounced “posh”), comes from the Mayan people of the Chiapas Highlands. It is a distilled, but weakly alcoholic beverage whose ingredients include water, sugar cane, corn, piloncillo and wheat bran, as well as a variety of herbs, such as mint, lemon grass, rosemary, and bay leaf, or the pulp of seasonal fruits. It is known for its silky consistency.

In addition to previously mentioned ingredients, anise, orange blossoms, orange leaves, and pineapple can be added to the basic recipe.

Here is a popular recipe for Atole de Piña:

Ingredients
·5 oz masa
11 oz pineapple pulp
·2 cups cubed pineapple

Preparation
·Stir the masa in 4 cups of water. Let stand for 15 minutes, then strain the water and set it aside. In a blender puree the pineapple in 1 ½ cups of water. Strain and set the pineapple water aside.

In a saucepan combine the strained masa water and the pineapple water and set over medium heat. Boil, stirring constantly for 15 minutes or until thickened.
Remove from heat, add the pineapple cubes, and stir for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

What about those pineapples? Not imported by the Spaniards, pineapples most likely originated in the wild in the Paraná–Paraguay River drainages between southern Brazil and Paraguay and are thought to have been domesticated over 6,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence of pineapple use dates back to 1200–800 BCE in Peru and 200 BCE – 700 CE in Mexico, where it was cultivated by the Mayans and the Mexica (Aztecs) By the late 1400s, pineapples were a staple food of indigenous populations throughout Mesoamerica.

Atole in Religious Ritual.
Atole is considered indispensable in many religious events and Catholic ceremonies, including baptisms, first communion, wakes, patron saint celebrations, and posadas (see EYE archives December 2014 for a good description of a posada:
https://theeyehuatulco.com/2014/12/01/christmas-in-mexico-city-how-to-celebrate-it-like-a-chilango). In many indigenous communities it is an offering in prayer for a good corn harvest or one of thanks following a good one. Of course, corn, a staple and essential component of Mexican diets, has been worshiped for thousands of years, and atole is its liquid manifestation (see EYE archives for multiple articles on corn).

Today, the types of flavors that accompany atole are varied and regional, but it remains an original Mexican concoction.

Uncategorized

Editor’s Letter

Leave a comment

By Jane Bauer

“Sugary drinks are blamed for increasing the rates of chronic disease and obesity in America. Yet efforts to reduce their consumption through taxes or other measures have gone nowhere. The beverage industry has spent millions defeating them.” Robert Reich

The ritual of beverages: morning coffee, glass of wine with dinner, champagne for celebrations, hot chocolate for first snowfalls and a lime margarita once your toes hit the sand as you embark on a holiday. Most of us are quite committed to the ritual of our drinking habits, whether it is a ‘grande non-fat chai latte’ from Starbucks at the airport or your favorite brand of beer when watching your favorite sports team.

In this issue our writers explore beverages. Mexican classics such as coffee, chocolate, beer and pulque. I was driving through my village while contemplating what to write about for my editorial when I spotted a six-year old boy I know coming out of the tienda. Barefoot and with a little puppy nipping at his heels, he struggled to hold the 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola he’d just purchased. Ugh how could I have overlooked the most important beverage crisis that Mexico faces.

After the implementation of Nafta on January 1, 1994, Mexico saw a dramatic rise in consumption of sugary beverages and processed foods.

“In addition to dramatically lowering cross-border tariffs, Nafta let billions of dollars in direct foreign investment into Mexico, fueled the growth of American fast food restaurants and convenience stores, and opened the floodgates to cheap corn, meat, high-fructose corn syrup and processed foods” (New York Times, Dec. 11, 2017).

The rise in diabetes and obesity in Mexico was a huge factor before the pandemic, but has never been more paramount than now, given that these conditions make people at much greater risk.

One of the ways that junk food has infiltrated small communities that have traditionally been very self-sufficent – growing corn, fishing, relying on the vegetation found around the village – has been to offer inexpensive non-perishable products and incentives such as free refrigerators and even low-interest loans for expansion.

A new development is stickers on processed foods warning people about high sugar and fat contents. Whether this will lead to a reduction in consumption of such foods has yet to be determined. The state of Oaxaca did implement a law making it illegal to sell junk food to minors. Enforcement is another beast entirely.

“In the rural Oaxacan town of Villa Hidalgo Yalálag, citizens have physically blocked chips and soda delivery trucks from entering since April, saying they don’t want outsiders to bring in the coronavirus or junk food” (NPR ,September 14, 2020).

I don’t know if that is the answer, but I do know we need to start asking the question.

Cheers,

Jane

Uncategorized

Three Colorful Beverages for Cinco de Mayo

Leave a comment

By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken

Ask almost anyone who was born, raised, and lives in Mexico about Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) and they are likely to tell you that it is a minor Mexican holiday celebrating the 1862 victory of the Mexican army over the French troops sent by Napoleon to the city of Puebla. Ask almost anyone who was born, raised, and lives in the U.S. the same question, and they are likely to reply that Cinco de Mayo is a major Mexican holiday celebrated with drinking and eating “Mexican food.”

Last year, at the height of the COVID pandemic, even in our little retirement community, the U.S. celebration of Cinco de Mayo could not be denied. Our residents appeared in their driveways or balconies, all masked and socially distant to hear a roving mariachi band. And since we are in the U.S., there was thunderous applause for the final number, “The Mexican Hat Dance.” But we all yearned for the pre-COVID days, when we could gather in the community social hall for guacamole and chips and a variety of Mexican cervezas (beers). The centerpiece on the serving table in the hall was the presentation of three huge glass containers sparkling with nonalcoholic beverages in the colors of the Mexican flag: red, white and green.

Red, the color of the flag’s vertical stripe the farthest from the flagpole, was represented by agua de jamaica (hibiscus tea). Jamaica is ubiquitous in Mexico and most often served iced, a sweet and tart, most refreshing drink on a hot day. The hibiscus flowers, which are used to brew the tea, can be purchased dried and in plastic bags in most grocery stores in Mexico and in Mexican grocery stores north of the border. But we prefer to help support the vendors who hawk the flowers in parks and beaches in areas in Mexico where the red hibiscus plants are abundant – plus their flowers are usually fresher and more flavorful.

Preparation of jamaica is very simple. Add two cups of the flowers to one quart of cold water in a pot, bring the water to a boil and then immediately reduce the heat to a simmer and after 7 minutes remove the pot from the stove. Allow the tea to steep until cool. Strain the tea through a fine mesh into a glass jar, discard the flowers, and refrigerate this concentrate until ready to use.

Before serving, fill a large glass pitcher with ice cubes and pour the concentrate over the cubes. Add sugar to taste and mix briskly until completely dissolved. Mexicans prefer their jamaica, as many other beverages, very sweet. To achieve this taste, add 1 cup or more of sugar. If you prefer the very tart taste or want to keep diabetes at bay, leave out the sugar completely, or begin with one tablespoon of sugar and add a little more if needed.

Green, the color of the flag’s vertical stripe nearest the flagpole, can be represented by any number of juices or flavored water (agua fresca) prepared with green vegetables. We prefer the cooling taste of pepino (cucumber) with a hint of mint. The easiest method of preparing this drink is to peel 4 cucumbers, slice them, and blend them with 4 cups of water and a few sprigs of mint. But for the deeper green color of the Mexican flag, do not peel the cukes; wash them, slice off and discard the ends, and blend the slices with 3 cups of water and a generous handful of mint leaves with the stems trimmed; then strain and discard the solids before refrigerating. If you don’t mind the grainy texture, do not strain. Cucumber skins are good for one’s health, but we prefer a less thick drink. Serve undiluted cold, or pour over ice in individual glasses with a sprig of mint. Once again, for a truly Mexican taste, add the strained juice of 5 fresh limes and lots of sugar. While the result will be delicious, skipping this step may help you live until next Cinco de Mayo.

The central vertical stripe on the Mexican flag, bearing Mexico’s coat of arms, can best be recreated with a rich, milk-colored beverage called horchata. When we first started traveling around Mexico, we were surprised by how many adults in restaurants seemed to be drinking glasses of milk. We were disabused of this fallacy after standing on line for almost an hour to be seated in the famous restaurant La Chata in Guadalajara. After seeing almost everyone in the restaurant being served large glasses of a white beverage, we asked our server what they were drinking. She smiled, pegging us immediately as foreigners, and brought us two glasses. We instantly became high on this non-alcoholic drink. It was, of course, a sugar high.

The primary ingredients in horchata are white rice, cinnamon sticks, vanilla extract, evaporated milk/regular milk and, of course, sugar. Since the preparation involves hours of soaking, blending and straining, we’ve never made our own. But we’ve purchased the drink in bottles in supermarkets and ordered it in other restaurants. The taste has most often been pleasant but never reached the supreme level of that in La Chata – until we sampled the horchata prepared by our own community chef in California, Paulo Carvalo, on Cinco de Mayo two years ago. An horchata to rival La Chata! We begged our chef for his recipe to include in this article; he graciously provided it.

Chef Paolo’s Traditional Horchata

Ingredients

1 cup rice
2 cinnamon sticks
8 cups water
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup milk
1 cup condensed milk
1 cup evaporated milk
sugar to taste

Instructions

  1. Wash and drain the rice.
  2. Place the rice and cinnamon sticks in a bowl and add 4 cups of water. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
  3. Blend the rice and cinnamon sticks until pureed.
  4. Using a fine strainer, pour the blended mixture into a pitcher.
  5. Stir in the milks, vanilla and another 4 cups of water.
  6. Taste and add sugar or water if needed.
  7. Chill and stir before serving over ice.

Happy Cinco de Mayo – and bottoms up wherever you are!