Playing in the Orchard

Despite the cold and stormy days (hail, thunderstorms and loads of rain) - Spring is here very early if to judge by the wonderful bridal gowns the almond trees are wearing, and the scent of citrus blossoms emanating from my tiny organic orchard. The copious amounts of blossoms on my organic pink grapefruit tree has been quite staggering, so I did not feel one bit guilty thinning them out and experimenting with them.


Naturally, I was curious about using the vegan enfleurage technique on them. I'm afraid the results were not particularly impressive. The flowers seemed to have "cooled down" too much in the solid fats and keep the scent to themselves, releasing only the cool and clean notes rather than opening up and releasing their more honeyed and fruity-sweet notes of methyl anthranilate.

So I kept playing with them, and layered Darjeeling black tea with organic Grapefruit Blossoms. The result here was much better, with the tea allowing them more space to breathe than the fat. I did several charges of the blossom layering. The finished result turned out magnificently springy, astringent and complementary to the floral qualities of the Darjeeling tea.

Last but not least, I tried my hand with resin enfleurage of Boswellia dalizielii. I have to see how this will play once burnt, but the resins definitely absorb the fragrance beautifully.

Roses et Chocolat Tea Blend, Version #4

As I set to finally re-launched the missing blends for my tea collection (Roses et Chocolat and Immortelle l'Amour) I encounter some technical difficulties resulting from shortage of Rose Congou to blend with. I've decided to experiment with blending without that key ingredient. Today I was working with two exceptional black teas I have at my disposal: Darjeeling and Ghorka. While the two are extremely different from the ashy and rose-scented Keemun black tea (which is what Rose Congou is); they possess desirable qualities that inspired me to step up to the challenge.

Darjeeling is considered the "champagne of black teas" and is most favoured by the French, who incorporate it into tea-infused desserts. It has floral qualities, as well as an astringent aftertaste that make it light and refreshing, yet full of depth.

Ghorka is the name of a tea estate in Nepal, that is situated at 1951m on the Himalaya mountains. The particular tea I have was cask-aged in oak barrels where Cabarnet Franc and Merlot wines were previously stored. It has depth and roundness that reminds me of chocolate, and is also reminiscent of baked apples. It has become my mainstay breakfast tea, usually taken with a tad of whole milk.

While the teas are wonderful, it takes just a hint too much of this spice or another, too little or too much rose petals, to bring an imbalance to the blend. The result simply paled in comparison to what I had in mind, the roses were taking over and not in a good way, with the spices giving them a very sharp edge that was unpleasant to me.