I had a new experience at lunch today. I thought you fine gentlemen would appreciate hearing about it. There's a good Arabic restaurant in Traverse City, MI that I've been frequenting for the past couple of year called Zackey's. Today I was offered a pot of Arabic tea as I'd never had it before and it was described as their most popular menu item by far. I was intrigued, so naturally I accepted the offer and my overall impression was that the taste was fairly... amazing.
I tried to gather as much information as possible, but of course the tea infusion is 'proprietary' information, hand-mixed by the chef/owner. The waitress was happy to tell me what she new about it (as they prepare it along with the chef's "mix") but I only have the basic information.
I think they start with a base of your Lipton black tea or something (I forgot to clarify that specific part, sorry... that's not too important is it...
)
Then they add to that his "special mix" along with sugar (it's quite sweet), mint leaves and rose water.
You may think that this isn't enough information to go on, but actually, the dominant flavors to me really were the basic tea flavor along with the strong sweetness balanced by the mint and a nice rose scent. The tertiary flavors were complex and light. I figure everyone could sort of come-up with their own house-blend and it would more or less taste similar. A good starting place would probably be traditional Arabic spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves perhaps (although I'm fairly certain their were NO cloves in this blend).
I'm not too overly familiar with this style of cooking, so I'm sure that many of you could suggest better alternatives, but I wanted to start this little thread to see if anyone else had ever enjoyed such a concoction.
I tried to gather as much information as possible, but of course the tea infusion is 'proprietary' information, hand-mixed by the chef/owner. The waitress was happy to tell me what she new about it (as they prepare it along with the chef's "mix") but I only have the basic information.
I think they start with a base of your Lipton black tea or something (I forgot to clarify that specific part, sorry... that's not too important is it...
)Then they add to that his "special mix" along with sugar (it's quite sweet), mint leaves and rose water.
You may think that this isn't enough information to go on, but actually, the dominant flavors to me really were the basic tea flavor along with the strong sweetness balanced by the mint and a nice rose scent. The tertiary flavors were complex and light. I figure everyone could sort of come-up with their own house-blend and it would more or less taste similar. A good starting place would probably be traditional Arabic spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves perhaps (although I'm fairly certain their were NO cloves in this blend).
I'm not too overly familiar with this style of cooking, so I'm sure that many of you could suggest better alternatives, but I wanted to start this little thread to see if anyone else had ever enjoyed such a concoction.
