Tea: Rhubarb Oolong
From: TeaSource
Where: Bob’s Java Hut
Back at Bob’s. Again. I’ve been tempted back with a new tea to try: a rhubarb oolong. I know what you’re thinking. “Rhubarb? To drink? Wha…what?” The oolong is blended with dried rhubarb and upon steeping gets a “distinctive fruity-rhubarb tang,” according to the TeaSource website. Of course, rhubarb isn’t for everyone. In the US it’s that strange red celery stalk-like thing that gets put into pies with strawberries. It’s combination with tea isn’t unusual from a traditional perspective, though. In China rhubarb has been used medicinally since at least 2700 BC.
I admit, I’m not a fan of rhubarb. For me, the oolong used in the tea is very subtle and delicate; it doesn’t seem to be there very much at all, and it’s much closer to a green tea than a black. The rhubarb flavor comes out pretty strong in this tea – the first few sips feel like a tart shock to the palate. I’m halfway through a very large cup of it, and my taste buds seem to have become inured to the shock finally. I’m drinking this hot. I think serving it iced would help mellow this out a little more.
But why even flavor a tea in the first place? Flavoring teas isn’t a new 21st Century trend. For example, tea has grown naturally in India for thousands of years. However the native tea plant has bitter flavored leaves that don’t make for a pleasant drink. When it was discovered that the tea leaves could be used medicinally they were flavored with spices (clove, cardamon, ginger, etc) to make them more palatable. The bergamot flavor of Earl Grey tea was probably first added in the 1830s to some China black tea. Although no one knows for sure (and Jackson’s of Picadilly sure isn’t telling), adding the oil to the tea leaves could have been an easy way of covering up a poor shipment or just standing out from the rest of the market and charging a bit of a premium price.
Covering up poor tasting tea isn’t as much of a concern today as it was thousands of (or perhaps just a hundred) years ago. It seems every kind of tea has a range of complementary fruits, spices, or essential oils to add to it. And I do love some flavored teas myself (I’m partial to anything citrus). It seems that flavoring tea (especially in the US) is done often to catch new tea drinkers or help convert them from bitter, oversteeped supermarket tea bags. If you’re buying your first box of tea and don’t know what to get, wouldn’t you be more likely to pick something with a favorite flavor to begin with?
I do know some who are tea purists but take the time to craft exceptional flavored blends that live up to the quality of tea they’re selling. And then there are those to rail against any sort of flavored tea as a modern trend that just ruins the flavor and tradition of tea. Either way, choosing a flavored tea should be done because it’s something you enjoy and appreciate. Whatever it tastes like, it should be a moment out of your day when you can relax and just concentrate on something a little slower for a while.
Now, are you really going to add some milk and sugar to that?
