Picture the feeling of being a kid in an ice cream shop. The excitement of getting that sweet, creamy dessert along with the anxious race to devour it before the cold treat melts, much to your parents amusement, all over your face, hands and the majority of the surrounding area. Now hold onto that feeling, and trade me your cone, for a giant ceramic mug. Let go of something cold, and let me pour you something piping hot. Trust me, you still get that ice cream taste, but this time, you get to devour an elegant twist on a classic delight.
In 2009 Steven Smith and his partner Kim DeMent-Smith founded Smith Teamaker in Portland, which now offers more than 25 flavors of unique blends of tea, using GMO-free ingredients sourced from all over the world. Oolong Ice Cream is part of their limited edition Maker’s Series. Tony Tellin, who has an impressive history of working close with the well-known Tazo, is now the head teamaster at Smith and works with different guests, chefs and mixologists to create innovate and expertly unique collaborations to add to the already impressive lineup of Smith teas. This particular flavor, the first in the Maker’s Series, was made in collaboration between Tellin and Tyler Malek of Salt and Straw, a specialty ice cream shop in Portland. Together the tea and the ice cream maker were able to create a delicate, velvety mix that comes to you in a charming keep-sake box, hand-signed by the collaborators and marked with the limited edition number (of only 200 boxes made), and finally sealed close with the tie of a string.
The folks over at Smith recommend their green and white teas be steeped for about three minutes. Oolong Ice Cream appears creamy, green and dreamy. The candied vanilla sugar hits the nose first, a crystalized sugar and vanilla candy that’s broken down into flakes before it’s blended into the tea mixture. At first taste, the sugar candy is met by the Madagascar vanilla bean, its darkly sweet, rich scent balancing out the light and herbal flavor of the Japanese white jasmine blossoms. The creamy oolong from Taiwan creates the smooth-as-butter texture of the tea, accented further by the white creaminess of the Marcona almonds. As the tea hits the back of the throat, the flavor of the Indian sarsaparilla root emerges, with an extra little creamy zip of vanilla. The Oregon sea salt acts as that final dash of spice to a well-mastered dish, and effortlessly ties all of the ingredients together.
