Pump Up that Thanksgiving Dessert Table—with Tea
We swoon over the spectacle of an entire turkey, bronzed and broadcasting perfume and resting in the center of a table. We thrill to the porcelain serving vessels holding mounds of mashed potatoes, pools of gravy, hillocks of stuffing and promontories of cranberry relish.
And then there’s the archipelago of desserts—talk about stirring!
From pumpkin and pecan pies to apple crisp and carrot cake, we find the dessert piece of the Thanksgiving puzzle an American treasure. The flavors align with the feast itself, and like the meal they also tend to reflect the season—autumn. Do we eat pumpkin pie any other time of the year?
For this turkey day, think about adding a dessert to the lineup that includes an assist from tea. Our favorite beverage and its kaleidoscopic range of flavors offers a huge variety of options for taking that pie to another level.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends! We hope you all enjoy a heart-rich, convivial Thanksgiving—one flooded with gratitude and hope.
Thanksgiving Tea Recipes: Bombay Chai Spiced Pumpkin Pie
We carry a broad diversity of chais, and adore them all. Chai is not a set thing—it’s more an idea than a specific tea. It invites a dizzying array of potential blend recipes, incorporating myriad different ingredients. We think this simple classic, our Bombay Chai, captures the essence of chai: black tea, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and anise seed. This tidy list of ingredients packs a wallop—it’s pure baking spices. And that’s precisely what you want with pumpkin pie. To craft this tea, infuse the dairy—the heavy cream and possibly milk—that you are using for the pumpkin pie filling with our Bombay Chai. To infuse it, just heat the dairy until it’s shy of a simmer and add some whole-leaf chai to the hot liquid—about a tablespoon for two cup. Let it steep for about five minutes, and taste. If it needs more spice flavor, and isn’t bitter from the black tea, let it steep longer. Keep tasting until it reaches the flavor you desire. Then strain the dairy and use it in whatever pumpkin pie recipe you are following.
Thanksgiving Tea Recipes: China Rose Black Tea and Cranberry Tart
Tarts, like pies, represent another Thanksgiving classic dessert. And cranberries, of course, always find a place on the Thanksgiving table. For this preparation, first brew a few teaspoons of our China Rose black tea in about a cup of hot water. Taste after five minutes. If it needs more rose flavor, steep for a bit longer. Once the tea is brewed, then gently simmer cranberries that you’ll use in your tart recipe in the tea. Both the black tea and rose petals will add depth of flavor to the dessert. If you like, you can also add some of the tea to the recipe.
Thanksgiving Tea Recipes: Jasmine Oolong Tea and Coconut Cream Cheesecake
Over the years, cheesecake has emerged as a new Thanksgiving table favorite, and the iterations often revolve around pumpkin. We love a creamy pumpkin cheesecake. But we also appreciate cheesecake innovation—with its deep richness from the cream cheese, cheesecake can balance well with many other flavors. In other words, it serves as a grand base. For this version of cheesecake, we replace a common cheesecake ingredient—sour cream, or heavy cream—with coconut cream. This adds a nutty touch to the dish. Then we dazzle the dish with lovely whispers of jasmine and oolong from our Jasmine Oolong tea. These floral, honeyed and toasted touches, when combined with the fat nuttiness of coconut cream, can yield a magnificent cheesecake. To make it, steep some of our spectacular Jasmine Oolong tea in the coconut cream, which has been heated until it’s just shy of a hard simmer. Two teaspoons of tea would be about right for a cup of coconut cream. Taste after 5 minutes. If it needs more time for the flavor to blossom, keep steeping the tea. When it tastes just right, strain the coconut cream and use it in the cheesecake recipe instead of sour cream or heavy cream.
