A HARTE APPETITE: TIME FOR TEA; THE LEAVES CAN BE USED FOR MORE THAN MAKING DRINKS

Recently the British Tea Council enlisted a panel of tea lovers to travel incognito aboard more than 30 of the world's major airlines. After being tutored in the methods of professional tea tasting, the panel members logged in over 300,000 miles on air routes all over the world, assessing in-flight tea service along the way. The results revealed that British airlines serve a better cup of tea than their foreign counterparts.

Even if we grant the objectivity of the researchers, this conclusion comes as no surprise. Everyone knows the British take their tea seriously. During World War II, for example, though food was severely rationed in Britain, the government took pains to insure that tea remained widely available and, in an effort to keep morale high, dispersed tea stocks to some 500 different locations around the country to reduce the likelihood of air-raid damage.

But though the British appreciate tea, they're actually latecomers when it comes to recognizing the pleasures of the beverage. Tea's refreshing properties were first discovered, according to Chinese mythology, nearly 5,000 years ago when Shen Nung, a Chinese Emperor, noted that a dried leaf from a wild tea plant had inadvertently blown into a vat of water his servants were boiling for drinking. Out of scientific curiosity, the emperor tried the brew and the rest, as they say, is history. Indian and Japanese legends, on the other hand, attribute the discovery of tea to Bodhi Dharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, who after five years of sleepless meditation plucked a few leaves from a tea plant and chewed them to combat drowsiness. Whatever the case, as early as the Tang Dynasty tea was the national drink of China and in 780 A.D. the first book on tea, by Chinese author Lu Yu, was published.

For hundreds of years thereafter Europeans were largely ignorant of tea and its uses. One early reference, for example, suggested boiling the leaves, seasoning them with salt and butter and eating them! But inevitably European explorers encountered tea and brought it back home. Father Jasper de Cruz, a Jesuit priest from Portugal, is believed to have been the first European to taste tea, somewhere around 1560, while on a mission to China. The East India Trading Company formally introduced tea to England in the early 1600s, and before long it supplanted ale as the national drink. The first recorded reference to adding milk came in 1680.

In the early 1800s, while spending the summer at Belvoir Castle, Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, invented that most civilized of customs, afternoon tea. "There are few hours in life more agreeable," said Henry James. Previously, the English had made do with only two main meals, breakfast and dinner. Before long, afternoon tea evolved into "high" tea, the main meal in working and farming communities. Paradoxically, high tea is not really a fancy tea. It's really supper with real food, served on a "high" dining room table. Lending to the confusion, "low" tea is the elegant tea with fancy sandwiches and sweets like you'll find at London's Ritz hotel. (For the record, though the Ritz may have England's most famous tea, after spending several months in London awhile back I came away convinced that despite its reputation among tourists, it is not necessarily Britain's best. Actually, the perfect British afternoon tea, in my judgment, is the one served on the veranda of the old Moana Hotel on Waikiki Beach.) By the way, the popularity of tea spurred demand for teacups with handles, not the handleless variety imported from China, and gave rise to the world famous English pottery industry. Afternoon tea was also responsible for the custom of tipping, which began in the outdoor tea gardens of England.

Though tea was first introduced to America in the 17th century by Peter Stuyvesant, it's never been quite as popular here as in England, most likely because of the intervention of the Revolution during which the colonists resolved not to drink English tea, which was our main supply. (Even today, most tea consumed in America is imported, a little plantation in South Carolina being the only place in this country where it is grown.) America has, however, done its share to promote the enjoyment of tea, having invented both iced tea and the tea bag. But by contrast to the United Kingdom and Ireland, where per-capita consumption of tea is the highest in the world (the Irish drink the most), the average American only consumes half a cup per day.

But that may be changing. As Time Magazine reports, since 1990 tea sales in this country have more than doubled and now constitute a $4 billion dollars a year. Some tea connoisseurs willingly pay $100 or more for a small bag of gourmet tea like Taiwanese Bao Jong, and trendy restaurants are engaging the services of tea sommeliers who claim that variations in the taste and quality of tea are every bit as complex as those associated with fine wine. Even Starbucks is now promoting the beverage. Clearly, a Boston Tea Party now takes on an entirely different atmosphere than it did in 1773.

Part of the reason for this new found interest in tea may be due to health concerns. Tea generally has only about half the caffeine of coffee, and there is increasing evidence that it may help prevent cancer and heart disease. Laboratory studies suggest that drinking four cups of tea per day can reduce the risk of atherosclerosis by nearly 70 percent and that green tea may inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors, especially in women, by anywhere from 20 to 50 percent.

But more than likely, tea is popular not because it might be good medicine, its original use, but simply because it tastes good. This fact has helped make tea the world's most frequently consumed beverage after water, and it is beginning to be rediscovered here in the United States. Americans have become interested in pairing teas with foods that bring out the best in both, and the most sophisticated drinkers may well drink two or three different teas at the same meal.

The latest trend involves cooking with tea in an attempt to infuse food with its unique flavors. Thus, trendy restaurants around the country now feature dishes such as duck with tea and cassis sauce, tea-smoked salmon or chicken, green tea sorbet and Earl Grey brownies. Perhaps the apotheosis of this trend is one of my favorite dining spots, Restaurant T in the basement of the SoHo branch of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, where just about everything on the menu is made with tea. (Someday I really must go upstairs and check out the artwork.)

Typically, chefs cook with tea by brewing it and using the liquid, discarding the tea leaves themselves whose texture is not really suited to eating. But herbal teas can be added directly to a recipe as a form of seasoning because, in point of fact, they contain no true tea leaves but only herbs and spices. The contents of a few lemon herbal teabags, for example, can really intensify a recipe for lemon bars or cheesecake. If you stop and think about it, using tea as an ingredient makes every bit as much sense as using wine, beer, or coffee. No wonder the Celestial Seasonings Tea Company has even published an entire book of recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts cooked with tea.

Fourteen thousands cups of tea, what the Chinese call the elixir of immortality, are drunk every second, but as the following recipes will help you discover, it's a shame to confine tea just to drinking. Try them and see if you don't agree that these are recipes literally steeped with flavor.

Orange Tea Chicken

This recipe, inspired by one in Jennifer and Mo Siegel's book, Cooking With Tea, would work well with any orange flavored tea, such as Celestial Seasonings' Mandarin Orange Spice or Bigelow's Constant Comment.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

4 boneless chicken breasts, halved

4 tablespoons butter

3 and 1/2 cups water

4 orange-flavored tea bags

2 teaspoons sherry

3/4 cup orange marmalade

Directions:

Brew tea in water, letting steep for at least 5 minutes. Remove bags, squeezing out liquid. Combine flour, garlic powder and pepper and coat breasts lightly with mixture. Brown breasts in butter over medium heat. Add marmalade to tea and pour over breasts. Simmer 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.

Earl Grey Chocolate Pie

Earl Charles Grey was prime minister of England during the reign of William IV. The tea named after him, the second most popular in the world, is flavored with bergamot oil, from a small acidic orange, making it an excellent companion to chocolate. Try topping this pie with whipped cream which has been infused with the tea. The recipe is modified from one in the Lipton collection.

Ingredients:

1 pie shell, unbaked

2 cups half-and-half

2 tablespoons sugar

6 bags Earl Grey tea

3/4 cup chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Combine half-and-half and sugar and bring to the boiling point. Add tea bags and brew for 10 minutes. Remove bags, squeezing out liquid. Add chocolate chips and stir over low heat until melted. Let cool. Blend eggs, yolks and vanilla and whisk into chocolate mixture. Pour into crust and bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until set. Cool 30 minutes before serving.

Lemon Blossom Mashed Potatoes

This recipe, from the Stash Tea Company of Oregon, uses both brewed and raw tea to give mashed potatoes an extra kick.

Ingredients:

3 pounds potatoes

6 lemon herb tea bags

1 tablespoon garlic, finely sliced

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Peel and cube potatoes and put in large pan with 4 teabags and garlic. Cover with water and boil until tender. Drain, add butter, milk and contents of remaining two teabags and blend until smooth.

A Harte Appetite is now on the air. Listen every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following "Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Send suggestions for this column to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63702 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.