Green Tea Crispy Rolls

I found these Green Tea Flavored Crispy Rolls from Thailand in one of Stockholm’s asian markets and of course I was tempted to try. Having a generally bad experience with tea flavored products, I prepared for the worst.

These rolls have a vibrant yellow-green color and they are indeed crispy. When it comes to flavor they are very very milky, most likely due to the 50% coconut milk content and the taste is comparable to drinking a sweet matcha latte. Except for the coconut milk, crispy rolls also contain 20% tapioca flour, 15% brown sugar, 9% green tea plus egg and salt – all the good stuff.

By the 5th roll into my exciting venture I started becoming more comfortable with the new, unfamiliar taste and I can say that right then they were not bad at all. Unfortunately, every time I got back to them after a break, they were strange to me anew. To be completely honest, I don’t think I’d buy these again, and stick to the good old green tea chewy candies.

 

Tea Set from Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab

When I saw this, I though “Wow! This must be one of the coolest tea sets I’ve seen thus far!” My first impression of the Dione Tea Set was that it’s something taken out of a dodgy lab, where a crazy scientist prepares his afternoon tea in-between experiments. It looks like a clash between the antique and the futuristic, as if stylized for a movie set in a completely different, fictional reality (like something out of Franklyn). Designed by Vuk Dragovic, this set features two spheric teacups and a pot. Each tea cup consists of two hemispheres separated by a net, that prevents the leaves from entering the hemisphere that you will drink from. Sounds complicated? Well… it is. Here is how to use it.

The teacup is made up of two hemispheres. Between the hemispheres is a thin net which prevents the tea leaves from entering the cup. While the aroma from the tea leaves is mixed with hot water, the cup is covered with the top hemisphere, preventing the aroma from evaporating into the air. After 3 minutes, when the tea leaves have released their flavor, the tea cup is ready to be flipped 180 degrees and the leaves will be separated from the tea.

With this set-up you can prepare the tea in the cups, just for yourself, or in the pot for more people. Dione will requite you to make quite a ritual of your tea-making routine, but it surely does leave quite an impression.

Portable Tea Life

Tea4Two is an electric kettle concept that allows you to prepare tea on-the-go. This portable device comes with two magnetic snap-up cups of different shapes and it features a retractable electric cord. The kettle itself is made from flush form and insulated ceramic polymer and it can serve as a thermos.

The whole idea seems quite interesting at first glance and the design is very clean and appealing, but the only problem is that on-the-go you usually don’t have electric outlets. How often do you go into a store/office/restaurant asking “Hey! can I use your outlet?”. You can of course boil the water at home and carry it with you in the kettle, but then again there are many other thermos options available today that offer better solutions. There is one thing I can think of this design would be very suitable for – people who live on-the-go, like for example students, people who move around a lot. If I was a student I would love to have this as my private kettle – small, portable, easy to use and with good looks.

Genmai Matcha Shaker

Genmai Mtahca, in other words powdered Genmaicha with Matcha in a shaker bottle is an invention of Shizuoka Tea. The content of the powder is graound sencha leaves, roasted rice and matcha and it can be used to prepare hot and cold drinks, but also for baking, as a topping or desert ingredient. This could be revolutionary for true Genmaicha fanatics, as it will add that ‘popcorn tea’ feel to anything you will used it for. The shaker holds 30 grams (1.1 ounces) of powder, which yields in approx. 30 100ml servings.

Ask the T-Man

So, the T-Man is a gadget designed by Jeewon Jung. It’s tea infuser that desperately hangs onto the edges of your cup, while your tea is brewing. By completely ignoring the practical aspects, I think we can say that T-Man is an innovative breath of fresh air and appreciate the wonders of modern design.

Boston the Absolut way

Absolut has decided to give tribute to the city of Boston and launched a new flavor of their vodka last month – Absolut Boston. The vodka is infused with black tea and elderflower and will be available for a limited amount of time.

The company had a great idea with their ad campaign which is an allusion to the historic event, The Boston Tea Party, when Boston officials threw a whole shipment of British taxed tea into the Boston Harbor. If that wasn’t ‘Boston’ enough, the bottle sports a design that is reminiscent of the Fenway Park’s Green Monster.

Absolut will donate $50.000 of the profit to the Charles River Conservancy, as the brand’s ongoing commitment to environmental issues. So this is the flavor of Boston, get your hands on it now, or you’ll regret later.

Beer Flavored Green Tea – No thanks

This, apparently not tasting anything like beer nor tea beverage, is a strange combination of two flavors – namely beer and green tea. The theoretically non-alcoholic (less then 0,5% alcohol content) soda produced by Speed Delivery Co. Ltd, is widely sold in Taiwan, where you can have with for example, your takeaway. Testimonials – disgusting! smells of chemicals! just awful! Makes you wonder…

Nilufer – a tea set inspired by water lilies

This idea for a tea set was created to solve the problem of the spoon sliding into the middle of the saucer every time you pick up the cup. The chrome petals, inspired by ware lilies are there to prevent exactly that, but additionally the petals close around the glass when you put it on them. I find this concept to be somewhat interesting and even graceful, and at the same time useless and over-complicated. Not complicated in the way ‘gee, how am I supposed to use this?’, but more like ‘do I really need all this?’. Cleaning would be more of a problem, but also how many tea drinkers actually have the need for a spoon? The concept adapts the lily look quite well, but perhaps it’s more suitable for a design or teaware exhibition… Designed by Sait Alanyali

Obama in my cup

Every now and then it’s nice and exciting to have something more then the usual swimming in your cup. Thanks to Donkey Products you will have the chance to invite famous politicians to your Tea Parties and share your cup of tea with them – literarily. Lay back and enjoy tea with Angela Merkel, Obama or your favorite member of the British Royal Family. If that wasn’t exciting enough, you could pop a hairy naked guy or a girl in a bikini in there as well.

DemocraTea, RoyalTea and StripTea are available to buy of the Donkey Products site in sets of 5. Enjoy!

A Private Tea Library

We had the chance to review two of the Emeyu teas Organic Jasmine and Organic Pai Mu Tan and they have an overall good quality as wall as great appearance and design. One of the coolest tea gifts I’ve seen so far is the Tea Library, a selection of Emeyu teas that you pick yourself from about 30 different varieties. When you order 4 boxed teas they will be delivered in this “library shelf”. Additionally you can name your library to personalize it. Not only does this gift look fabulous and tasteful, but you also get quality tea inside. The boxes made of hard cardboard and they are very nice. I have one of them at home and although I never kept tea in it, because it’s not all that practical, I think the library would give you more of a reason to keep your teas in it. And of course it makes a great impression.