14 Chefs From 14 Countries Make Tea

[bright upbeat music]

You are about to see-

14 different chefs-

From 14 different countries-

[All] Make tea.

[bright upbeat music continues]

Tea is from China, the South part of China.

I'm going to make green tea today,

biluochun, which is from my hometown Suzhou.

The direct translation is green snail spring.

It got its name from the shape.

So, when tea masters are roasting the tea,

they will curl the tea leaves up a little bit.

And then the more you see the fuzziness,

the better, because it's more fresh.

We are gonna add water in the tea bowl first.

For green tea, is 175 degree.

And clear glass tea bowls are recommended

because you'll see the tea leaves sink to the bottom.

It's like a show,

and you'll see the tea leaves kinda dance in water.

And make sure you don't cover the tea

when you're steeping it to prevent overheating.

For high quality, fresh tea leaves,

it only takes to 30 seconds for the first steep.

When most of the tea leaves are in the bottom, we can serve.

So, you can make two more steep from these tea leaves,

but you can steep them for a little bit longer

the second and third steep, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Mm.

Really good biluochun is floral,

is a little bit of a nutty, fruity.

It has like a lingering sweetness to it.

Today, I'm gonna be making masala chai.

This is also the tea

that's most commonly made throughout the country.

People start their days with it,

people end their days with it.

I have about three cups of water,

I want it to be ripping hot.

While my water is boiling,

I have a one and a half inch knob of ginger,

so I'm gonna get that crushing in a mortar and pestle.

So, you don't have to make a paste out of it,

but you do want to crush it.

I also have about three pods of cardamom,

which I'm just gonna lightly crush

so that they release the aroma into the water.

You really need to make sure your water's boiling

before you put your ginger inside.

Otherwise, your water is gonna turn bitter.

I have some cinnamon, very small piece,

a few cloves and some black peppercorn.

And you're gonna get your heat down to a medium,

let this boil for about a minute or two.

You can add as many aromats, and as many things as you want.

So, the water's changed its color, as you can see,

it's got this really nice yellowish hue to it.

What I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna go in with my tea.

We use a certain kind, which is called CTC,

which means crush, tear, and curl.

These are tea leaves that are dried,

they're crushed, they're torn, and they're curled.

If you ever look at tea bags,

the tea that you're gonna find inside is usually always CTC.

And you add three teaspoons of sugar.

Let it boil for about three minutes.

You're gonna see it gets really nice and fragrant.

I know the tea's completely infused

'cause it's got a really, really nice dark color.

Get the heat down to a low,

and then I'm gonna add my milk in slowly.

You wanna have a black tea without any milk,

that's also completely an option.

But I really like my tea a little milky.

You let it come to the brim, you turn down the heat.

You let it come to a boil again,

you turn down the heat again.

It's just way of making sure

that the tea leaves completely infuse in the milk.

Smells exactly how my house used to smell

early in the morning.

To anyone watching this,

they know the significance of the cup.

All the tea stalls will always serve tea in this.

And I'm gonna hold it right here

'cause it's too hot to hold at the base.

It's milky, I taste the tea, it's the perfect sweetness.

I feel the warmth of the ginger at the back of my throat,

so comforting and just pure nostalgia.

Today, I'm gonna teach you guys

and talk a little bit about chimarrão.

It's a tea made from yerba mate.

Very traditional in Brazil.

Started with the indigenous people

before the Europeans arrived in Brazil.

They used to chew on this herb.

Eventually, they start drinking it

before they go out for hunting at night.

When you're going to work in the field,

you're always carrying your yerba mate with your hot water.

This is the cuia, the traditional cup that we use.

It's made out of the porongo, it's a fruit.

And after carved and dry, we call it cuia.

It come with this like metal straw.

Please don't call it straw, we call it bomba.

And this, it's where you keep your yerba mate.

That is pieces of the wood,

and also it's like very fine grounded.

This is a really good quality one.

You see like how green it is.

I grab a yerba mate, and I don't fill it.

I put it like two thirds of the cuia.

And then, why do I have this?

I need a place to put my bomba.

So, flip it, I shake it.

Then I'm gonna have the space on the other side

so I can put my straw on it.

And I'm gonna press so I can add my water to it

and it won't fall apart.

The water has to be between 70 and 75 Celsius

so it doesn't burn the herb.

And I'm gonna fill on the side, otherwise it's gonna fall

and I have to do it all over again.

Once you add the water,

the tea has to absorb and infuse in a little bit.

I need to close this part of the straw

so the water doesn't come inside of it.

Flip it a little bit.

And now I need to wait at least like two minutes

and then I'm gonna sip it.

Mm.

It's, for sure, it's stronger than a cold brew. [chuckles]

Back home in Britain, there is no problem too large

that can't be solved by a good cup of tea.

These guys are are kind of fancy.

They're in a nice little cotton pouch.

You can also buy the tea that comes in bags of like 100.

My personal favorite is Yorkshire Gold or Yorkshire Tea.

You do one tea bag per person,

and you do an extra bag for the pot.

So, we're going to,

we're gonna fill it up with some fresh hot water.

It needs three, four minutes.

If you're drinking tea out of a teapot,

traditionally, in my house, at least,

the milk goes into the cup first.

It's quite a point of contention which goes first,

the milk or the tea.

Pretty much all teas in Britain,

you're gonna drink with milk.

You can add sugar if you want, super simple.

I've done it here with some kind of posh snacks.

You'll always have some kind of thing,

treat, snack to eat with it,

whether you're eating cookies or chocolate biscuits.

So, cheers.

Yeah, it's a good brew.

Zobo is a hibiscus tea.

It's always hot in Nigeria, very warm weather.

So, this is the number one go-to iced beverage

that you can have.

It's tardy, it's sweet, it's whatever you wanna make it.

It's very versatile.

So, we're just gonna take some fresh zobo leaves,

we get it from the North of Nigeria,

and add that to some boiling hot water.

This is pre-blended ginger.

Then we are gonna add just a little bit of cloves

to give it that aromatic taste.

And then lastly, we add pineapple rind

'cause it gives it that extra tart on the edge flavor.

Some people add lemon,

but I just like to use the whole pineapple.

Now, we have our blended pineapple.

Some people add the fruits after it's chilled,

but I like to cook mine down.

So, now I'm gonna add some sugar,

and we're gonna let this dissolve in there.

For this quantity,

you would want this to cook for about 45 minutes to an hour

and just keep adding water and water.

The longer, the better actually

because you're extracting more of the concentrate

from the leaves.

Okay, so it's cooked long enough,

and now it's time to sieve it and let it rest to cool.

You can serve it hot, chilled, frozen.

I like to drink it cold with some ice,

add a little mint, some cucumber on top of that, you know?

Look at how beautiful that color is.

Cheers.

Mm.

I can taste the cloves, the spice from the ginger,

the fruitiness from the pineapples.

Like it is so, oh I'm blushing.

It is really refreshing, mm.

Clock it.

[laughing]

So, today, we making bush tea,

a big thing in Trinidad, this one is more medicinal.

They not going joke in the Caribbean

as tea fixes everything, right?

So, if you have a headache,

your grandparents will prescribe tea.

So, we drink this all the time.

We start with the garlic, smash it,

a couple pieces of ginger.

Bay leaves, not too much,

'cause bay leaf could be overpowering.

Fever grass, this is called lemongrass here,

but we know it as fever grass.

So, you just break it just to kind of get the oils out.

Some fresh mint.

Wheeler or stick, just break it up and add in here.

We have cilantro,

we have culantro, which is the chadon beni.

And you just wait for it to boil, and then you take it off.

I'll then it steam for a few minutes.

All right, [speaking indistinctly]

So, it looks like it's ready, you see the color, the change.

So, now you have to drink it piping hot,

so it's supposed to almost burn your lips.

Another thing, this cup, in the normal cup,

you can't drink bush tea in anything else.

I don't know why, that's just how I was taught.

So, this one, the first one, that's the traditional way,

that's the way the grown up drink it.

You add some sugar, preferably brown sugar.

And this, at least when I was a kid,

they would add some condensed milk.

This used to just make it more palatable for the kids,

almost like a chai.

So, this is two versions of Trinidadian bush tea.

Just as I remembered it.

This is supposed to feel like a warm hug.

Also, when you drink this,

you're supposed to, you're gonna burp.

And that's when they elders said it's working,

whatever it's working for.

So, the next time you have a headache,

you should try some bush tea.

So, today, we are making Algerian mint tea.

It's like a super casual tea after dinner.

Some people do drink it in the morning,

but it's mostly in the afternoon during Ramadan,

especially late nights

so it keep us awake so we can fast later.

So, we are using this beautiful copper cup

that is very difficult to find.

In Algeria, they can do it over top on the barbecue,

in the Sahara on the sand,

and they're very solid for the the fire.

So, the blend that I'm using it is just dry mint tea,

and green tea from Algeria, and two tablespoon of sugar.

You wanna put the sugar with the water

so it helps the sugar to melt.

And usually, they like to make it

like most on the sweet side.

I don't like when it's too sweet.

Once it starts steaming out, your tea will be ready.

Turn it off now, and I'm going to add the fresh mint

because I like it super strong.

And then you're gonna let us sit for a few minutes

to have the flavor being like all together.

I brought this special glass, heritage from my mom.

Because the sugar is in it,

push up arms up and down and pull it back.

It help the tea to mix.

And once it's, all the bubbles are fully full,

it means that the tea is ready to go.

So, you usually have like some Arabic songs,

you know, with the vibe, dancing. [chuckles]

And I love drinking tea

with Algerian crepe called the Baghrirthe.

The move. [chuckles]

The tea is amazing, it's really good.

Very strong the way I like it, and it's not too sugary.

Today, I'm making Agua de Jamaica, hibiscus tea.

To do, [speaks in foreign language] pot

because that's how my grandma used to do it.

So, we're gonna do some water, piloncillo, raw sugar,

and then hibiscus flour.

Tastes like cranberry, and it's very aromatic,

and it's very refreshing.

A little bit of ginger because ginger helps digest.

We use this as a medicine.

My mom and grandma used to make me this

when I used to eat too much. [chuckles]

And then cinnamon as the aroma of comfortness.

See, I feel good now.

Bay leaves, another aroma.

And oranges,

it needs to add some acidity and another type of sweetness.

Now, I'm just gonna simmer this for 10, 15 minutes.

It's been boiling for 15 minutes already.

Strain it over here.

Smells like home, like grandma's here.

That looks phenomenal.

And then we're gonna finish it with a little bit of lemon.

and there you have it, my hibiscus tea.

Salute.

It's tart, it's lemony, it's sweet, so delicious.

Today, I make apple schnapps tea,

and it's apple black tea with schnapps and other spices.

It's a very common thing in Austria.

You go skiing, you come back frozen,

and that's really makes it nice and cozy.

Let's start with the tea.

Hot boiling water,

and then we have here the apple skin dried out.

After the war, there was not a lot

and they used really everything.

Two cinnamon sticks in there, and the star anise.

If you wanna have your little caffeine,

you can put in a little bit black tea also.

Let it soak a little bit,

it will give you just another undertone of flavor.

And now we let it steep 10, 15 minutes,

and you will have all the flavor there.

Check in here.

Oh yeah, the apples is soaked in here.

I'm gonna pour it right into my cup.

We do need a little bit sweetness.

Here, we have just simple syrup.

As a kid we had this, we can drink it anytime we want.

Grownups, they had a little spike with a good schnapps.

Because as soon as it get hot,

that quality of the schnapps will get better.

Or if you have not a good schnapps, it will get worse.

For this one, I had the perfect cup,

is the naughty cup, that's what I use.

It's really good, and it calms me down.

So, today, I'm gonna make Trà đá,

very iconic tea drinks in Vietnam.

But my favorite drink whenever I go back to Vietnam

is [speaking in foreign language] with young coconut meat.

In Vietnam, you will see Thái Nguyên green teas a lot.

Today, I bring in [speaking in foreign language]

Thái Nguyên [speaking in foreign language]

They particularly pick only one tea leave

and the bud on top.

After they harvest everything, they will put in ovens.

One of the things

that different between this kind of tea and mass production,

the farmer use wood fire.

So, the process, it will take a lot longer.

It will develop different layers of flavors.

I will just pour the water in through here.

The temperature is 185 Fahrenheit,

brew it for only two minutes.

You will see the color is lighter.

I just show you the simple version of tea,

and now I'm gonna show you my favorite version

of [speaking in foreign language]

So, first, we are gonna crack the coconut

for the coconut juice in here.

So, with this particular tea,

you want the coconut meat not too old.

It's a lot more tender, you can pour tea in here.

And I will add calamansi.

Out of all the citrus fruit, this is one of my favorite.

It's not overwhelming, and it just balance everything out.

It have very beautiful floral flavor and smell to the dish.

I love to eat the skin too,

it add more flora to the drink.

And add ice.

And then we also pickle dracontomelon, super sour.

But we have been pickle it for three months,

and it turn really nice flavor.

And if you want, you can just add a little bit juice.

It's good, nothing can beat it in hot weather in Vietnam.

So, today we're making aromaticas.

Aromatica doesn't have any specific list of ingredients.

It's more about the technique

of brewing different fruits and herbs and spices.

Aromaticas are usually buy-ed on the streets.

You will see like a big pot boiling, boiling, boiling.

So, we have water boiling.

I'm gonna start putting our panela,

sugar cane juice that has been reduced and shaped.

Is also called piloncillo.

For my own version of my a aromatica,

I will add some hibiscus flowers, some cinnamon.

So, we are going to add some ginger as well,

and then I'm gonna add some red apples.

And now I'm gonna add some citruses,

oranges, lemon, and some delicious blood oranges.

I will add any delicious thing

that I think that will go really nice

and also how beautiful it is.

It is already done, it's already brew.

For this recipe, I'm gonna put some strawberries,

blackberries, and some raspberries.

Just look how beautiful this color is.

So, now we're gonna add some of like lime juice.

Mm, so yummy.

It is sweet, for sure.

But I know it's not the sweet

of like something that is being added like a lot of sugar,

is more about the sweet of the fruits.

It feels super warm, reminds me home, for sure.

So, today, we're making hojicha.

It is everyday drinking tea in Japan.

It's made with the same leaves as green tea,

but it is roasted.

And it brings out a sort of nutty,

almost sweet quality similar to chocolate.

Right now, I have tablespoon and a half of tea leaves,

and we'll be pouring in about two and a half cups of water.

The ideal temperature is 80 degrees Celsius.

I'm gonna let this steep about a minute and a half.

The color has turned a really nice rich brown.

It's really beautiful.

This is a great mellow wine-down tea.

Today, we are making some Thai tea.

You can find Thai tea anywhere on the street,

but most famous in southern part of Thailand.

People would think about making tea, you need like tea leaf,

but Thai tea has a little bit different way to do it.

This is the Thai tea powder.

So, you know, the way they roasted them,

they keep stir into its powder,

and it's break out more flavor from the tea leaf.

And now, we're gonna add hot water into it.

You can see the coloring come out right away.

We will stir a little bit,

and then we will leave it five minutes.

All right, so now, I think our tea is ready.

So, we are going to separate the tea leaf

using this tea bag.

The amount of sugar

is really dependent on how sweet you like it.

Transfer the tea into two craft back and forth,

to create some air

and you will get even stronger aroma from the tea.

This is what we call the pineapple bowl.

You can see the shape of the bowl look like pineapple,

and the print to make Thai tea even more fun.

You'd like it to be lemony,

you can squeeze some lemon juice into it.

But I would like it creamy way,

so now I will use evaporated milk into it.

Ooh, now the color has changed again.

So beautiful.

Oh my god, so good.

Thai tea is just for people who like to have fun.

Today, we'll be making Southern style sweet tea

with a little bit of lemon.

I've started but bringing a gallon of water to boil.

But you don't want to add the tea bags when it's boiling.

I'm gonna take orange Pekoe tea,

which is my favorite strand of black tea.

We're gonna start by dunking our tea bags

so they get nice and saturated.

Then for funsies, I go once around.

And now we're gonna let this sit and brew

for at least 10 minutes.

So, we've steeped the tea for about 20 minutes,

and it's cooled down to a nice Hannibal texture.

Give them a nice little squeeze.

Next up, is gonna be whisking in a ton of sugar.

You should make sure the tea is still warm enough

to dissolve by the sugar.

For one gallon of tea,

I'm using two and a half cups of sugar.

And yes, you heard that correctly.

And you wanna make sure you're whisking,

moving the tea around

to make sure all of the sugar gets dissolved.

I'm gonna let this cool to about room temperatures

so when we pour it over ice, we don't dilute the tea.

A few slices of lemon in there.

Mm, right back home to Virginia.

Yeah, just as I remembered it.

Give it to grandma, give it to grandpa.

They'll enjoy this.

I'm thinking about my grandma right now.

Hold on.

[singing in foreign language]

That's the 3 Pick song, you know that song, no?

[bright music]