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Persian Tea


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Elizabeth: If you can't find anything on this web site, ask Najmieh Batmanglij directly since she lives around here: http://www.najmiehskitchen.com/index.html

The floral accents may be bergamot if not orange. Try combining equal portions of Early Gray & darjeeling to approximate. Then sip slowly while holding a sugar cube tightly between your teeth.

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Najmieh Batmanglij was at the Dupont Circle market this morning, so I spoke to her about Persian tea.

It is a fermented black tea, sold simply as the leaf with nothing added.

However, the host serving the tea is responsible for flavoring it, usually with orange blossom water or rosewater.

After British colonialization of India and cross-cultural influences, milk and other non-traditional flavors were mixed into the brewed tea.

One of the best sources she recommended in person are not on her web site: Yekta in Rockville. Cf. link above for Assal in Vienna, too.

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Najmieh Batmanglij was at the Dupont Circle market this morning, so I spoke to her about Persian tea.

Thanks for doing the research! I rather suspected that the flavor is a characteristic of the leaf rather than something added. Definitely not bergamot or cardamom. Yekta, eh? Guess I'll have to plan on a lunch at Joe's soon. :blink:

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Today we went to Joe's Noodle and then Yekta. They sell several varieties of tea with bergamot, including Earl Grey, and one variety with cardamom but no flavored tea calling itself "Persian."

Oddly, for a Saturday afternoon, both Joe's Noodle and Yekta were almost entirely empty of customers.

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Once again the intrepid members of donrockwell.com come to the rescue! I was finally able to get to Yekta today. Almost every tea they sell is Ceylon, with or without bergamot or cardamom flavor. I purchased a 500 gr bag marked "Top Tea / A Golden Product / World's highest quality tea, with the best taste, colour and aroma. Product of India"

I can't say if this tea has bergamot or not. If it does, it tastes different from Earl Grey, which I might need to buy for a side by side comparison. But regardless, this is the stuff I've been looking for. Still, I wish I knew what kind of leaf it is.

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