Bird of Paradise. Matcha and Black Tea Non-Alcoholic Cocktail
A Boozeless Cocktail with Unexpected Tea Flavours
As self-confessed tea nerds 🤓 and flavour explorers we are always looking to showcase leaf tea in different ways. We love that the ritual of tea can be varied and interwoven into social drinking and dining occasions with friends.
Last year we crossed paths with an international hospitality talent from Canada, Evelyn Chick. We loved her interest in using tea and herbal infusions to create no and low ABV cocktails and were fortunate to interview her. You can read the blog here 🙊 and we might convince you on the merits of experimenting with tea in cocktails.
We were thrilled when Evelyn created this stand-out "Bird of Paradise" zero proof cocktail using our East Forged Black Tea & Yuzu. This recipe was first seen on Evelyn's Instagram feed and adapted.
Review of Flavours and Style
Taking our cheeky monkey Mico's Black Tea & Yuzu and combining this with Japan's most infamous green tea, matcha, resulted in an unexpected yet delicious marriage of flavours.
Our Black Tea & Yuzu is our modern interpretation of the classic iced black tea and lemon. It has a familiar flavour profile but we add the East Forged twist. Using black tea that comes from the rich volcanic red soil of Far North Queensland and the lemon-lime like citrus fruit, Yuzu, that the Japanese and South Korean's have elevated to cult status!
They are tied together with the acidity of the passionfruit pulp and a light sweetness drawn from the simple tea sugar syrup. The length and texture of this alcohol free cocktail provide the complete drinking experience.
We think you will love this non-alcoholic cocktail if you and your friends are TEA-curious*. A great beverage to hero tea in all its forms and show off your tea utensils to your friends.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Matcha
- pulp of 1x passionfruit
- 15ml simple tea syrup (or agave)
- ice
- East Forged Black Tea & Yuzu
Instructions
- Shift and whisk 1 tsp of matcha with 80ml cold water
- Place matcha, passionfruit pulp, some ice and syrup in cocktail shaker
- Shake well
- Stain into a cocktail glass with ice
- Shake chilled can of East Forged
- Open carefully and top up cocktail glass
- Garnish with a banana leaf
We have also created a short "how to" video so you can play along and make your Bird of Paradise with us! Take a look on YouTube.
We couldn't fit our whole interview with Evelyn Chick into one blog. If you are looking for options of what to drink when you are not imbibing be sure to check out these great suggestions here.
* East Forged brews are considered low in caffeine . Matcha generally carries a high level of caffeine. Matcha is slightly different from other leaf teas due to its preparation and serving. As a tea powder you are consuming whole young tea leaves that have a higher concentration of caffeine compared to the amount extracted into a traditional steeped tea.
