S. Worthen | Weblog

I haven't participated in an IMBB for a number of months, but musing on tea inspired my first adventures with gelatin, itself a recent IMBB theme. My idea seemed straightforward: take a variety of herbal teas, set them with gelatin, cut them up into tidy little pieces, and make a small, stained-glass-window style salad of colored cubes in a small glass or bowl.

Note: In what follows, I use the terms "jelly" and "jello" interchangably. I know jello is a brand name, but I don't know what else to call the resulting subtance in North America. In the UK, jello is known as jelly.

Ingredients
two or more teas or infusions of choice
gelatin packets

Short version of recipe
Brew tea. Combine with gelatin and stir until gelatin is thoroughly dissolved, approximately 1 Tbsp gelatin per pint of liquid. Allow to cool, then refridgerate until set. Cut into small cubes and pile into a tablespoon's worth of tea-flavored jello salad.

Commentary
If I were less of a gelatin novice, I might have succeeded in doing just as I planned. I brewed bowlfuls of three Twinings herbal teas, lemon ginger (a favorite of mine), Pear & Guava, and Pink Grapefruit, Mandarin, & Lime. The first one was pale yellow, but the second two were both rosehip-stained purpled reds. Why are rosehips used so excessively in herbal teas? There are so many other wonderful ingredients in the world, and the flavor of rosehips inevitably overpowers the rest of the concoction.

( The details, with photos... )