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Cooking with tea has never been more popular. Tea comes in hundreds of flavors and colors, and it was only a matter of time before it started finding its way into delicious recipes. Some teas are great for sweet treats, others may add amazing flavors to savory dishes. If you want to cook with tea, these 5 teas are going to change your dishes. All of them are easy to use, highly aromatic and widely available.

Top 5 teas to transform your food

What makes some teas suitable for cooking is not only the flavor, but the strength and color too. Thankfully, many teas have it all – and will genuinely transform your dishes.

1. Matcha green tea

When it comes to cooking with tea, matcha is an overall winner. Matcha is a powdered Japanese green tea made from shaded tea leaves that have been de-stalked and de-veined. Small tea leaf flakes called tencha, are then ground into a super-fine silky powder. Not only will matcha give a delicate green tea flavor to your cakes and sweet treats, but it will also give them a beautiful green color. Although there are special types of culinary grade matcha available for cooking, you can use any matcha – as long as it’s flavorful, vibrant and fresh.

2. Earl Grey black tea

Earl Grey is a tea with a long history, and one of the most popular types of black tea in the world. It’s scented or flavored with bergamot essential oil or flavor from bergamot orange peel. It’s citrusy, elegant and highly fragrant. Bergamot is less citrusy than lemon and less sweet than orange, but highly aromatic. Although many teas can be scented with bergamot, when cooking with tea, Earl Grey black tea is one of the best options. You can use it to make a tea syrup or steep in melted butter and use in both sweet and savory recipes.

3. Masala chai tea blend

Masala chai is a spiced Indian black tea with milk. Masala chai tea blends are pre-made blends that already contain all the spices to make an aromatic cup of tea. The most common spices in masala chai are ginger, cloves, cinnamon and star anise blended with a strong and malty Assam black tea. Chai is delicious in homemade cookies, ice-creams and homemade granola. Choose masala blends that are aromatic and strong, and give a rich, but not bitter, infusion.

4. Smoked Lapsang Souchong

Lapsang Souchong is a type of Chinese black tea that can be smoked or unsmoked. The unsmoked Lapsang Souchong has wonderful, sweet fruity notes, and the smoked type is incredibly aromatic and can be quite intense. That’s exactly what makes it perfect for cooking. You can use it either steeped or powdered.  Because of intense smoky, sometimes bacon-like flavor, Smoked Lapsang souchong is one of the best options when cooking savory dishes with tea.

5. Red rooibos tea

Matcha, lapsang souchong, masala chai and earl grey are all real teas and thus caffeinated. If you want a caffeine-free tea, red rooibos is a perfect choice. Because of its sweet and rich flavor, red rooibos or red bush tea from South Africa is one of the best herbal teas for cooking. It has a deep and intense red color, zero bitterness and goes well with chocolate, fruits and spices. This tea has a special earthy flavor that can go well with not only sweet, but savory dishes, too.

Tips for cooking with tea

1. Choose high quality, flavorful, fresh teas, preferably with broken leaves if you plan to infuse them, and organic if you want to powder them.
2. The easiest way to add tea to your dishes is to infuse it into the liquid ingredient – milk, water and even butter.
3. Pre-made tea powders can sometimes be added directly into dishes, but always sift them to avoid any lumps. Use only superfine silky powders.
4. If you are making your own tea powder, it may not dissolve so well as a pre-made powder would. That’s because the particle sizes will be larger than in a pre-made powder. You can use coarse powders as a spice rub or sprinkled over sweet treats.
5. If your recipe is using a honey or sugar, you can often replace it with a homemade tea syrup – made with strong steeped tea and sugar.
6. Always use more tea than you would use for regular brewing and steep it longer, but don’t over-brew it. Usually, 2-3 teaspoons of loose leaf tea per cup of water/milk will give enough flavor.

Final Thoughts

If you love exploring new tea flavors, cooking with tea could bring you incredible joy too. Matcha, lapsang souchong, earl grey, masala chai and red rooibos are a must try teas in baking and cooking, but you can try many other blends as well. If you enjoy drinking it and if it’s strong enough to be served with condiments, there’s a high chance it will be great for cooking too.