Ships bearing tea from China first arrived in Britain in the 17th century, and their cargo created a drinking passion among Britons. The first teas to arrive were green teas (photo #2), but by the late 18th century, black tea overtook green tea in popularity. It was discovered that milk and black tea—with a lump of sugar—were a perfect pairing.

In the 19th century widespread cultivation of tea had begun in India, a British colony, and overtook the import of Chinese tea to the U.K. At that time, all the tea in the world a was prepared as loose tea, necessitating mesh tea balls, tea eggs—perforated metal containers to hold tea leaves—and other strainers to keep the leaves of the brewed tea out of the cup.

A radical change occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, with the accidental invention of the tea bag. It offered at least four benefits:

 
The Accidental Tea Bag: Created To Save Money

In 1904 or 1908—or perhaps earlier*—Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, switched from sending tea samples to his customers in the customary metal tins, to far-less-expensive silken bags. Some clients assumed that the bags were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers, and placed them into pots of hot water. It was accidental birth of the tea bag.

Responding to the customer comments that the mesh on the silk was too fine, Sullivan switched to gauze and created the first purposefully made tea bags. In the 1920s tea bags were widely available commercially, and the grew as the preferred brewing method in the U.S. They were available in two sizes: a large bag for the pot and a small bag for individual cups. A string was attached (photo #3) so the bag could be easily removed. Fabric bags evolved into the less-expensive paper bags.

By the way, the Brits took far longer to embrace tea bags. Here’s the scoop.
 
The 21st Century Brings Pods & K-Cups

The next leap came in with individual pod/cup coffee machines, which offered options for tea. In order to work in the machine, the tea leaves had to be ground as finely as coffee. This instant-brewing did not produce quality results: Tea leaves need to be brewed for several minutes. contained tea, ground for instant-brewing.

Manufacturers came up with appliances dedicated to brewing tea (but not a lot of them). Seven years ago we bought one of them, the Breville One Touch Tea Maker, happily for a year until the carafe cracked. Turns out there was no replacement carafe. The solution was to buy a new machine for $250, and toss the electric base into the landfill. As the carafe had cracked due to what we believed to be a manufacturing problem (we never knocked it), we declined.

Why the lag in tea-brewing appliances vis-a-vis all the options for coffee?

The U.S. and much of Western Europe are coffee-drinking countries†. While interest in artisan tea has exploded over the past 20 years, the volume† still pales next to coffee.
 
 
THE NEWEST TEA BREWER: THE TEFORIA INFUSER

This year saw the debut of second edition of Teforia, a high-tech tea infuser that, like the Breville One-Touch, uses algorithms based on appropriate brewing times to craft the richest and most flavorful cups of tea possible.

The first edition, Teforia Classic, debuted in 2015 at the price of $999. In Silicon Valley, where it was born, that may not be much for an appliance that will sit in a $250,000 kitchen.

But it was out of touch for most of us; hence the Teforia Leaf, for a more affordable $399 at launch, and comparable to mid-range coffee machines. The price is lower by making the smart technology simpler. “Simple” means a dual-core, dual-threaded Intel Atom CPU, a 32-bit Intel Quark microcontroller, 1GB ram and WiFi connectivity.

And unlike the Breville, the replacement carafe is affordable.

[1] For thousands of years, all tea was loose tea (photo of Darjeeling tea courtesy The Tao Of Tea).

[2] It was served in small tea cups, holding about two ounces of tea (photo by Yoko Bates | IST). When tea came to Europe, it was served in the standard six-ounce cups.

[3] The tea bag was invented—accidentally—in the early 20th century (photo courtesy Two Leaves And A Bud).

[4] The Teforia Leaf, a high-tec tea infuser that creates the scientifically perfect cup of tea (photo courtesy Teforia).

 
“It’s a tea master at your fingertips, crafting each cup exactly as it was intended,” says the company. “A tea may require three or four different microinfusions—each with different settings—to bring out its best flavors….The difference is easy to taste.”

Has any Chinese emperor, or modern billionaire, ever had a better-prepared cup of tea?
 
________________

*Details vary by source, but per Wikipedia, tea bag patents date as early as 1903. They first appearing commercially around 1904, and were successfully marketed about 1908 by the tea and coffee importer Thomas Sullivan of New York, who shipped his silk tea bags around the world.

†Based on data compiled by Euromonitor International, tea still outsells coffee in populous countries like China and India, as well as the U.K., Russia, Ireland, Chile, Morocco, Turkey, South Africa and Egypt. Here’s a graph on worldwide consumption of tea versus coffee.
________________

[5] The Teforia Leaf uses “sips”—proprietary containers leaf tea that are bar-coded for perfect brewing (photo courtesy Teforia).

[6] Our conclusion: Teforia is an item for the wealthy, who want “the best” and don’t mind if, at some point, they can no longer use the appliance (photo courtesy Teforia).

Where does the tea come from? Aye, there’s the rub.

We can’t imagine why the company removed the option to infuse your own tea. It limits both the options (there is no decaf, for example).

The tea is brewed with “Sips,” individual portion capsules that contain what the company maintains is the highest-quality loose leaf tea on the planet. Five of the teas can be brewed with either standard or boosted caffeine levels, with just the touch of a button.

The tea is correspondingly pricey. The tea is brewed into a carafe that holds six ounces: the small-size cup that comes with a formal set of china. A mug can hold double that. For a classic Chinese or Japanese tea set, which has tiny cups, a carafe may fill four cups.

You can make a carafe of “Daybreak Black” tea or Masala Chai for $1, but better teas go up in price. For example:

 
The company says that the Sips “contain the highest-quality tea on the planet, along with rare, freshly harvested teas never before tasted by the public.”

But the selection of teas is small. If you want Assam or Jasmine, for example, you’re out of luck.

And if the company stops producing any or all of the Sips varieties, you’re out of luck.
 
 
IN SUM…

The Teforia exists, because, per the company, “Tea is vastly complex, and each varietal requires a different process to brew the perfect cup. Water temperature, steeping time, ratio of tea leaves to water, and number of infusions are all unique variables in the brewing process.”

Scientifically, this is so; but tea has been cultivated since 1000 B.C.E. or earlier, and many people have enjoyed a well-brewed cup of tea made by hand.

At the finest tea parlors in the world, the modern cup of tea is hand-brewed with a tea thermometer and a watch. Now that science has determined exact brewing temperatures and durations, hand-brewing at x degrees for y minutes does the trick.

That technology now does this—and adds some bells and whistles, like brewing time algorithms the ability to add another jolt of caffeine—is certainly of interest. But not at the price, except for a small niche market.

And if you add milk and sugar to your tea, you are likely to discern no difference whatsoever [assuming you are brewing the same tea leaves].

The Teforia Classic won the 2017 World Tea Award for Best Tea Brewing Device, but it is now sold out on the company website. Will it return?

Perhaps a professional tea taster will taste the difference, but will you?

Even if they gave the Teforia away—the razor blade model, where the razor may be inexpensive but the proprietary blades generate a lifetime income stream—the price to brew each cup of tea remains high.

But more seriously: This is a new product. Who knows how long it will continue to be produced, and how long sips will remain available?

As of today, the item is “sold out” at its key outlets: Nordstrom, Williams-Sonoma, and the Teforia website itself.

Personally, we really enjoyed the Breville, and if we could get over the fact that the carafe cracked too soon into our ownership (with no warranty), we’d get another one.

October is National Cookie Month, National Cookie Day is December 4th, and today, October 1st, is National Homemade Cookie Day.

According to OnePoll.com, the average American eats 18,928 cookies in their lifetime.

According to Huffington Post, America’s top 10 favorite cookies are:

1. Chocolate chip cookie
2. Brownie (a brownie is classified as a bar cookie)
3. Peanut butter cookie
4. Oreo
5. Oatmeal raisin cookie
6. White chocolate macadamia cookie
7. Sugar cookie
8. Shortbread
9. Butter cookie
10. M&M cookie

You can bake any of them today, including homemade Oreos, with this recipe. Here’s a comparison:

 
According to Eat This, Not That, the “secret formula” Oreo center that fans love so much is made from sugar, palm and/or canola oil, high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin, and artificial flavor. Oh, yum!

But the story gets even better: Originally the center was made with pig lard! Here’s more about what’s in Oreos.
See the different types of cookies in our Cookie Glossary.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

[2] One of Lodge Manufacturing’s three cookbooks devoted to cast-iron cooking (photo courtesy Lodge Manufacturing).

[3] A kitchen’s worth of Lodge cast-iron cookware. Photo courtesy Williams-Sonoma.

One of our family’s favorite Sunday brunch recipes was corned beef hash with poached eggs. Mom always made her hash in a large cast-iron skillet (and the corned beef in a pressure cooker). A hot cast-iron skillet adds a crispy crust to the hash.

We never heard the words “beef hash,” much less “beef-bacon hash.”

So when we received the recipe below from Lodge Manufacturing, a Tennessee-based producer of cast-iron cookware, we pulled the skillet out of the cupboard.
 
 
THE BENEFITS OF CAST-IRON COOKING

 
If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, put it on your wish list and use it to give a great crust to:

 
You’ll also enjoy using it to for:

 
Lodge has issued three books on cast-iron cooking. This recipe comes from My Lodge Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: 101 Popular & Delicious Cast Iron Skillet Recipes.

 
RECIPE: BEEF-BACON HASH

This is a delicious way to use leftover beef or other meat. Use a cast-iron skillet preferably 10 inches in diameter or larger.

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. FRY the bacon until crisp. Drain on a paper towel, and pour off all but a thin layer of fat. Save the bacon fat in a jar for cooking eggs, potatoes, etc. (25+ uses for bacon fat).

2. ADD the onion to the skillet and cook for 2 to 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring. Turn the heat up under the skillet and add the potatoes in a single layer. You might need to brown the potatoes in two batches, depending on the size of the skillet.

3. COOK until the potatoes are browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Add the beef and lower the heat slightly. Add the garlic and thyme, season with salt and pepper to taste, mix well, and heat thoroughly.

4. REMOVE the pan from the heat and add the parsley. Crumble the bacon (or cut it into small pieces) and add to the hash. Mix well, and serve hot or at room temperature.
  

Yesterday we wrote about LoveTheWild, a line of frozen fish entrées with pats of flavored butter (compound butter) that melt into a sauce.

The concept of compound butter comes from French cuisine, but French butter sauces don’t stop there.

Today, we take on three butter preparations that are used as sauces—sauces that you can easily make to spruce up your evening meal. You don’t need a lot of it to add richness to your dish.

There are other French butter-based sauces, of course.

> Check out the different types of butter in our photo glossary.

> The history of butter.
 
 
BEURRE BLANC & BEURRE ROUGE (WHITE AND RED BUTTER SAUCES)

French for white butter, beurre blanc is a hot emulsified butter sauce made popular in Loire Valley cuisine. There it is made with Muscadet, the region’s best-selling white wine, which has been made since the late 16th or early 17th century.

The ingredients of beurre blanc—and the other sauces in this article—are simple:

 
It is a popular sauce for fish and shellfish, including poached fish and Coquilles Saint-Jacques; as well as vegetables, such as asparagus. With the latter, a splash of tarragon vinegar or a bit of fresh tarragon is added——not part of the original recipe, nor are any fresh herbs. Nor are the bay leaf and peppercorns added by some cooks (photo #1).

To make the emulsion, cold, whole butter is blended into the hot reduction of wine and vinegar. It is similar to the mother sauce hollandaise in concept, but is considered neither a mother sauce nor a compound butter.

Beurre rouge, a variant of beurre blanc sauce, is made by substituting a dry red wine for the white wine and red wine vinegar for the white wine vinegar. The red wine supplies color and more of a tang.

Here’s a recipe for beurre blanc.
 
Some beurre blanc history: The chef Clémence Prau Lefeuvre of the Loire restaurant La Buvette de la Marine, is credited with the invention of beurre blanc. Cooking at the beginning of the 20th century, she developed the recipe by accident.

The story is that she intended to prepare a béarnaise sauce for a pike dish, but forgot to add the tarragon and egg yolks.
 
 
BEURRE NOISETTE (BROWN BUTTER SAUCE)

For more depth of flavor, the butter is cooked longer. A step up from beurre blanc is beurre noisette (photo #2).

Literally meaning hazelnut butter, but commonly referred to as brown butter, it is melted butter that’s cooked until the milk solids turn the light golden brown color of hazelnuts and the butter gives off a nutty aroma.

Beurre noisette is popular for sautéeing and saucing meat, poultry, fish and fruit; as a sauce for pasta and vegetables; and in baking biscuits, cakes and cookies. We like it with polenta and grains.

> Here’s a recipe for beurre noisette.

> The history of beurre noisette, brown butter.

[1] Oysters in beurre blanc (photo courtesy Oyster Club | CT).

[2] Ravioli in beurre noisette, brown butter (photo courtesy David Venable | QVC).

[3] Beurre noir is butter cooked until it turns a very dark brown (photo courtesy Alchetron).

French for black butter, the butter is cooked over low heat until it turns dark brown (not literal black—photo #3).

When the sauce turns brown, a few drops of red wine vinegar or lemon juice are added. Some recipes add capers and parsley or thyme. Modern cooks have amended the recipe to include balsamic vinegar, garlic, even minced hot chiles (essentially, sauces that should be called balsamic beurre noir, garlic beurre noir, etc.).

Two famous classic dishes are calves brains in black butter (a dish, alas, that is not served much these days since the spread of Mad Cow Disease) and skate in black butter. Here’s a recipe for skate in black butter.

Beurre noir is not to be confused with Jersey black sutter, an English speciality made by slowly cooking apples with cider, licorice and spices. It’s generally eaten on toast.
 
 
BONUS: BEURRE MONTÉ, A COOKING TECHNIQUE

Beurre monté is not a sauce, but a method of infusing meats and fish with the flavor of butter. Solid butter is an emulsification of butter fat, water and milk solids; beurre monté is a way to manipulate the emulsification into liquid form.

A few drops of water and chunks of butter are whisked over a moderate heat to melt the butter and keep it emulsified—a solid, creamy sauce. Foods are cooked in it, meats are rested in it, sauces are made with it. “It’s an extraordinary vehicle for both heat and flavor.” says chef Thomas Keller.

> Here’s his recipe.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[2] and [3] Coffeecake Mug Cake from Ava’s Bakery.

[4] While the cake bakes, make a cup of coffee (photo Sxpng | Canstock ).

Mug cakes have been around for a while. They’re a handy solution when you’re jonesing for a piece of cake. Simply combine some basic ingredients in a coffee mug and microwave for 2 or 3 minutes.

Yet, a survey among our cake-loving friends and colleagues indicates that few of us make mug cakes. So today, National Coffee Day, we’re encouraging the practice with the Mug Coffee Cake recipe below.

If you like mug cakes as much as we do, there are several mug cake cookbooks. Start with Mug Cakes: 100 Speedy Microwave Treats to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth (photo #1).
 
 
THE HISTORY OF MUG CAKES

While unleavened cakes date back to ancient Egypt, most were savory cakes, some garnished with honey. Without leavening, they did not rise.

It took another few millennia, until the 18th century, for bakers to discover the technique of whipping eggs to make cakes rise. While it required many hours of beating, the wealthy had enough labor in the kitchen. These unsung bakers heralded the dawn of modern baking.

By the 1840s, baking soda had been invented, followed by baking powder in the 1860s (the difference). These chemical leavening agents meant that most cooks could make a cake rise.

With cakes came cupcakes. The original cupcakes were baked in coffee cups; hence the name. They were actually mini “test cakes,” to test the heat of the oven.

From the prehistoric dawn of the oven to the latter half of the 19th century, there were no thermostats to regulate the temperature of the oven, which was fueled by a wood or charcoal fire. Delicate cooking like baking required great technique (the history of ovens).

In 1851, the Bower’s Registered Gas Stove debuted at the Great Exhibition in London, featuring a revolution: a thermostat. It became the basis for the modern gas oven.

As ovens with regulated temperatures became available, and sugar became affordable to most people, more home cooks were able to bake to their hearts’ content. This resulted in more creativity in recipe development. The modern cake as we know it began to take shape in the mid-19th century.

Finally, The Microwave!

The next great leap forward, the consumer microwave oven, was launched in 1967. But it took another 50 years or so to popularize a microwaved cake-in-a-mug. Finally, in the Information Age, it quickly gained popularity via online cooking forums.

The technique uses a mug as the cooking vessel and takes just a few minutes to toss the ingredients into the mug: flour, sugar, baking powder, seasonings and fats (butter, cream, oil). The mug goes into the microwave; as the fat in the mixture heats up, it creates air pockets that cause the cake to quickly rise.

Here’s a fun idea for National Coffee Day: a coffee mug cake filled with coffee cake (photos #2 and #3).

If that sounds like too much of a tongue twister, let us explain:

Ava’s Cupcakes, a winner of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, has created a tongue-in-cheek cake for National Coffee Day. It’s a mug cake—made in a coffee mug. And that’s a streusel-topped coffee cake in that mug.

You’ll also need a separate mug of coffee to drink with the mug cake (photo #4)…but what a memorable coffee break!

If you’re in the neighborhood, Ava’s Bakery has a retail bakery in Rockaway, New Jersey. If not, there’s a large selection of products available online at AvasCupcakes.com.
 
 
RECIPE: COFFEE CAKE IN A MUG (MUG CAKE)

Ingredients For The Cake

 
Preparation

1. SOFTEN the butter. Place the sugar in the mug, add the butter and combine. Add cream, vanilla and cinnamon, and stir.

2. MIX the flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl, and add to the cup. Blend.

3. MAKE the topping: Soften the butter, add flour, cinnamon and brown sugar, and mix until crumbly. Crumble the top onto flour mixture, patting down gently.

4. MICROWAVE for 2 minutes, let cool for 1 minute. Garnish as desired and consume!