Chinese Green Tea with Plums

One of the benefits of being born and raised in Taiwan is the vast amount of tea knowledge, tradition and know-how afforded to you.  One I wish to share today is Chinese Plum Tea, or Green Tea with Plums (梅子綠茶).

In Taiwan, you can purchase Chinese Plum Tea ready-to-drink, with tea leaves and plums already discarded.  It’s also a common household brew that can be easily made at home with just a couple of ingredients - green tea leaves and dried plums.

The finished brew is both tangy and sweet.  Can be served warm but my preference is cold.  It's very refreshing as a sweet iced tea, served with ice cubes.

Ingredients:

• 10 grams green tea*
• 10 pieces dried plums**
• 1000 ml warm water, between 80°C - 100°C

Instructions:

1. Pour water into a teapot with at least 1000 ml capacity.
2. Place tea leaves into a paper filter and immerse in water.
3. Add 5 – 10 pieces of dried plums, depending on desired sweetness.
4. Let brew for 3 minutes.  Remove tea with tea bag.
5. Let brew for another 3 minutes.  Remove plums.
6. Place tea in refrigerator until cold.  Serve with ice cubes.

Recipe Notes:

*For green tea, you can use any green tea you like, flavored or unflavored.  Take a look at Teministeriet's green teas.

**For dried plums, there are a couple of options.  Both are sweet, salty and tangy.  They can be eaten alone as a snack or used here for brewing tea.

The two types of dried plums are:

- Dried Salted Plums (話梅)
- Dried Sweet Plums (紹興梅)

While one is labelled as 'salted' plums, both varieties are in fact sweet and tangy, only the one labelled as sweet is 'sweeter' of the two.  They look similar and can be found in your local Asian grocery store.