Persian tea?

I suppose Persian tea is similar to Turkish tea, harvested on the shores of the Black Sea. I found Turkish tea very mild and without much bitterness, it is prepared in the Samovar fashion. It needs sugar to release the flavour.

I can see also Ceylon tea in Turkish shops, this will have the usual Ceylon attributes of course, getting bitter with brewing time.

JB

Yup, that's the stuff. My Persian wife (of 3 months now :-) ) introduced me to it years ago at a local Persian restaurant, from which we regularly order a delivery ofGhormeh Sabzi, a stew which she calls "comfort food." At the time they also served it at an ice cream joint in the same strip mall called Mashti Malone's, which is but a few blocks from my home. (Fellow Angelenos might know of one or both places.) They stopped serving the tea at the latter place, sadly, as it was a nice accompaniment to the rosewater ice cream and the faludeh with sour cherry syrup. Now my tea cupboard is never without it.

My in-laws keep these hardened sugar candies infused with cardamom (you can see the little black seeds) in the freezer and serve them with the tea when we visit. I like to keep a piece in my mouth as I sip.

Sadaf makes the most ubiquitous variety of this tea, at least where I live. You can find it at . They also sell a variety of Earl Grey, though I'm not as much a fan of that as I am of the cardamom tea. (And sometimes I grind an extra cardamom seed in a mill and add it to the leaves before brewing, in case I want an extra spice kick.)

Ahmad also makes a cardamom flavored tea brand. Both teas are Ceylon. Cardamom is an Indian spice.

Jim