Fine tea must be poured
with attention to timing

---

By Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

James Labe, tea sommelier for the W hotel in New York, has done a number of tea-pairing dinners, but the EWC gala with 700 to 800 expected guests will be the largest.

Serving that many people a beverage as finicky as tea presents all manner of challenges. Labe envisions himself minding a giant stockpot in the Hilton Hawaiian Village kitchen, the water at just the right temperature, the tea leaves steeping for just the right number of seconds.

And if that doesn't work, he'll set up an assembly line producing pot after pot individually for each guest.

Labe will serve a Gopaldhara estate Darjeeling with the appetizers of prawns and fish and Havukal estate Nilgiri with the main course of mutton biryani.

Fine tea, unlike wine, must be poured during a critical few minutes when the tea is at its prime. But Labe minimizes the complexity of it, comparing the task to minding a grill in a busy kitchen, with all manner of meats and seafood cooking at once. "I point out to people that this is still easier than cooking on a grill."

Labe's interest in tea goes back to his childhood in Philadelphia, when his family would go out for Chinese dinner and he'd insist on stopping at a nearby grocery so he could buy tea. "I couldn't read the writing, I didn't know what it was and I'd go home and put hot water on it."

When he was 9, he bought a cube of highly concentrated pu erh tea. "It was probably enough for 15 pots. I put it in a cup, not knowing. It was so bad I didn't try it again for years."

For the most part, though, tea is delicate, much more so than wine, Labe says, so in making a match you need to concede that almost any food will be stronger in flavor than almost any tea.

His approach, then, is to chart the direction the food is going, flavor-wise, and let the tea round out the journey.

"If you taste food, flavors come out in layers, you have an experience from beginning to end as you eat it. I think, 'What direction are these flavors taking me?' and I try to find a tea that is in that direction so the food seems to lead to the tea."

With dessert at the EWC banquet, Labe will serve masala chai, a brew of Assam tea with a pungent blend of spices, mixed with milk.

In New York he serves it as a cocktail, with white rum and Amaretto. "I really want people to feel tea is a fun thing they can try and enjoy. I don't want people to think I'm a snob."

Labe's recipe is designed for restaurants, using large quantities of whole spices. For home use, ground spices may be substituted, but in smaller amounts.

Smaller amounts of whole spices could also be used and the brew kept simmering all day, as is traditional. Once made, the chai may be refrigerated and kept several days. It's good iced, too.

Hot Masala Chai

1 gallon cold water
1 cup Assam tea leaves
3/4 cup sugar
5 dashes salt
5 bay leaves
2 whole star anise
2 cloves
1/4 cup EACH of the following whole spices: mace, dry ginger, allspice, cardamom seed, fennel seed and coriander seed
6 cups whole milk
2 cups half-and-half

Combine all ingredients except milk and half-and-half, and bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low and add milk and half-and-half. Return to simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally. Strain. Makes 1-1/2 gallons.

Variations: For a Hot Chai Toddy, add 1 shot white rum and a dash of amaretto to each cup.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Click for online
calendars and events.