What’s Sumatra with You? East Forged
As I travel this earthround, more often than not on more exotic territory, I find myself reminded of Abraham Lincoln musing that if what I am proffered is supposed to be coffee, I’d rather have tea and if it is supposed to be tea, I would like some coffee instead.
There are many concoctions these days, especially when it comes to experimental novelties and few of them stand the test of time. As a matter of fact, especially when it comes to coffee, I find myself drawn back to the basics and my favourite these days is a simple double espresso.
A more interesting version of tea recently crossed my path, i.e. one of the cold brew nitro-infused variety. The underlying concept is that pure tea leaves are cold-brewed, infused with carbonation, refined by the adage of real fruits and finally made bubbly and sparkling by utilizing nitrogen, with the ultimate aim to create a drink that has the DNA of coffee and brings the refreshment of a draught beer. If you think about, the use of nitrogen is not as outlandish as it first sounds as the smoothness of e.g. Guinness can almost exclusively be attributed to its use as opposed as to CO2, which has a lemonier character.
East Forged recently launched its teas in three varieties, i.e. Black Tea & Yuzu (“yuzu” as in lemon-like citrus and much less astringent than other black tees on the market), White Tea & Calamansi (kumquat-like citrus meets white tea from China’s Fujian province resulting in a flavour that is an example par excellence for juiciness) and Post-Fermented Green Tea & Pitaya (the production of which is similar to that of Sake and kombucha without the resulting funk and a characteristic dragon fruit note that places it in a category that quite a few ice teas try to accomplish).
Now, while all of them are interesting in term of flavour profiles, the Black and White Tea variants proved to be my favourite, with the Green one not being a too distant third and being a sparkling water aficionado, the fizzy bit made them instantaneously a welcome alternative to the occasional energy drink I sometimes retreat to when things go overtime – especially since East Forged does not add any sugar.
Tea in recyclable aluminium cans might not be the most traditional way to proffer tea but it both reduces the impact on the environment and is convenient when one stacks them up to take on the road.
An interesting alternative that should appease tea aficionados as well as those into energy drinks and beers.
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photo from company website
