Tea Gschwendner : Ritzy as Its Name!

"Make things happen, explore distant shores, and most of all, drink tea."

With this philosophy,  Albert Gschwendner and his wife Gwendalina turned their dreams of a teashop into a reality in 1978.

And it was this tea shop that I discovered in the middle of a very dull country. Because if there is anything that can bring me joy in Riyadh, is discovering a new cuisine or an exquisite food shop.

Gschwendner was one of them and it is now on my Top list to see and check every time I am in the Kingdom tower doing some shopping.

Gschwendner. Yep, it is German. And I admit that the name is a bit hard to pronounce and actually google later when I wanted to write this post. But this name turned out to be as lavish as the products inside!

The small shop in the kingdom is in the ground floor, and you can see a teapot boiling outside as if greeting you to come inside and explore a new world of Tea leaves. And this is exactly what happened. The teapot was enough to attract me inside and discover this Tea Haven!

Hundreds of Tin drawers with different types of dried  tea leaves from around the world!

And another thing that caught my attention, was a small stand with brochures. There it was the " Book of Tea". I grabbed it. And asked the salesman if I can take it with me. He welcomely acknowledged that and poured some tea for me and my family.

Chicory Leaves: "Hendbeh"

                                                                      Guest Post by Food Technologist Francine Francis

Chicory Leaves

General Information on Chicory
Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) also known as “Succory”, “Hendibeh” or “Witloof” is part of the family plant of Asteraceae. This perennial plant is indigenous to South Africa, Europe and Asia but it is now grown, found and consumed worldwide. 

Matteh, A Healthy Traditional Drink

Throw away your energy drinks! Matteh is much better! 

In winter, our house was like a walk-in industrial freezer. So we had to keep ourselves warm with a heater, and surely with food and drink.
Cocoa milk, hot custard, rice and milk ( riz bi haleeb) were always there to keep us warm and give us energy. Not to mention the whole set of hot drinks, green tea, black tea, zhourat ( i.e flower mix ), rosemary tea, ..and finally Yerba Mate.
Yerba mate was our afternoon tradition, sipping it while eating a chocolate bar aside!
Even during Ramadan, mom made it custom for us after we break our fast to drink matteh ( the lebanese pronunciation). Drinking quinched our thirst, rehydrated our bodies, gave us energy and eased digestion!
Below will be the scientific proofs for all what we felt after drinking it.

History:

Yerba mate has indeed an exquisite history. It is not Lebanese. It is originally a South American drink:

• The Guarani peoples of South America were the earliest to harvest and drink yerba mate.  
• They considered the yerba tree a gift of the gods and they called it the "drink of the gods".  
• Yerba Mates was part of their rituals and as used as a currency of exchange with the Incas and the Charruas. 
•  Every part of the preparation and drinking of yerba mate is in fact a ceremony or ritual.
• When the Spanish conquistadors came to Argentina early in the 16 th century and found the indigenous people drinking yerba mate, they tried the tea, liked it, and learned how to brew the tea.
• This created a demand for the tea all over Europe and by the 1600s the Jesuits were harvesting and cultivating it on yerba mate plantations. It was called the "Tea of Jesuits".

Today it is being cultivated on plantations in parts of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Many attempts have been made to cultivate the herb in similar areas on other continents, but outstandingly they have all failed.
The custom of yerba mate from processing to consumption has basically remained unchanged from early times.
The huge Lebanese diaspora that reside all over the world and mostly in South America, brought this drink and habit to Lebanon when they came back.
Drinking matteh or yerba mate in Lebanon is mostly common among those who reside in the mountains.

Nutritional Content:

Sensory Evaluation of Love

Speaking of part of my major which involves greatly sensory evaluation of food i.e appearance, aroma, flavor and mouthfeel. I developed  a nice " sensory description" lexicon for  Love. Yes Love.


This is is a food scientist point of view of love :

Love -  is not just an experience of feelings , it is a complex sensory experience that beats any  food you will have in your life.


Appearance : Love has no color, no shape.  People report that it can also blind  eyes .


Smell : Once you smell it, It follows you wherever you are. You can never get rid of the aroma .
It can sometimes cause mild hallucination due to its overwhelming effect.


Taste : It is sweet , and bitter as most people say. But you can feel  some pungency on the tongue . In some cases,  astringency can be felt if love became "harsh and dry".


Some tasters may indicate that love has a   vivid taste  that engulfs all flavors and can sometimes add flavor to other things in life. That is , it can be a flavor booster , an " Umami" !!!!


Surely, It will leave an aftertaste , a leftover effect ; either a soothing mouthfeel , either a throat burn down.


Love belongs to the  " food mood"  class in the pyramid as indicated by  the US FDA :P




Perhaps Love is the ultimate sensory experiment that one can get in his life. Perhaps it is because Love is truly the food of the soul, providing energy  and enthralling one's senses every single second.

Friends....& Flavors

Friends are like flavors. (Well am back to relating life to food. I like this relation ).


They are many types and several tastes. Some are sweet.Honey-like.They enter your life in a smooth way and stay there leaving a good after taste. But if there sweetness exceeded, you will get bothered! :P


Others are salty . They are "extractors". They let see you your worst and your best. These friends are good to be around with for sometimes and other times you try to avoid them because they tell you the cutting truth and you dont like to hurt your feelings !


While some friends are bitter. Well, this kind are the nagging type of people, they impose a negative taste in your life. The only good thing about these people is that you can recognize them from the beginning and literally "escape" them during a conversation, a dinner or anytime you spot them near.


Maybe the last flavor, is the sour. At first, they look delicious and sweet but then you have this annoying , sharp biting taste. You realize they are not really nice ! & you realize they are not your friends...or you cant befriend them!




Ofcorse there are other flavors like Umami ( which are the tasty ones) .They make everything in your life great , they boost your morals , your dreams and your hopes)..They are saporific, and are certainly full of flavor (flavorsome)…


There are also the spicy ones. Some of them chill you others just irritate you. You have to choose.


And there are the "astringent" friends! They might be similar to the sour , however, they leave some physical harm .


And yes there are the ZESTY people! They have all the vivid, spicy, piquant, utterly savory ; they are invigorating, stimulating, fresh and reviving. They are never soothing or dull!


We all have these kinds of friends around us!! If we didnt , our life would have been very boring and routine.
Imagine that you are tasting or eating the same plate every single day ! Would you like it that way?


This leads me to the conclusion.Yes. life is all about gustatory experiences !. You have to taste everything but make sure that you are delicate when choosing. Otherwise, you might get a food poisoning or a food allergy! ;)