Tasting Classes at Summit Spice and Tea Company

Happy weekend-after-Thanksgiving everyone!  In honor of Buy Nothing Day which was Friday, and Small Business Saturday, I wanted to talk about some fun experiential things that you can do with your friends and family this weekend, and throughout the holidays to take your mind a little off all the consumerism messages. And to remind you that if you do go shopping this weekend, to go to some local Anchorage businesses. My husband and I will be taking some walks in the new snow with our dog, Steve, going to the movies, and going to the Museum to see some new exhibits. One of the other things I like to do is take tasting classes at Summit Spice and Tea Company's midtown store.

The classes start at 6:00 on Thursday nights, and most of the classes cost between $10 and $25. And you have to sign up in advance; I have been in the store before a class and people just come in and want to take the class; that is not going to work, people! I’ve never been to one that’s not full. Most classes fill up at least a week or two in advance, if not a month ahead, and there’s often a waiting list. The best thing to do is sign up for emails, that way you get the class schedule first and can make your reservations for the next group of classes. Check in after the holidays for the next class agenda.

The classes I’ve taken last between an hour and an hour and a half. Of course, the reason they have the classes is because they want you to buy the things that you’ve just tasted, and to that end they give you discounts on those products. For example, the night of the chocolate class you’re taking, you get a 15% discount on any chocolate in the store, and then you get a 15% coupon for a future purchase of chocolate that’s good for a month or so. Sometimes (okay, usually) I will discover something new that I want to take home, but I've also gone just to learn and taste and walked away, so you can just go to a fun class and not buy anything.

Basic Tea tasting

The basic tea tasting class gives you an overview of tea. You only taste true tea, Camellia sinensis, not herbal, rooibos, or other drinks technically called "infusions." But, Summit does have an herbal tea blending class, so you can take that if you want some peppermint tea. Like most beer and wine tastings, you start with the lightest, most delicate flavors, and end with the strongest ones. And since this is an overview, we tasted teas that are "typical" of a particular country or region. So, for the tea overview, you start with white tea, which is made with the least processed tea leaves. We tried a great one from Kenya that I really liked a lot. Then we tried two green teas, one from China and one from Japan, to taste the differences between the two countries' preferences. The Japanese tea is bright green and tastes more grassy. Then we tried an Oolong, which I really liked too. We ended with three black teas, one from Sri Lanka and two from China. One of the Chinese black teas we tried was from Keemun (or Qimen), a province in China that, unlike most places in China, only makes black tea rather than green. Most Keemun tea goes into English Breakfast blends. We ended with a Pu'erh black tea, which is fermented and aged. Think of it as the Roquefort cheese of tea. Seriously, it's aged in caves and grows mold. It tastes very smoky and earthy, and is very distinctive compared to the other teas. My favorites were the white tea and the Oolong, and I'll probably be buying some white tea from Summit in the future. Most of the loose leaf teas Summit sells are only a couple dollars an ounce, the vast majority are under $5, but they have a few, mainly oolong or very fancy green teas, that are over $10 an ounce. They have a whole brochure with all their teas and prices, so you can do some planning before you buy.

Black tea tasting

This class was a great, intense tasting, during which we tasted thirteen varieties of black tea. Like with a wine tasting, you start with the lighter and move towards the stronger. Since the class started at 6:00 pm, I was still talking my husband’s ear off at 10:30. We started with Indian teas, trying two Darjeeling teas, two Ceylon teas, and two Assam teas. These are very British colonial types of teas. Ceylon now exports more teas than anywhere else. We then tried five teas from China, which grows the most tea, but they drink almost all of it themselves. We started with two from Yunnan, that incidentally you can re-steep to make multiple cups from each spoonful of leaves. We then tried two Keemun teas, which as I said above, are really common English Breakfast teas. The Rose Keemun tea we tried is reputedly one of Queen Elizabeth II's favorite teas, but I didn't like it, at least when drinking it straight. It was actually a little strange to taste these teas plain, because most people drink them with milk and sugar or honey, so you didn't really see what they would taste like as you would actually drink them. Then we tried the Lapsang Souchong tea, which was so amazingly different from any other black tea. This is smoked tea, and it seriously tastes like a salmon smokehouse. This is the tea that Tibetan monks drink with Yak butter when they're fasting. I bought a little of this so that I could have some every once in a while- I think I'll try it with milk or whipped cream. We ended with two teas from outside the traditional tea growing regions. We tried one from high altitude plantations in Kenya, and one from Vietnam that was very similar to the teas from Assam.

Dark chocolate

I already know a fair amount about chocolate, so the thing that I found the most interesting was the discussion of each individual company whose chocolate we tasted, because Summit makes a point of buying from really progressive companies, who are doing a lot of Fair Trade and environmental work. We tried 15 different types of chocolate, from 62% cacao to 80%. One of the chocolates we tried was from Original Beans, a company that gets some of their chocolate from Bolivia, and plants a tree in the rain forest around their source plantations for every single bar you buy. Another one of their bars, Cru Virunga, is made from beans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for every one of those bars sold, they plant trees in Virunga National Park to help preserve the gorilla habitat there. The owner of Davao chocolates gets his chocolate from the Philippines, and he not only pays Fair Trade prices, but he gives dividends from the company profits to the workers on the plantations. ChocolatBonnat is a French company that has been around since the 1880s, so they know what they're doing in terms of taste. We tried a bar of theirs that's sourced from Sri Lankan cacao. Askinosie Chocolate is from Missouri, and they work with every stage of the process to ensure fair prices and good environmental practices, and they also work to give books to kids in Honduras, where their bars are from. We tried an 80% cacao bar from Madecasse, who grows the cacao and makes the bars all in Madagascar, so that more of the revenues from the company (which also has a base in New York), stay with workers in Madagascar. The company also makes their own vanilla their on the island.

The chocolate bars at Summit are not particularly cheap, with some in the $3-5 range, but many of the bars are $10-15. I find that all the bars I get from here last quite a while, since I only need a couple bites at a time. Even though they're expensive, if you get a chocolate card, you can buy ten bars and get one free. Once I've finished my chocolate card and gotten my free bar, I'll do a post on all the chocolates I tasted.

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar

This was the last tasting I went to, and it was really fun. We tasted six of the olive oils Summit Spices carries, three plain ones and three flavored ones. The instructor talked about how olive oil is made, what all the different terms mean, and the differences in terms between America and Europe. She also discussed the different flavors common in different regions. For example, oils made in Spain tend to taste more buttery than those from other regions. 

The three plain olive oils we tasted were from France, Spain, and Italy. All three used different varieties of olives, and tasted very different. The French oil was A L'Olivier Vallee des Baux-de-Provence. It was the least strong of the three plain oils, very buttery and smooth, and was $45 for a 1/2 liter. The Spanish oil, Marques de Grinon olive oil was my favorite of the unflavored oils. It was a very strong and peppery oil, made from Spanish olive varieties, and cost $34 for a 1/2 liter bottle. No wonder it was my favorite, because the company was founded in 1292, and is still winning awards for its oil. The third, Italian oil we tried was Badia Campo Corto Olive Oil. It wasn't quite as strong at the Spanish oil, and was really smooth without the strong pepper bite. It was the most expensive unflavored oil, $50 for a 1/2 liter bottle. I bought a bottle of the Spanish oil, and I may go back and get one of the others, too, or try one of the other oils they have for the "if you like this..." list for the Spanish oil.

The flavored oils we tried were lemon, ginger, and rosemary. The first two were Italian, and the rosemary oil was Spanish. The lemon oil was really good, with a good fresh lemon flavor at the end. I really didn’t like the ginger oil. Maybe it’s because I thought it was too strong, or maybe it’s because I just didn’t think the two flavors went together very well. I’m all for ginger in Indian food or something, but I thought it was strange with the oil. The rosemary one was in the middle. I think the flavors go really well together in cooking, so the oil was pretty good, too, but I liked the lemon the best. The flavored olive oils are sold in 1/4 liter bottles, and cost between $13.50 for the rosemary flavored oil, to $26 for the lemon flavored oil.

Next came the balsamic vinegars. I learned a lot about how balsamic and other vinegars are made. It was really interesting to learn how people traditionally make balsamic vinegar, aging it in the eaves of their houses for years and years, putting the vinegar in a new cask every year for decades as it concentrates, and flavoring each batch with a little from the last batch, like with sourdough starter or yogurt. This mixing is why the serious vinegars aren’t allowed to actually say how long their product has been aged, because it’s all mixed. I also learned that there are people in Italy whose whole job is to sit on the balsamic vinegar consortium boards (there are two- Modena and Reggio Emilia) and taste vinegar to make sure it meets the flavor standards and decide whether it should be certified or not and bottled by the consortia. How do you get that job? Are there whole families who for generations serve on the consortia? Also, we learned that the best balsamic vinegars contain only grape must, but most that you get in America have added flavors or other things. Because they're aged for so long, the casks make a big difference- we tasted two that were from the same company, of the same quality, but one was aged in cherry and one in juniper casks, and it made a big difference in the flavor. We tried one American balsamic vinegar which was what you are used to when you buy vinegar- pretty tart, liquidy, and would be good for using in salad dressings. All the other ones we tried were thick like molasses, and way sweeter.

The ones that were certified by the Consortia were between $85 and $226 for a little 8 oz bottle. These are not for use in salad dressings! These are so thick and sweet and strong, you would drizzle them sparingly on fruit, salad, or cheese. The other two vinegars we tasted were $21 and $48.75 for a 1/4 liter. I bought the cheapest one, but I may go back and buy one of the thick ones while I have a discount.

Conclusions

So, as you can see, there are lots of foods to learn about and taste. Other classes I haven't been to include a green tea class, an herbal tea blending class, candy and confection classes, and a class on mixed vinegars (balsamic, red wine, champagne, etc). So, if you want to do what I do, sign up for emails from Summit Spices so you know about the classes early, sign up for some, and then when you get off work on those Thursdays, you can go get a sandwich down the road at Middle Way Cafe, and go take a tasting class.