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.

Road Trip! Sitka

This summer, after my trip to Haines, I went down to Sitka. Sitka is a great little town on Baranof Island, and used to be called New Archangel when it was the capital of Russian Alaska. It was also the first Territorial capital when Alaska was sold to the United States. Although originally a Tlingit village, Russians had a presence in Sitka since the late 1700s. There were a couple skirmishes between the Tlingit and the Russians (the Russians had it coming, I can assure you!), including one major battle in 1804. Now it is a tourist and fishing town of about 9000 people, and still has a substantial Tlingit population.

Sitka has a substantial cruise ship economy, which is important information to inform your dining habits. Since the ships are such a big part of Sitka’s economy, a lot of places are closed when there isn’t a cruise ship in town. This is more important for shops than for restaurants, but still impacts them. The cruise ships leave at 5:00 pm, so almost all of the stores are closed after 6:00, if not earlier. Very few restaurants are open year round, which I will talk about in more detail later on.

The first place I went in Sitka was one of my two favorites, the Larkspur Café. It’s right on the western edge of town, next to the docks and the bridge that goes over to Japonski Island where the airport and college are. It used to be the US Army cable house for the northern end of the undersea telegraph cable that ran to Seattle, but you need to talk to my husband if you want to learn more about that! Today, there is a little coffee shop and café in the bottom, and it looks like KCAW radio might have been on the second floor- at any rate, the KCAW gift shop was also on the first floor. This restaurant of course features local seafood, and also had lots of organic foods. In the summer they are open for lunch and dinner, brunch only on Sundays, and closed on Mondays; I didn't find out what their winter hours were. I went for lunch, where they have a regular menu; the dinner that night was some kind of curry- the server I asked about it said that dinner is whatever the cook feels like, so you don't always know in advance. They had lots of homemade soups, including Alaskan clam chowder, potato and kale, and Spanish chorizo. All the soups come with homemade focaccia bread and are $6 or $9 for a cup or a bowl. I got the tomato soup with shaved parmesan. Most restaurants serve tomato bisque, but this was a straight-up vegetable soup. They had some delicious looking appetizer boards that I wanted to try but didn't. They had a fruit and cheese board with manchego, brie, grapes, chocolate almonds, spiced nuts, and focaccia for $10, a Mediterranean board with hummus, kalamata olives, feta, nuts, and vegetables with focaccia for $15, and a savory board with meats, brie, nuts, and grapes. They also had salads, pasta, a reuben sandwich, a quesadilla, paninis, and burritos. They have a great selection of drinks, including espresso, natural sodas and juices, Mexican Coke, Mexican hot chocolate, and beer and wine. They also had some desserts for $2-5, including chocolate crinkle cookies, bread pudding, marscapone tart, almond lemon coconut cake, and lavender pound cake. For my main course, I had the fish tacos, which were made with Alaskan ling cod, mozzarella, pico de gallo, cilantro, cabbage, sour cream, and corn tortillas. They were delicious, and were well seasoned and not breaded and fried. I love good fish tacos, and these were great. As you can see from the menu, there were a lot of delicious-sounding foods, and if I had had time, I definitely would have come back here.  

When I needed something sweet in the afternoon, I went to the soda fountain at the Harry Race Pharmacy, on the westernmost block of Lincoln. They have a large selection of shakes, smoothies, malts, and sundaes. You should probably go with someone, because everything they make is large. You should also watch the time of day that you go, because I went by there once and the place was totally packed with high schoolers. I got the Mount Edgecumbe Eruption, which is named after Sitka's beautiful extinct volcano, which was itself named after some politically connected British fellow by Captain James Cook. This was a massive sundae that came with either chocolate or vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, marshmallow cream, coconut, chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream, and nuts. It was great, but like I said, gigantic. An example of one of their other offerings is the Harbor Mountain sundae, which was kind of a sundae/banana split combo, with chocolate or vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, banana, brownie, whipped cream, and nuts.

The only place I went that I wouldn’t recommend is Kenny’s Chinese and Japanese, across from Totem Square. This is a local hangout, and I was definitely the only non-local in there. I went there at lunchtime, and it was total chaos. It was really busy, there are only about 8 tables in the place, and all the employees (mainly members of a long-time Sitka family) are so busy that no one is really paying attention to the customers. Apparently if you are local you know how to get service, because I sure didn't. They have some $6.95-$9.95 lunch specials, plus a lot of teriyaki, sushi, fried rice, etc. I waited about 45 minutes for my lunch, and I was about to either go on a rampage or just faint, I was so hungry by the end. I went and ate it in the park since there still weren't any tables and it was so close and hot in there anyway. The other thing that was sad was that most of their business is take-out, so there was a huge amount of plastic and styrofoam going out that door. But whatever. The food was good in terms of basic Chinese food, but nothing amazing. It seems like the locals love it, but I probably won't go back.

If you need a quick pick-me-up you should go to the Highliner Coffee Company. It’s a little hard to find in Sitka terms – meaning it’s not on Lincoln Street – but it’s well worth it. Even though they are a coffee shop they are totally obsessed with wild salmon, and well they should be. To that end, they sell bumper stickers that say “Friends don’t let friends eat farmed fish – support Alaska’s wild fisheries” (you can also buy one online here) and notecards with Ray Troll’s great artwork for “Fish Are Not For Farming! Eat Wild Salmon.” Click on the link to see the Ray Troll art, but I didn’t want to put it here without permission. And of course, they have the usual Alaskan coffee shop fare- lots of tasty espresso drinks, smoothies, and pastries.

Backdoor Coffee behind the bookstore was also good- they make great cookies and have a great hippie-coffee-shop atmosphere, but like many Sitka establishments they keep odd hours when the cruise ships aren’t around. I was there pretty close to an hour before their posted closing, but there was no ship that day, so they apparently decided to close up early. Anyway, it’s not their fault – I’d stop working early, too, if I could – but it’s something to be aware of if you’re in Sitka.

Since I love chocolate, I figured I had better go into the Chocolate Moose. They have flowers and touristy gift shop things, and of course they have a chocolate counter. They had several chocolate bars that are made locally, including ones from the Chocolate Moose brand bars and from Theobroma bars. They also had a counter with a ton of truffles and other candies. The truffles were pretty big but expensive, $3 each, or a little cheaper if you get a box. The thing that was disappointing was that I noticed on the box after I took some truffles home that they aren’t made in Alaska! So if you stop by, get the chocolate bars that are locally made, not the truffles or candies in the display cases that are made Outside and shipped up. I got a dark chocolate with hazelnut bar from Chocolate Moose, and a Midnight Espresso Bar from Theobroma. I like them both but I liked the Theobroma more, which is convenient because you can occasionally find them in Anchorage.

One night for dinner I went to the Dock Shack. It was good, but didn’t blow my mind or anything. I still recommend it for two reasons. One, they just opened it, and they’re trying to keep it open year-round, which we should always try to support, and two, the restaurant is located in the Shee Atika Totem Square Inn, which is owned by the Sitka Tlingit Tribe, and I am for supporting businesses owned by Native Alaskan tribes. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The breakfast was a typical menu, but really I want to talk about when I went there for dinner. They had several Alaskan beers on tap; I got the Alaskan Summer Ale, which is a nice light beer for summertime. They had lots of seafood appetizers you would expect in any Alaskan resturant, like coconut shrimp, calamari, smoked salmon spread, cheddar baked scallops, and halibut bites. They also had several soups and salads, many featuring seafood, including a smoked salmon salad, a blackened shrimp Caesar salad, a Wild Alaskan Fisherman's Salad, which had shrimp, scallops, halibut, and crab and sounded really good, seafood chowder, and clam chowder. I got a "chop salad" with Stilton bleu cheese dressing which was totally not a chopped salad. It was a perfectly fine little romaine side salad, but I was expecting an actual chopped salad, which it was not even close to being. They had lots of typical sandwiches and other things, like a halibut sandwich, burgers, paninis (including a crab one), halibut tacos, and a roast beef sandwich. Entrees were also typical semi-fancy restaurant fare: they have a ribeye, a filet mignon, and cashew chicken. I got the shoestring-potato-crusted halibut with dill and champagne cream sauce. You could also get it with rice or fries, but I got it with the "cream cheese parsley mashers," which were basically really creamy herbed mashed potatoes. They were delicious, and actually way more interesting and original than the halibut. The fish was fine, it wasn't overcooked, and it wasn't drowning in sauce, but it wasn't as good as it sounded on the menu. I would give this restaurant another try for lunch or dinner, especially because it just opened recently, but my  first impression was that it didn't quite deliver - nothing was as good as I expected from the menu.

My other favorite place that I went was the Bayview Restaurant and Pub on Lincoln Street. I went there once for lunch and once for dinner. This place is pretty new- there used to be a fancy restaurant there, but new owners bought it, changed the menu and atmosphere, and are trying to keep it open year round. They have a serious pub/bar atmosphere, including TVs on the wall with sports on, but that’s okay because they’re a great restaurant. Since I went for dinner, after the cruise ships had left, it seemed to be mostly locals. Even moreso that most southeast Alaskan establishments, they are very militant about their seafood and beer. There are what are best called manifestos on their menus and on their tables about their support of fresh, local seafood and fishermen, and about local and independently brewed beer. They explain that the seafood menu changes seasonally, and that everything they serve is fresh and from some guy down on the docks, not frozen and from a giant distributor. All their beer is from “American, 100% independently owned operations,” so that we can “take a drink to an Anheuser, Miller, and Coors-free environment.” My kind of people! There is also a manifesto on the ketchup bottles about how it ruins the taste of the food they have so carefully prepared for their customers, which according to my waitress appeared after the owner saw a customer drowning his fresh Alaskan Dungeness crab in ketchup. And they have a couple disparaging remarks about Pepsi, but I didn’t find out an explanation for that. Still, the owners clearly sound like awesome people that we should support by going to their fine restaurant.

 

Like most places in southeast Alaska, the primary beer is from the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau. I had an Amber Alt Style Ale from there while I was at the Bayview, although it was in a bottle and I meant to get one of the ones on tap. It was still good, as all their beers are. They also have beer from the Baranof Island Brewing Company, which is a very small Sitka brewery and sells only growlers to the public and kegs to restaurants. I had a Baranof Brown the second time I went, which was their one draft from there. It was a lot darker than I usually like, but it was good and I’d really like to try some other beers from them sometime.

 

For food at the Bayview, they have a lot of seafood, burgers, sandwiches, and barbeque. I got the fish and chips, made with fresh Alaskan rockfish. The fish was great, it came with three giant pieces of fish that were cooked perfectly and were totally falling apart between the delicate cooked fish and the thin, crispy (not greasy) beer batter. The fries were also fresh and house made, and were really good. I also got a side salad, which was a good salad but it was pretty darn big for a"side salad." I can't imagine what the entree salads are like. When I went back a second time for lunch with some colleagues, I got the build-your-own mac and cheese. You get a basic mac and cheese and then you get to pick the things they add, like peas, onions, broccolli, mushrooms, sausage, and bacon. I got it with onions, mushrooms, and peas. It was good, with a good cheesy base, and room to add the flavors you like. I would like to point out that it is not baked, for those of you like my husband, who like their mac and cheese with a browned, crusty top.

Now, I have to discuss one of the specials, which I did not get but was so crazy it needs to be mentioned. They had a Freedom Burger special one day, which the waitress explained was a burger topped with deep-fried pickles, and instead of a bun, it’s served between two grilled cheese sandwiches. I’m trying to figure out the “freedom” part- is it freedom to have a heart attack? Freedom to go on cholesterol medication? I guess a lot of people split it. Honestly, I’m sure it’s fantastic for, like, two bites. After that you're just crazy.

So clearly you have a lot of delicious options when you come to Sitka. There were several places I didn't go, including the restaurant at the Westmark Hotel, which was supposed to be decent, the Reindeer Redhots hot dog cart, the Mexican restaurant, the other Asian restaurant, and Victoria's, which just looked like a generic tourist place. But I think I got a good representation of the food on offer, and I really think I got to the best places. I hope you're hungry!