Chilled Berry Tea-Wonderful End-of-Summer Recipe

I met Katie Chin at The International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference (IACP) in June. Katie is an Asian food expert, cookbook author, and TV host. Her most recent appearance was on The Cooking Channel's show
Food(ography).  Be sure to check out her blog to see that segment as well as great Chinese recipes and tips.

Katie and I thought it would be fun for our readers to guest post on each other's sites. She has some wonderful recipes with tea as an ingredient that I thought my readers would love to try. I hope you enjoy Katie Chin's guest post below.

References to tea in Chinese literature go back approximately 5,000 years so it has obviously played an integral role in Chinese culture. While I love to sip cups of tea throughout the day, I also think it’s wonderful to incorporate tea into recipes for its amazing and subtle flavor.

Dried tea can be mixed with dried rice and brown sugar to create rich and delicate tea-smoked dishes or steeped with spices to create the most elegant, layered flavors. This recipe for Chilled Berry Tea combines the freshest berries at the peak of the summer season with star anise and passion fruit tea to create an amazingly refreshing, easy yet sophisticated dessert that will have your guests raving. The hint of mint leaves as garnish is the perfect compliment to this light and delicious recipe – the perfect ending to a late summer dinner party.


Chilled Berry Tea

5 whole star anise (if using broken pieces, use 1 tablespoon)
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 passion fruit tea bags
3 cups mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
½ cup bananas, cut into ½-inch dice
fresh mint leaves for garnish

In a saucepan, place 1 ½ cups water and the star anise, bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and stir well until the sugar is dissolved. Return to a full boil and turn off the heat. Place the tea bags in the syrup, stir, and let cool. Remove the tea bags, and the star anise. Pour the chilled tea over the berries and bananas. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Garnish with mint leaves right before serving.

Thanks Katie for sharing your recipe.  I hope you enjoyed the guest post.  I will be blogging about her new book that just came out  soon. Did you know that you could make 300 recipes in a rice cooker?

Happy Sipping and End-of-Summer, Lisa