Two years ago, give or take a couple of weeks, I was in South Korea drinking a citrus black tea affogato.
We’d flown in overnight from Vietnam, landing in Seoul at 5am, making our way into the city and onto a tour bus to go visit the DMZ.
But that crazy day is a story for another time.
My travel buddy J added South Korea to our Amazing Asian Adventure, and I’ll forever be happy that she did. Neither of us knew much about the country, but we were travelling around for a month and since we were already in that part of the world, it made sense to stop there for a few days.
Both J and I are market people. We love visiting our own Sunday craft markets here in Melbourne, browsing the stalls, catching up, and then having poffertjes for lunch. So we were happy little beans in Asia, visiting all sorts of touristy markets, produce markets and, you guessed it, night markets filled with all kinds of street food, some familiar, and some we’d never seen before that I am still trying to recreate at home.
I think we ate more in our five days in South Korea than we did in Vietnam or even in Japan! From our first taste of Korean egg buns, to grilled rice cakes and fish cakes smothered in spicy gochujang. Seafood and scallion pancakes, pizza cones and chilli carbonara. Followed by roasted chestnuts, fried milk, red bean and strawberry mochi and gelato roses.
But it was in a dessert café in Busan, where we had stopped to rest and watch the world go by for a bit, that I found tea affogato.
Coming from a coffee-loving family, I’ve been drinking traditional coffee affogato since I was a teen. But never had I come across a tea version.
Looking into it later, it’s everywhere, and especially popular with matcha and sencha teas. But my first experience with the tea version was in another country, seated next to two, very large stuffed bears, laughing with my best friend.
It was international tea day the other day, and this was a nice memory to have as I made my own black tea citrus affogato at home to celebrate. In isolation. During a pandemic.
So if you want a little bit of indulgence in your afternoon during these troubled times, make this. It takes just moments to pull together and other than boiling water, requires two ingredients. Three, if you’re feeling fancy. Serve with biscuits, if that makes you happy.
Citrus Black Tea Affogato
Ingredients
- 200 ml boiling water
- 1 lady grey teabag*
- 1-2 scoops vanilla bean ice cream
- Orange segments, optional
Instructions
- Brew the lady grey tea in a teapot until it’s strong in flavour and colour. It will get slightly diluted by the ice cream so you can let it steep for a little longer than you usually would.200 ml boiling water, 1 lady grey teabag*
- Add the ice cream scoop to a cup or glass and pour over the tea.1-2 scoops vanilla bean ice cream
- Garnish with an orange segment, if you’re feeling fancy.Orange segments
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
