Oolong... syrup?

[H.M. Murdock]

So, I have been thinking on it all day. While I do appreciate tea on many levels as a beverage, I am... concoction-enabled, you might say. That is, everything is suspect as a condiment for my cooking.
That said, I am a huge fan of ice cream. Particularly, I enjoy making my own vanilla ice cream with white pepper in it, which gives it a good kick or bite in the aftertaste, once the vanilla taste fades.
So, I figure, why not make tea into a syrup for ice cream?

The first thing that came to mind was to just whip out the old tin of Twinings earl grey and experiment the hell out of it, but that seemed not only disrespectful, but also seemed to be a horrible match- smoky, tart earl grey tea with lofty, uplifting vanilla ice cream? Ew.
So! I turn to the tea that captures my imagination on rainy days- oolong. The light, ethereal quality in its aftertaste makes it a perfect combatant for the tangy bite of pepper, and brings up a nice compliment to the vanilla.

But I can't figure out how to thicken the tea without destroying its beautiful bouquet. Thoughts? Ideas? I've got a suggestion for blending it with a caramel syrup so that it would harden and create sort of a shell, but... I am skeptical.
Help?

[EvenOdd]

You could try making a simple syrup, but instead of water, use tea. Simple syrup is usually 2 parts sugar to 1 part water in a pan, and boil it, for a thick syrup. Try using a nice concentrated batch of tea (as if making iced tea) for the water.

[cubby]

I once had a job making chocolate truffles by hand, and one of ours was a blue-flower earl grey dark chocolate. the ganache filling was made by steeping a large quantity of the tea in heavy cream, and then melting chocolate into it.

i have tried this method to make green tea white chocolate truffles, but the green tea flavor usually comes out either too subtle or too bitter.

for ice cream, you might use a similar method -- just replace regular cream with tea-steeped cream.

[Guest]

Anyone ever tried DeBrand chocolates? They have several tea truffles which look divine, but cost a small fortune to ship.

Mm. Nice!
I had a merlot-filled chocolate in Virginia last week. Little vineyard called Breaux vineyards. Amazing stuff.

for ice cream, you might use a similar method -- just replace regular cream with tea-steeped cream.

Yesss. This is especially good, as I recently obtained a small ice cream maker. It would be good with white pepper tossed in during the process of making it.

[H.M. Murdock]

▲ That was me. ▲

On a side note, I did make an oolong syrup the other day, with blueberries and red plums. It went well with pancakes.

[Darth Jeeling]

sounds nice - did you make it using EvenOdd's suggestion?

...and don't be surprised if you find it in this month's teachef, since the recipe I'm planning to make involves pancake and what was originally going to be a chamomile-honey mixture....so thank you very much for the idea!

[H.M. Murdock]

You're very welcome. I'll vote for it. *wink*
I can give you some nice pancake suggestions. For example, a pinch of cardamom, a pinch of nutmeg, 1/4 tsp of Vietnamese cassia cinnamon and half a banana makes for a nice batch of pancakes.
I was going to work with this idea for the wuyi of last month, but after I recieved the sample and made myself a cup (gotta know what I'm working with, right?), it was... not at all savory to me. I will stick with my trusty tin of ti kuan yin.

[Darth Jeeling]

Thanks for the pancake ideas. I'm afraid I got here too late for the TeaChef entry to include them, but then, it was hard enough getting the chamomile to stand out already, so I'd better try some for breakfast tomorrow.

[JamesBeach]

Boiling down a brew (without the leaves, of course, that would make it bitter) until you have a much smaller quantity will yield a very potent extract. It won't be syrup in its consistency, but it will be very strong. Perhaps that would work?