It’s the holidays, a time for special parties, feasts and fetes, and lots of good cheer. For some, it's helpful to have a non-alcoholic bottle on hand that still captures the feeling of celebration. Or maybe you're hosting a dinner party and you want to offer a distinctive pairing with the cheese course, something that balances perfectly with your Forsterkase and fig cake. Or maybe you’re just really excited by anything new, refreshing, sparkling, elegant, complex and celebratory!
Then you'll want to check out Golden Star’s White Jasmine Sparkling Tea.
White Jasmine Sparkling Tea is brand new, hitting the stores just before Thanksgiving last month. It was developed over several years of trial and error in the kitchen of Golden Star founder Eddie Carden, who lives in the Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco. The tea is now being manufactured just south of here in Belmont but it’s still made in small artisanal batches and contains just three ingredients: organic white tea, organic raw cane sugar and filtered water.
While it’s a delight to sip Golden Star Tea as an aperitif, its complex flavor profile really shines when paired with food. According to Eddie, the following pairings are best:
- Greens The light sweetness of the tea is a perfect chase for robust greens like arugula and dandelion that have beautiful ascendance but can leave bitter notes behind.
- Cheese The tea pairs well with many cheeses for the same reason that slices of apples and pears do....its balance of complex acidity and light sweetness.
- Seafood The aromatics in the tea can help clear the palate and provide beautiful contrast against the briny flavors of fish and other seafood.
- Lighter fruit/pastry desserts The tea provides a bright harmonious accompaniment to these lighter desserts much like a Sauternes or ice wine but without all the heavy sugar and alcohol.
You can find Golden Star White Jasmine Sparkling Tea in Whole Foods Markets across California and other select markets in the Bay Area, LA, NYC and Las Vegas. The suggested retail price is $12.95-$15.95. Keep an eye on their soon-to-be expanded website for more store locations and new products for 2009.
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What a lovely idea thank you so much for posting it. I will look forward to tasting it and giving it as a hostess gift. A simply elegant choice that you've made . Thanks again.
Elicia
This sounds like a perfect item for my family Christmas dinner! Has anyone confirmed this to be in Whole Foods in NY? Preferably Manhasset? :)
Oh, I hope this makes it out to the Midwest someday soon. I just love tea. And champagne. And so how perfect is this.
This is Eddie from Golden Star Tea Co.. Thanks so much for the generous comments!
I can confirm that the product is not in any Whole Foods Markets outside of California at this point. Our NYC team has a pallet of product on the ground with 2-3 more following, but unfortunately we're running pretty fast and I don't have any specific locations I can point to at the moment.
It's worth mentioning that the product can be purchased online in packs of 4, 6, or 12 bottles. We set it up so that packaging and handling costs are covered, so customers just pay standard shipping rates.
https://store.goldenstartea.com/
As Dana mentioned we're still working on a more elaborate web presence that we'll be launching in a week or so, but in the meantime the store is open for business.
Please feel free to post any additional questions you have about our Sparkling Tea. I'll do my best to respond quickly.
Cheers!
Just wanted to mention that I bought this for a dinner party here in SF this week. One of our friends is pregnant, so I picked this up so she could have a pre-dinner drink with the rest of us. It was wonderful! I loved it (she did too).
It has a little more complexity than a sparkling juice or non-alcoholic punch -- very tasty.