Ingredient of the Month: Qi Black Tea Liqueur

Pronounced “chee”, Qi Black tea is an ingredient we immediately latched onto due to its uniqueness. It is made in small batches in California. It has the alcohol proof of a typical vodka, the smokiness of a scotch and it is defined as a liqueur. The smokiness is particularly striking and is obtained from infusing smoked Lapsong Souchong tea leaves…and it is not for the meek. This is a great example of a product carving out its own unique territory…not simply jumping on the bandwagon with what is popular at the moment. The Gintender used Qi Black in the 2009 Artini competition and we won first place. It is fun but challenging to mix. The website offers a number of excellent recipes by mixologists across the country.

However, we’ve got a few of our own orignials up our sleeves this month, so be sure to give them a try.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 10:42 am. It is filed under Blog, Ingredient of the Month and tagged with Qi Black Tea Liqueur. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.