Recipe: Phoenix Oolong Lychee Tea Crystal

The golden hue of roasted oolong tea inspires the name of this simple confection. Tea crystals take less than 15 minutes to make, and are a sweet treat to pair with your teatime rituals.

We’re using konnyaku or konjac jelly, which is made from a Japanese root vegetable. Konjac is low in calories and essentially tasteless, often used as a thickener in replacement of gelatin.

To make your beautiful tea crystal, you can use any tea but here we are using Phoenix Dancong Oolong of the Honey Orchid varietal. This tea has natural notes of lychee and passionfruit, thus we’re adding in lychees into the jelly to bring out the aroma and for additional bite. 

Ingredients:

5g Konnyaku Jelly Powder
8g Phoenix Oolong Tea Leaves
400ml Water
100ml Passionfruit Juice or Lychee Syrup
Lychee Fruit

Method:

• Prepare jelly moulds.

• Wash and rinse lychee or any other fresh fruits. Pat dry and cut into pieces (if needed).

• Arrange the fruits in mould. Set aside in the fridge.

• Steep tea leaves with water for 1 minute. 

• Heat juice and tea in a saucepan. Slowly add in Konnyaku powder. Bring it to a boil and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir until the bubbles disappear. Transfer to a pouring jug.

• Fill moulds with Konnyaku mixture. Set aside to cool in the fridge overnight. Remove the jelly from the mould before serving.