Is anyone out there doing tea espresso latte's? I remember seeing an article or hearing about espresso tea and was curious.

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I mean, there are chai teas with shots in them..."dirty chais" They are not very good though IMHO.
I like a dirty martini, but a Chai...hum??? I think, I remember reading something in Fresh Cup about tea espresso. Maybe I have drank to many dirty martini's and I imagined it. Thanks
i think what you're talking about dawn is a tea latte rather than tea espresso- grinding tea finely and then pulling shots of it with an espresso machine which creates an espresso like base to combine with steamed milk. i have seen this done at least one place with yerba mate, and from what i've heard it's usually done with rooibos(red tea). my hesitation in doing this on the espresso machine i work on is the multiple use of group heads. i think it would be a pain to have to scrub the screen after each tea shot to remove the tea residue(rather than just flushing/wiping with a rag between espresso shots) so that it doesn't contaminate your coffee. it might be feasible to set aside a group on a 3 or 4 group machine if you really want to implement and feature a tea latte, but i think in a standard coffee environment it would be impractical.
it would also require it's own grinder
http://www.commongroundcafe.ca/
These guys have a dedicated grouphead on their espresso machine & they use their own tea blends in the portafilter, pull a shot & then make a pretty good latte

(they are a religious cult but have a nice little cafe & great food)
Dirty Chai or Chai Charger or Red Eye Chai is one of my favorite drinks. I love Chai & I love cappuccinos so mixed is perfect. Like a Mexican Mocha. Now it does depend on the Chai. I think a powdered sweeter Chai is better for a Red Eye Chai. A liquid based strong Chai wouldnt be as good with a shot because the strength of both the espresso & chai would fight each other.

Daniel Williamson said:
I mean, there are chai teas with shots in them..."dirty chais" They are not very good though IMHO.
Red Espresso is a Red Rooibos based Espresso method which has the Red Tea ground fine & shot in an espresso machine just like a "black" espresso. The Red Espresso is made to use the regular porta filter & basket with a 20 second infusion before pulling the shot although they have baskets made for Red Espresso that allows you to straight pull the shot without preinfusion. As to using a different group head, I dont (of course I dont have the space for a 2 group machine) & just rinse & wipe down the group head before & after use. It really doesnt "contaminate" your machine if you do a good job of rinsing & wiping down immediatly. Now I would suggest at least using a seperate portafilter. I love the Red Espresso & I've even started making a Red Chai Charger (Chai with a shot of red espresso). Red Espresso is naturally decaf & high in antioxidants (and tastes good too!) It makes an awesome drink they call a Fresh Red which is a cup of juice (white grape, orange, etc) with a 2oz shot of red espresso floated on top (beautiful) Do that with an orange juice & you've got a super antioxidant drink. It goes well in Red Lattes & flavor wise mixes well with spice (gingerbread, pumpkin spice, cinnamon) and berry flavors as well as vanilla & white chocolate. Many many years ago I was at a Coffee show & someone was doing a Chai in this method (a real chai with the black tea leaves & spices ground up fine, not instant) & it was awesome. But I never saw it anywhere else again. I was happy to see the Red Espresso. Highly suggest it.
http://www.redespresso.com/
its all about the mate latte. or the red tea latte. we make both at liquid planet. just run the tea through the esspresso machine.
I remember another thread (that you recently revived by chance, Mitch) on Red Espresso. All this got me interested again because I had bought a bag for home use but my then-espresso-machine, the Francis Francis did not have enough umpf not to get clogged when pulling a shot of this.

But now, I have a venerable E-61 grouphead at home that always operates at 8 or 9 bars, so I pulled out the old bag of Red 'Spro and... walla! A lovely reddish rooibos latte with just a touch of Torani honey vanilla syrup and dashes of cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin pie spice mixed in. Topped w/ a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

We don't serve these where I work now, but I surely would include these at a shop of my own someday! Great recipe ideas by the way Mitch. Thanks!

As a side note, don't experiment with this in a bottomless portafilter.... red spray all over (lol)! Oh- and as for cleanup, in a commercial setting I would do what I did at home if you're using the same group... after pulling tea shot, quickly pop in a blank basket and run it with a few portafilter wiggles. That'll clean it up for whatever comes next!

Mitch Buckner - Bella Caffe said:
Red Espresso is a Red Rooibos based Espresso method which has the Red Tea ground fine & shot in an espresso machine just like a "black" espresso. The Red Espresso is made to use the regular porta filter & basket with a 20 second infusion before pulling the shot although they have baskets made for Red Espresso that allows you to straight pull the shot without preinfusion. As to using a different group head, I dont (of course I dont have the space for a 2 group machine) & just rinse & wipe down the group head before & after use. It really doesnt "contaminate" your machine if you do a good job of rinsing & wiping down immediatly. Now I would suggest at least using a seperate portafilter. I love the Red Espresso & I've even started making a Red Chai Charger (Chai with a shot of red espresso). Red Espresso is naturally decaf & high in antioxidants (and tastes good too!) It makes an awesome drink they call a Fresh Red which is a cup of juice (white grape, orange, etc) with a 2oz shot of red espresso floated on top (beautiful) Do that with an orange juice & you've got a super antioxidant drink. It goes well in Red Lattes & flavor wise mixes well with spice (gingerbread, pumpkin spice, cinnamon) and berry flavors as well as vanilla & white chocolate. Many many years ago I was at a Coffee show & someone was doing a Chai in this method (a real chai with the black tea leaves & spices ground up fine, not instant) & it was awesome. But I never saw it anywhere else again. I was happy to see the Red Espresso. Highly suggest it.
http://www.redespresso.com/
we always called a "dirty chai" a "wet dog". make one and smell it, you'll see why.... ;)
Someone gave me a sample of the rooibos red espresso and I made a red latte. It made a freaking beautiful red rosetta, that's for sure. As for taste, it was decent, I'm not much of a tea drinker though and would never ever order something like this instead of espresso...ever. But I can see how it would be appealing to tea folks, or people who can't take caffeine. As for actually keeping it in stock...I don't know, maybe, it seems like you get almost the same effect by infusing whatever tea you want into the milk by putting it it a tea ball and steaming. Wouldn't be as pretty though.
I just do "tea au lait"; like others have said, I wouldn't want tea up in my group head.

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