Yum! Spring food trends: Pyramid tea

The clocks have sprung forward, snow birds have begun to return and we have survived another winter. So let's prepare for the hippest food trends this spring.

Over the past few months we have tried many cool new beverages (fruit beer, root beer, gin, Portuguese wine and flavoured vodkas are all in the pipeline). So, to kick off our spring trend watch, let's start with the hottest thing in tea -- whole leaf pyramid tea bags.

A growing appreciation for fine teas (and lack of interest in traditional preparations using teapots and strainers) has led to the evolution of the pyramid tea bags. These offer the best of both worlds -- the full flavour of loose tea with the convenience of a bag. The pyramid shape houses fine whole leaf tea leaves (herbs and spices) in a transparent bag, offering great visual appeal and providing maximum volume for the leaves to expand and unfurl. Made from nylon mesh, they have larger openings than paper, allowing faster hot water infusion and better extraction of colour and flavour. And, because they are bonded with heat there are no staples (as there are with many regular tea bags) that may alter the flavour of the leaves. Here are three brands to look for.

Les Pyramides de la Compagnie Coloniale Tea
Lovely fine quality tea leaves, such as Darjeeling and Ceylon and infusions, such as Earl Grey (black tea with bergamot, cornflower and calendula) and Relaxing Blend (with rooibos and vanilla). Available at fine food stores.

T-Whole Leaf Pyramid Teabags
After trying a selection of eight blends from the Tearoom (in Vancouver), our hands down favourites were spicy Moonsoon Chai (with Ceylon black teas, spices and ginger) and the light and refreshing Long Life Green (with organic Japanese and Chinese green teas and marigold flowers). Available in the store and online.

Lipton's Pyramid Tea
Last week, we discovered Lipton's new line of paper pyramid tea bags at our local grocery store, making them an economic introduction to the pyramid tea bag craze (a box of 20 tea bags was $2.99 with a $1.00 off coupon). Our favourite blend was the clear, delicate Asian White (unprocessed Chinese white tea with apricot and floral flavours), but the South African Red Tea (with rooibos, black tea, spices and vanilla) and Sri Lankan Gold Tea (black tea with honey, vanilla and bergamot) were also quite pleasing.