Spiced Plum Tea Ice Cream

My inspiration for this flavor was brought about by an accidental run-in with a Harney & Sons flavor while eating brunch one day about three years ago. My cousin and brother were visiting me and we grabbed a table at Sarabeth's on the UES (overpriced but overall good food). Now this is the ONLY place in the city I've been able to find this specific flavor of tea. I've checked every coffee/tea shop I can think of, grocery stores, department stores, other restaurants, etc. Nothing. Nada. ZIP.
Now don't be getting this tea confused with the Passion Plum. While it's a fine tea, it nowhere compares to the rich flavor of the Spiced Plum. I've been able to find the Passion Plum in almost every establishment where I've found Harney & Sons tea. It's quite common, and normally found in bag-style. The Spiced Plum, which I was only able to find once Harney & Sons opened a store in SoHo, is only available in loose-leaf form. Actually, it's finer than that - almost like it's been ground. Better have a super fine-sieved tea infuser for this one! As for why I never bothered to order online, I just...didn't.

Putting this ice cream together required a little innovation on my part. My main problem was how to infuse the milk with tea. I have two tea infusers, both of which are not super-fine and both would not sit well in a pot of milk. So what did I use? A coffee filter and a chip clip. Not the prettiest, but it worked. Sort of. The ice cream itself turned out a little bland. What's weird is when you eat it, you know it's flavored with something, you just don't know what. Don't get me wrong - it's quite tasty and has good texture. I just don't think I added enough tea, which is funny because almost every tea ice cream recipe I've seen uses ~4 tbsp/teabags for a full recipe. I halved my milk and sugar, so naturally I halved the amount of tea. I wouldn't mind trying this one again because the idea of this flavor sounds really good. I'll just use 3-4 tbsp next time.


Spiced Plum Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients


*note - I'm halving all the amounts from now on in order to save on materials and cost. And my waistline.


1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp tea

Instructions


First I heated the milk and sugar in a small saucepan on low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next I made up my little "teabag" and placed it in the milk for about 5 minutes before turning off the gas and covering the pot with a lid. I left the milk to sit for about an hour or so in order for the tea to infuse.

Afterwards, I added the cream and whisked the mixture for 1-2 minutes making sure everything was incorporated before pouring the batter into the KitchenAid.

This batch only took about 8 minutes to churn completely (on low), and was put in the freezer to harden for a couple hours before eating.

The texture of this was superb :D