Tea Pairing Series – Raving Rose Seeks Match

So caught up we were with the whirl of the New Year that it was only after Valentine’s Day that we realized that our Raving Rose has not found a match! We decided to resolve this. After all, romance never gets old.

Like our previous TPs, we knew that testing every single tea flavour in our pantry would backfire in search of the perfect complement. We kept in mind that rose had a bold, fragrant taste, so we limited ourselves to two very different kinds of tea–a Japanese green and a black chamomile, vanilla, and honey blend.

Okay, the other reason we skipped other teas was that we were interested in pairing it with hot chocolate and apple cider. I guess this was technically cheating–we were supposed to be tea pairing.

By dusk, we have found not just one, but two matches!

Turned out, the black tea was just too overpowering. We suspect that it had something to do with the strong vanilla tone in the tea. We were left curious if this was the case with other varieties of black tea.

The pungent blend of cloves and cinnamon in apple cider practically washed the flowery taste of rose off our taste buds.

We were not at all surprised that green tea made a great match. A bite of something flowery and a sip of something earthy created a taste of harmony, nature working its magic.

While Raving Rose’s pairing with green tea made us think of the earth, its blend with chocolate called forth the feel of heaven. The bittersweet cocoa tone tamed the milky-rose combination, just enough to highlight its flowery taste!

We hope you forgive us for cheating during this month of love. Turned out, it was all worth it!

Saying Good-bye to a Memorable Year

It’s the morning of New Year’s Eve in Vancouver, but in many countries across the Pacific, 2015 has begun. People are flushed with revelry and full with the feast. Aided with memory, we can almost hear the firecrackers on the streets of Metro Manila.

Here, where we actually are, the sun is glaring on the quiet, icy streets. The perfect scene to sit back, be thankful for gifts and relish this year’s accomplishments. Emijoys made itself known to the world January of this year and it’s been a fun ride since then. The result of hours of kitchen experiments is our fudgie polvorons.

Happy New Year to all the beautiful people we met and get to know better because of this project. We hope we made your life sweeter through our creations. We especially thank the talented individuals who got on board with us to launching this delicious dream and for those who took a bite  of something different–we are happy you loved it! And for those lovely customers who kept coming back for more (not that we’re surprised.)

See you in 2015, when we are launching a new treat!

Meeting Maple Jack

Constantly on our toes and dreaming of flavours near and far–that’s how Emijoys defines status quo. We continue with our tradition of swimming upstream by introducing a tropical flavour in this season of dark afternoons, reddening foliage and cold gusts of wind.

We confess to being homesick when we came up with Lanca-Canuck, also known as Maple Jack–our jackfruit-flavoured fudgie polvoron with a Canadian twist. Jackfruit, or langka in Filipino, is grown in South and Southeast Asian countries. It is known for its green, spiky shell which makes for a challenging harvest.

The aroma has a thick, sweet smell, which makes one think of mangoes or bananas. And what’s waiting inside is worth the struggle with its thorny, thick shell. The yellow bulb-like flesh is tender and sweet with a richness that coats the palate like butter.

Naturally, we couldn’t resist finding out how it would get along with our base fudgie polvoron recipe. The milk and butter mellowed down the pungent tropical sweetness. To get it acclimatized in the Canadian landscape, we threw in some maple syrup in the mix.The result was just heavenly!

We are so excited with this creation that we are debuting Lanca-Canuck / Maple Jack at the Hawkers Market next Saturday (November 15, 2014 at The Independent, 188 Kingsway Avenue.)

Come have a bite of this fresh offering or get reunited with old favourites: Lavish Lavender, Ravising Rose and Classic Choco-Chips!

Emijoys Gets New Look and Fresh Lineup

Summer is winding down and as we bid adieu to the warm, sunny days, Emijoys is saying hello to everyone at the Hawkers Market with a new look!

The talented Shahanah Zaynah has been truly helpful in establishing our brand identity. The logo she designed showcases the dark red background that is playful, fun and passionate, with a light wheat accent that is reminiscent of many things delicious–think flour, think milk, think toasted rice, well, you get our drift.

We mark the arrival of autumn with our participation at the upcoming Hawkers Market. Come see us this Saturday, September 27th at 4:00 pm on 188 Kingsway Avenue, Vancouver.

Our four-flavour lineup boasts usual favourites and newer creations. Fans would be happy to reunite with Lavish Lavender–the first to sell out in our past markets!

Our hearts are never to drift far from tradition, so we will offer the Toasted Rice (Pinipig) Delight!

And you remember, Raving Rose, right? The bold rival to our Lavish Lavender in the floral category boasts a sweet, fragrant burst.

We are truly excited for our Purple “Yum”, a Hawkers Market virgin. Note that this is one of our fudgier offering.

We hope to see you partying with us this Saturday!

Crisp and Nice Pinipig and the Arrival of the Rice God

This scorching summer heat in our beautiful city the past few days made us remember Manila. In fact, one of us just got back from our native capital, bringing back a new member of the team–whom you get to meet later. ; )

So we dedicate this post to one of our more traditional flavours–the Toasted Rice (Pinipig) Delight.

Toasted rice, or pinipig, is the glutinous variety harvested before its maturity and pounded to give off the crisp nutty aroma and flavour. Pinipig  is sprinkled in various Philippine delicacies, from halo-halo (shaved ice and mixed sweets with milk) to rice cakes.

The combination of its delicate taste and crunchy texture accentuates rich and heavy treats, making it a perfect ingredient in the Philippine polvoron.

The new Emijoys team member is a formidable being, hailing from the northern part of the Philippines, a heritage of the Ifugao culture. Meet the bulul.

Bululs are carved by the Ifugaos out of consecrated wood, in a form of a man or a woman, a representation of a rice deity guarding the granary. Sometimes they come in pairs, a couple (stealing would be truly unwise!) They perform the duty either standing up or on a squatted-sitting position, folded arms resting on knees. The new Emijoys bulul doesn’t have that huge responsibility here in Vancouver, but we do have a good stock of pinipig that he has to watch over.

We thank a wonderfully sweet aunt back from Manila for parting with an item from her collection, a gift to remind us of the richness of our native land.

Dare you steal our goods under the watchful eyes of such guard?

Emijoys Hitting Gastown – see us at Woodward’s

Come and try our fudgie polvorons at this Saturday’s Woodward’s Artisan Market this Saturday. This Eastside Flea event will be open from 10 am to 5 pm. Try our four  flavours and take home a package of joy!

We will feature the following flavours:

Classic Choco-Chips – If you want the most of the milky base, go classic. The chocolate chips are in for a sinful kick!

Lavish Lavender – Perfect for summer. Get away with the luxurious taste of French blooms with a single bite.

Raving Rose – Another floral offering, the bold rival. The bits of petals in each piece give off the romantic aroma before tasting.

Toasted Rice Delight offers the subtle yet intriguing taste of pinipig. Don’t be fooled by its harmless look–it will keep you coming back for more!

Purple “Yum” and Coco-Purple “Yum” Lend a Taste of Home

With all the inventive flavours we’ve been coming up for our fudgie polvorons (from floral to fruity), one might get the impression that we are sailing so far from home with our experiments. So not true. We will always go back to fondly remembered tastes of our childhood and native land. Just take our latest offering, the Purple “Yum” Fudgie Polvorons.

Joining Toasted Rice (Pinipig) in our roster of Philippine flavours, Purple “Yum” combines the mellow earthy sweetness of ube (purple yam)  with our base polvoron recipe. You get the depth of the purple yam’s flesh in each piece.

A dash of coconut and you get Coco-Purple “Yum”. From ground to the treetops, but tropical all the way. The coconut lends texture and nutty taste to the smooth blend of milk and ube.

Ube  is a major ingredient in many Filipino desserts. Go up to Baguio for jars of ube jam that you would be snacking on during the six-hour bus ride back to Manila, or see a dollop of ube halaya (mixed with milk, butter and cheese) topping your neighbourhood halo-halo. If you see local cakes, pastries or ice cream with that light, violet flavour, chances are they are ube-flavoured.

The beautiful thing about Purple “Yum”, as with our other treats, is that you know you are getting the actual essence of the flavour. Talk about going back to our roots.

Come and get them!

Going Savoury and Sexy with Peep-show Empanada

Following its tradition of taking traditional Philippine recipe and giving it a daring twist, we are excited to announce our Peep-Show Empanada.

We defy strict tradition by revealing some meat, literally. ; ) While empanadas are known for its golden coating that keeps the filling a mystery till first bite, our version has slits on its pastry shell, lending some glimpse of flesh–our special meat recipe with exciting flavours!

Stay tuned for our flavours–we will announce them soon!

 

Tea Pairing Series – Lavender Seeing Black

Our Lavish Lavender fudgie polvoron is making waves during our past appearances at the Hawkers Market and among our fans. Because of this we are dedicating the second installment of our Tea Pairing Series to this floral delight.

Lavish Lavender achieves the delicate balance between dairy smoothness and fragrant zest. A bite gives a rich, milky taste followed by the flowery and ever-so-slight bitter undertones of lavender. Lavender flavour is tricky to cook with–too much can make the product taste like soap (yuck), too little makes it easy to miss. Fortunately, we have come up with our own ways of balancing the recipe.

Light research gave us the idea that lavender desserts go well with black tea. We wanted to be experimental so we involved three kinds of black tea in our experiment: Irish Breakfast Tea, Mixed Berry Tea and Earl Grey.

 

Irish Breakfast

Different black teas made us appreciate the lavender polvoron in different ways. The breakfast tea, for instance, brought out the slight bitterness of lavender, adding a kick to the relatively subtle tea. If you think breakfast tea is too mild to wake you up in the morning, try it with our lavender polvoron.

The slight downside to this pairing is that the lavender polvoron didn’t seem to add anything to the taste of black tea. The match is mostly one-sided, with lavender wearing the pants.

Something interesting happened when we added milk to our cups of Irish Breakfast tea. Dairy in tea and in polvoron heightened the milky taste, neutralizing the bitter taste and  bringing out the round, aromatic flavour.

Mixed Berry Tea

We read that fruits and lavender work well together, both being spring flavours. We happened to have Mixed Berry tea in our cupboards and we decided to include it in our experiment.  Turned out that this match is not meant to be–the acidity of the berries and the milky sweetness of the polvoron clashed. There is a wide variety of fruit teas out there and we probably had the wrong kind, as far as lavender polvoron is concerned. Oh well.

 

Earl Grey

After what we have encountered with the acidic Berry Tea, we were reluctant to try Earl Grey which is known for its citrus notes. We were pleasantly surprised. Turned out Earl Grey complements the milkiness of the polvoron–it is neither overwhelming, nor too mild. A bite of Lavish Lavender followed by a sip of plain Earl Grey left a our palate with a refreshing wash (reminiscent of the mint and choco-pinipig match), with the subtle taste of lavender trailing behind. The sweetness of fudgie polvoron toned down the sharpness of the bitter, rind taste.

Milk and Earl Grey turned out to be the nemesis of lavender–the milky combination killed off the fresh, springy lavender flavour.

The Perfect Tea: Black Breakfast Tea (milk or no milk) and Earl Grey (no milk)

If you are going for a bitter kick, pair our Lavish Lavender with  black Breakfast Tea (no sugar recommended). If you like a milky flavour with a hint of floral, add some milk to your Breakfast Tea. Earl Grey, no sugar and milk, is the perfect match if you want a balanced pairing.

 

 

See us at Hawkers Market this Saturday

Since you loved our fudgie polvorons so much at the last YVR Hawkers Market, you will be seeing us this Saturday at Studio East (1480 Frances). Grab your tickets here.

We are coming out with new, exciting flavours–Choco-Banana and Raving Rose (more on these addictive additions in our later posts, stay tuned). The popular Lavish Lavender plus the old-school but beloved Toasted Rice Delight will be making a comeback.

Visit our sweet booth for a feast of eyes, aromas and tastes. Another thing to be excited about is our dollar per piece offering. Taste one piece for a loonie, and the next thing you know, you will be getting yourself either a 4-piece package or an 8-piece package to share with friends and loved ones.