Tea bags curdling my milk

[jessiquina]

i dont have a lot of experience with tea and their relationship with milk products. so i was making a panna cotta, steeping the milk/sugar/ tea bags. the next thing i know, the milk had curdled. im assuming that its the citric acid in the tea that is causing this, but how do i prevent it? ive done things with milk and earl grey, but maybe its this specific Passion Tazo Tea that is doing this. errrggh, its pretty frustrating!

 

[gunnar]

You may be over steeping? drawing too much tannic acid off of the tea? How long are you steeping for?

 

[jessiquina]

it really happens in the beginning, just as the flavors are being released into the milk.

 

[chefpeon]

It just may be very possible that you can't use that kind of tea to make your panna cotta. I wouldn't know how to prevent the milk curdling in the presence of an acidic ingredient.....

 

[petemccracken]

If it is the "acid" causing the problem, the only solution would be in the direction of making the milk more alkaline to offset the acidity. Might be tricky...

 

[igannon]

The name of the tea sounds like one that might have some fairly acidic ingredients. I'm not sure if its true, or something I've conjured up in my head, but I think that milk is slightly less likely to curdle when its colder. You might try steeping it cold over a day or so.

 

[rexxar]

Use manufacturing cream it wont seperate

 

[m brown]

How about a tea reduction added to scalded milk?

 

[seaside]

As the tea is a fruit tea and therefore quite acidic it will curdle, I drink it quite a lot of fruit teas,  but can never add any milk,   can you not use the earl grey or even better cardamon pods?  that will taste wonderful!    failing that a good dark green bay leaf. hope this helps./img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif

 

[jessiquina]

thanks for the help guys!

 

[rebecsound]

Try almond milk!  Taste great and wont curdle.

 

[808jono202]

Zombie thread. . . . must work for the Almond Milk people. . .