Deklah Polansky and Poorvi Chordia come from different cultures. But in their love of tea and cookies, they have found a common language.
Take a bite of Polansky’s lemon-glazed brown butter and black sesame cookie, a nutty, burnished beauty of astonishing complexity. Then take a sip of the black Assam tea that Chordia imports from hilly northeastern India, a cup that evokes stone fruit and fine-aged brandy.
As Polansky writes in the notes for the cookie-and-tea tasting we experienced recently in her Buckhead high-rise: “Together, the floral bouquet of the tea and the rich soulful cookie is a pair with a point of view!”
Sounds a bit like this tea-and-cookie duo.
Both mothers of two, Polansky is a successful graphic designer who grew up on an Israeli kibbutz, Chordia a Mumbai native who teaches at Morehouse School of Medicine and works as a physician at Grady Memorial Hospital. During the pandemic, both women started to look outside their professions for ways to reduce stress and anxiety — and connect with people.
Chordia and her husband, Abe Thomas, also a physician, turned their love of tea and travel into Herbs & Kettles, a business that imports high-quality teas from India. Polansky, who has enjoyed baking since she was a child but has issues with wheat and processed sugar, started to go deep into gluten-free sweets. She found inspiration in the sesame, tahini and citrus she remembers from Israel.
“I’m pretty sure that my sense of flavor combination was developed earlier on, because I used to dip green olives in sugar,” Polansky said as Chordia poured tea. “I think that when COVID hit, I had such a need to go back to like maybe the safety of my childhood. I had flowers and herbs on the balcony, and it was my escape.”
At the same time, Chordia and Thomas were nurturing a garden that started with a single blueberry bush, and sipping tea. “It grounded us,” Chordia said. When they began to import teas and sell them at local farmers markets, Chordia — who spent a decade moving from state to state while she and her husband trained to be doctors — found camaraderie in tea. It fueled her creativity and stimulated conversations. “The one thing I craved was community, like real people, people I could spend time with having conversations, and feel comfortable,” she said.
In 2022, Chordia and Polansky staged their first tea-and-cookie pop-up at Bella Cucina in Buckhead. Since then, they’ve been sharing their love of camellia sinensis and confections at events around town. Polansky — who crafts sweet treats with the same precision and panache she brings to graphic design — sells cookie boxes via her Instagram account. Chordia purveys tea via the Herbs & Kettles website, and at Grant Park and Piedmont farmers markets.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
When I first tried Polansky’s small cookies, I found them unusual, and irresistible. Could low-sugar, gluten-free cookies really be this satisfying? With Valentine’s Day approaching, I asked Polansky to share some cookies suitable for baking at home. I requested that one use Herbs & Kettles tea as an ingredient.
Big thumbs-up to the results.
Her Tahini, Honey and Orange Cookies, little puffy rounds scented with citrus and rolled in sesame seeds, are a cinch to make. Masala Chai Tea Cookies can be cut into hearts, or any shape, and pack all the pleasures of a cup of ginger-and-cardamom-laced tea. Brown Butter-Black Sesame Cookies are flavor bombs like I’ve never had before, earthy, exhilarating and — dare I say? — redolent of strong coffee.
Savoring a few sweet bites in the moment, Polansky says, is far better than binging. But first, Chordia would add, put on the kettle.
RECIPES
Deklah Polansky’s gluten-free tea cookies are sure to make anyone’s Valentine’s Day a little sweeter.
Wheat-free baking is a precise science. If at all possible, weigh the flour and follow instructions for chilling dough and freezing before baking. Unbaked dough may be frozen until ready to use.
Brown Butter-Black Sesame Cookies
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Dark-brown butter and heady black sesame are exciting bedfellows, as Polansky’s sensational cookie recipe demonstrates. The lemon glaze gives it a sweet-tangy finish.
Tahini, Honey and Orange Cookies
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Almond flour, honey and tahini give these cookies a wonderfully springy texture, and the sesame seed coating imparts crispness. The smell of orange reminds Polansky of her childhood in Israel.
Masala Chai Tea Cookies
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
By steeping masala chai in brown butter, you get a wonderfully spicy cookie. Glazing gently with chai-infused honey adds an extra sweet zing. We used Atlanta-based Herbs & Kettles’ masala chai in this recipe, and loved the results.
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