In the afternoon, tea with pastries;

Tea is certainly not a newcomer to Argentina. As a matter of fact we can trace its growing and production to the early years of the 20th century. During the last decade of the 1800s and the first of the 1900s Argentina imported tea from Russia and also started growing the more popular of Russian teas in particular the Caravan Tea, a black tea closely associated in taste with the black Lapsang Souchang.

During this period and until importation of tea from Great Britain was prohibited by law by Juan Perón, Argentina imported a Ceylanese orange pekoe tea from England by the name of Té Sol. Once Perón's importation law came into effect, local industry started growing this particular tea domestically and received permit to continue labelling it under the original Té Sol thus assuring continuity among its devotees. It quickly became even more accepted throughout the Republic and was marketed very widely in decorative tin cans similar to this:


Ceylanese Orange Pekoe Tea Té Sol

Juan Perón's law prohibiting the importation of tea was enacted in 1951 in the middle of a flourishing economy. This was the shot in the arm that the national tea industry needed. Various tea seed (Souchang, Darjeeling, Orange Pekoe, Chinese Green and White, etc.) were acquired from the more advanced tea-growing countries and by 1955 the province of Misiones was exporting domestic tea to Chile. That these types of tea were selected for seed import would indicate that they had been imported into Argentina prior to the 1951 Import Prohibition Law and well accepted by the population. And this is why I hold that these are most likely the types of tea one would have expected to find served at Corrientes 348 The domestic Russian tea would certainly not have been one.

Masitas, small pastries, have always been part of Argentine cuisine. One cannot imagine tea in a Buenos Aires locale as affluent and attractive as our Corrientes 348 without a generous selection of masitas. So, before all else, let us take a look at a few of the more interesting and irresistable:


Dulce de leche covered in chocolate	Coquito (Macaroon)	Dulce de leche between cake layers	Carrot Cake in tiny squares

It is quite obvious that Dulce de leche is very much an essential part of a number of favorite masitas. So, what is this Dulce de leche?

Dulce de leche is a milk-based syrup found as both a sauce and a caramel-like candy. It is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product similar in taste to caramel. Very popular across Latin America, particularly in Argentina and Uruguay, it is also consumed in Paraguay and Brazil (doce de leite), and in France a confiture de lait is very similar to the spreadable forms of Dulce de leche. In Mexico it is called Cajeta; in Panama and Peru Manjar Blanco; simply Manjar in Chile, and Arequipe in Guatemala, Colombia and Venezuela.

There are many stories about the origin. One story involves the 19th century Argentinian political leader Juan Manuel de Rosas. The story goes that in a winter afternoon at the Rosas house, the maid was making some lechada - a drink made with milk and sugar boiled until it starts to caramelize - and she heard someone knocking at the door. She left the lechada on the stove and went to answer the door; and when she came back, the lechada was burnt and had turned into a brown jam: dulce de leche.

The most popular dulce de leche brands in Argentina are Ilolay, La Serenísima and Sancor, while those of Uruguay are Conaprole and the famous Lapataia, a product of Punta del Este.