Cooking With Tea

I just received a comment on a post that got me to thinking about something I hadn't thought a lot about before. As a tea enthusiast, I have drank a lot of flavored teas over the years. Now, setting aside the debate on whether teas should be flavored or not, the question the commenter brought up was the reverse question:

Rather than having my tea flavored with something, how would I like something else flavored with tea? For example, rather than mint flavored tea, how about tea flavored mints?

To be honest, it's not something I'd ever thought about, a lot. I have seen and been a little curious about some recipes I've run across in the past. Like perhaps a chicken baked in tea leaves, or Maeda'en's awesome looking green tea ice cream.

As for the specific question asked (thanks Chocolate Blush) on perhaps mints, or chocolates with tea flavoring... as they seem to suggest in their own comment (and I would agree), it seems to me that coffee for some reason to be a better pairing with this type of taste. Although I am not averse to giving it a try, and if anyone comes up with something, feel free to fill out the contact form at the top of this page, shoot me an email and I'll be glad to review some samples for you!

A quick Google search turns up a few pages with recipes for cooking with tea, including this nice article on the Teamuse site from a few years ago. It seems there's quite a tradition of cooking with tea, and one that I might have to get on board with if I am to call myself a true tea enthusiast.

The only problem is... I'm not much of a cook.