Holiday Teas

[Richard Kilgore]

Anyone have a good recipe for making a holiday spiced tea?

[Beebs]

Spiced chai always puts me in a festive mood (although it's tasty any time!). Lots of different ways to make it, everyone has a particular way of doing it. For me, I mostly go by taste. No specific recipe, but to make one mug (16 oz or so):

-In a small saucepan, throw in either a teabag of strong black tea, or a couple teaspoons of loose. If I have it on hand, I prefer a looseleaf, malty Assam tea.

-Add enough hot boiling water to make up approx a third to a half of your mug.

-Toss in a couple cinnamon sticks, a couple whole cloves, a tsp or 2 of crushed cardamon pods. Steep everything for a few minutes.

-Top up with whole milk and bring to a low simmer for another 5-10 mins, or until it's spicy enough for you.

-Strain out spices and tealeaves. Add sugar or honey to taste.

-For the holidays, I'll use a little eggnog or brandy/rum/booze of choice. Yum!

[andiesenji]

Peel 1 large orange and 1 large lemon, using a vegetable peeler and taking only the colored part.

To the strips of peel add 1 tablespoon of whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

a few star anise, if you have them, crush to break them up

1 tablespoon of green or white cardamom - crush them a bit

1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries

Tie this mixture in a muslin square (or a piece of cotton from an old sheet or old dish towel)

Simmer in about a quart of water for about 30 minutes.

Brew black tea as you would normally for a fairly strong tea and mix equal parts tea and spiced brew, sweeten to taste.

If you have an old coffee percolator (stovetop or electric), you can put the peel and spices in the basket, water in the bottom and let the percolator do the work - and you can even toss in a couple of tea bags and brew it all together. Sixty years ago this appeared as "Russian Holiday Tea" in the Ladies Home Journal except they did not include the cardamom or star anise.

However, I should confess that I have recently received an order from Adagio that included several of their special holiday blends, including Allspice Chai overload, Yuletide and etc.

Edited December 17, 2008 by andiesenji (log)

[Yajna Patni]

Masala Chai is always good!

I usually use a CTC tea and boil it a bit with spices.

I don't have a recipe either. I like some fresh ginger and black pepper in mine for a kick. Some times thats all, sometimes with cardamom, sometimes cardamom on its own, a little star anise and cloves are good too. Just however you like it.

I boil the spices with the tea, and then add the milk and sugar and simmer a bit. I like the tea strong enough that it tastes like spiced tea and not a sweet goopy spicy mess.

[andiesenji]

I am sure that people get tired of having me constantly tout Republic of Tea but they have a foolproof solution for people who want to add a little or a lot of spicy stuff to tea.

Their product Cardamon Cinnamon "Warm the Heart Herb Tea"

actually contains no "tea" but is, "A blend of cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pink peppercorns, and star anise."

Naturally Caffeine-free

One can mix this blend of spices with black, oolong or green teas, or mix with Rooibos with or without the regular teas, depending on how much caffeine one wishes to consume.

It is true that one can buy "Masala Chai" spice mixes, however these often contain ground or powdered spices which I am not convinced always retain their flavors. I have purchased some that are so bland that they are hardly worth using.

One major advantage of the RoT product is that it is packaged in teabags as well as loose so it is very easy to use for people who use mostly tea bags.

Unlike some tea "purists" I have no objection to tea bags, they come in handy and today there are some excellent (and high-end) teas packaged this way.

Use what works for you, not what you think you should use and never be apologetic for using tea bags if that is what you like no matter what other people might say.

I write this because earlier this morning I overheard (shamelessly snooping) while one woman took another to task in Trader Joe's for buying a couple of boxes of teabags, the implication being that it was not socially acceptable to serve tea made with teabags to party guests.

Naturally, being the pushy type I am, I caught up with the discouraged customer and reassured her that there was nothing wrong with using teabags. (She went back and picked up the two boxes and checked out with them.)

I can't stand self-appointed "experts" like that ill-mannered woman.

[Richard Kilgore]

I am sure that people get tired of having me constantly tout Republic of Tea but they have a foolproof solution for people who want to add a little or a lot of spicy stuff to tea.

Their product Cardamon Cinnamon "Warm the Heart Herb Tea"

actually contains no "tea" but is, "A blend of cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pink peppercorns, and star anise."

 

Naturally Caffeine-free

One can mix this blend of spices with black, oolong or green teas, or mix with Rooibos with or without the regular teas, depending on how much caffeine one wishes to consume. 

It is true that one can buy "Masala Chai" spice mixes, however these often contain ground or powdered spices which I am not convinced always retain their flavors.  I have purchased some that are so bland that they are hardly worth using. 

One major advantage of the RoT product is that it is packaged in teabags as well as loose so it is very easy to use for people who use mostly tea bags. 

Unlike some tea "purists" I have no objection to tea bags, they come in handy and today there are some excellent (and high-end) teas packaged this way. 

Use what works for you, not what you think you should use and never be apologetic for using tea bags if that is what you like no matter what other people might say.

I write this because earlier this morning I overheard (shamelessly snooping) while one woman took another to task in Trader Joe's for buying a couple of boxes of teabags, the implication being that it was not socially acceptable to serve tea made with teabags to party guests. 

Naturally, being the pushy type I am, I caught up with the discouraged customer and reassured her that there was nothing wrong with using teabags.  (She went back and picked up the two boxes and checked out with them.) 

I can't stand self-appointed "experts" like that ill-mannered woman.

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Thanks, Andie. Sounds like a practical and flexible idea. Since reading this I have been trying to track down this RoT Cardamon Cinnamon locally. No luck at a couple of places, including Whole Foods, but I'll try Central Market next.

[Richard Kilgore]

I found the Cardamon Cinnamon at a Central Market, but they only had the tea bags. I have brewed it three times for groups of people on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and some liked it a lot, some thought it okay and some liked it less. This was only done straight with no teas or tisanes added. I thought it was okay and consider it is a good option, but I want to try some other ideas in this topic, too.

[Richard Kilgore]

I have been drinking the Mariage Freres Noel from TheCulturedCup.com, and wondered what holiday teas you all are drinking or giving as gifts. I was going to feature this tea in a Tea Tasting & Discussion, but it arrived too late from France. Too bad, because this blend is so well balanced among it's components: a Chinese black tea, orange zest, dried apple, vanilla and Cinnamon. In general I don't care for vanilla in a tea or tisane blend - not that I don't like vanilla, but too much of it in the blend would kill it for me. And I'm not that fond of flavored teas in general either, but this is really well done.

So what do you all recommend? Anyone blending their own holiday tea this year?

[mbhank]

My favorite is Mariage Freres Eros, also from TheCulturedCup. I have given it as gifts many times.