Christmas tea

Since it's just 3 days before Christmas (and I'm still moving a little slowly), I decided to see if I could find anything on the internet about Christmas tea. At first, I found some recipes from the US about using lemon and orange zest, spices, and black tea. For the UK, I found a lot about special foods being served at tea, but nothing about the beverage itself. I also found a suspicious number of posts about "Russian tea" all written by people in the US. I knew it wasn't real Russian tea when I saw references to dry lemonade mix and tang. One of the first few links on a Google search gave away that this was really from American church lady cookbooks. I've read enough retro recipe blogs to know that this was most likely true. In desperation, I went to the Twinings of London UK website, and checked out their special holiday blends. I was pleasantly surprised to find a wide variety of flavors, and one was very close to me already. Caramel flavored rooibos tea. My blend is actually chocolate and caramel, but close enough! Enjoy.





Yes, I love looking at the loose leaf blends. Part of the enjoyment is the full sensory experience of vision, smell, and taste. Not to mention loving the warmth of the beverage this time of year!









Here is the final brew. A lovely red color (fans of "The Number One Ladies Detective Agency" will know that rooibos is also called red bush tea). I like the natural sweetness of this blend. I often use it to derail chocolate and snack cravings at work. I can't say that it tastes like chocolate caramel candy, but it gives me enough of a distraction that I don't go for the real thing.

Comments

  1. Poppy CrockerDecember 23, 2018 at 6:40 AM

    I even have a recipe for an imitation "Russian tea." I can always find imitations of things that are already imitations: https://granniepantries.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-might-be-mixtake.html.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lace makerDecember 23, 2018 at 10:06 AM

      Maybe 2016 was Russia's revenge for having that drink named after them.

      Delete

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