This Citrus Tea Collection suggests 5 delicious ways to enjoy a cup of soul-warming tea on a cold winter day.
Hello everyone. I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. If you missed my previous post, you’re not aware I’ve had an extended weekend as I had an extra day off on Friday. Since last Monday was a statuary holiday here, there’s some simple math: over the course of 9 days, I only worked 3 days. How cool is that?
Also, even though it’s still a month until (official) spring, I can already feel spring in the air! Another exciting part is that daylight has become significantly longer now. Have you noticed that? That’s the best part after all! However, march could be rather tricky (Well, last year we had frost in June), so it’s too early to give up on all the comfort and soul-warming food and drinks.
My latest interest is developing recipe collections of drinks like this Christmas Tea Collection and this Mulled Wine. And here we go again – winter with its abundance of citrus fruit has inspired me for this Citrus Tea Collection. And I am not going to stop – there would be another hearty drink collection soon. I do love the concept of recipe collections because you can join ideas which you can hardly consider a recipe in one post. Smart, right? :)
There are no strict rules here. You just take whatever citrus fruit you like and jazz it up with spices and herbs. Love a refreshing delightful flavour? Try Blood Orange Thyme Tea. Love a pleasant bitter aftertaste? Grapefruit Tea with Pink Peppercorn and Thyme will do. Looking for a boozy drink? Spiced Orange Whisky Tea is your answer. Craving something sweet and delicate? Try Tangerine Thyme Cardamom Tea! And of course, as a prominent lavender lover, I couldn’t ignore lavender tea! Hint: when peeling citrus fruit, don’t throw away its zest. Keep it refrigerated until enough peel is accumulated then slice it and dry in the oven at about 130 degrees C for about 30-40 minutes. That’s a delicious addition to your tea!
There’s only one rule – follow your intuition by playing with various combinations and adjusting flavours to your liking. Bonus: a delicious and cheap treat for a cold time packed with vitamin C.
Cheers.
Ingredients
Tangerine Thyme Cardamom Tea:
- 2 cups of water
- 5-6 thyme sprigs
- juice of 2 tangerines
- 2-3 cardamom pods, opened and crushed
- 1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- 5 white peppercorns
Blood Orange Thyme Tea:
- 2 cups of water
- juice of 2 blood oranges + their zest
- 5-6 thyme sprigs
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken
- 1 star anise
- honey, to taste
Grapefruit Mint Pink Peppercorn Tea:
- 2 cups of water
- juice of 1 small grapefruit
- 2-3 tbsp.dried mint (or 1 mint tea bag)
- 10 pink peppercorns
- 2-3 cardamom pods, opened
- 2-3 thyme sprigs
- honey to taste
Lavender Lemon Tea:
- 3 cups of water
- 1 bag orange pekoe tea
- 2 thin lemon slices
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 5-7 lavender buds
- 1-2 tsp. honey
Orange Pekoe Maple Brandy Tea:
- 2 cups of water
- 1 bag of orange pekoe tea
- 1/3 cup of orange juice
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 1 clove
- 1 tbsp. maple syrup
- 1-2 tsp. of whisky or brandy
Instructions
Tangerine Thyme Cardamom Tea:
- Combine all ingredients in a small pan, bring to a delicate boil, then turn the heat off, cover, and, let stand 10 minutes.
Blood Orange Thyme Tea:
- Combine all ingredients except the honey in a small pan, bring to a delicate boil, then turn the heat off, cover, and, let stand 10 minutes. Add the honey to taste.
Grapefruit Mint Pink Peppercorn Tea:
- Combine all ingredients except the honey in a small pan, bring to a delicate boil, then turn the heat off, cover, and, let stand 10 minutes. Add the honey to taste.
Lavender Lemon Tea:
- Combine the water, lavender, and lemon in a pot and bring to a delicate boil. Turn the heat off, add the bag tea and honey, cover, and let stand 10 minutes.
Orange Pekoe Maple Brandy Tea:
- Combine all ingredients except the tea bag and brandy/whisky in a small pan, bring to a delicate boil, then turn the heat off, add the tea bag, cover, and, let stand 10 minutes. Add the whisky or brandy.
- Enjoy!
Hi – I’m Ben, a blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer. I’m glad you’re here! I hope you will enjoy hundreds of delicious recipes and a pinch of havoc in the kitchen.
What a great collection. I adore blood oranges and thyme is one of favourite herbs so that one has my name written all over it. I can imagine hosting a tea party with all of these.
I’ve also noticed the daylight becoming longer here now too Ben. Which is good as I hate the dark and need as much light as possible. But until we get full daylight again you’ve given us here a wonderful collection of teas. Nice! I am a big lover of tea nad you’ve inspired me to try out some of these different combinations. Thanks!
What a wonderful list of teas, Ben! I LOVE tea and am always up for new combinations!
Marissa recently posted…Shrimp Creole
I love all of these combinations, Ben! I would have a hard time deciding which, but the Grapefruit with pink peppercorns sounds really interesting! Thanks for the inspiration!
What a fun post, Ben! So many different flavor combinations. It’s been SO cold here and I’m so sick of it! I need all of the tea!
Oh, I am all about some tea right now! It’s frigid outside, and we’ve got 60 mph (!) wind blowing through today. I actually just came in from chasing my trash can (and all my trash from the week) down the street. It was awesome…except not. A good mug of citrus tea is exactly what I need to cheer me up right now! :-)
David @ Spiced recently posted…Corn Maque Choux with Smoked Andouille Chicken Sausage
These all sound delicious and I don’t know which I want to try first. It’s still chilly here in the mornings and evenings so I’m all about warming drinks–these sound perfect! Hope you have a great week, Ben!