Dinosara said

Tea Cocktails/Blended Drinks

I saw this and just had to share:

Ginger Marmalade Pu-erh Iced Tea
http://www.thekitchn.com/marmalade-ginger-iced-tea-recipes-from-the-kitchn-187973

Also cool that someone suggested pu-erh as a bourbon substitute, because one time I had a shu that reminded me of bourbon!

Does anyone else have any good recipes for cocktails (alcoholic or not) or tea blended with other things to make tasty drinks?

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I wrote a post about making a sencha saketini:
http://www.myjapanesegreentea.com/sencha-saketini-cocktail

Oh man I really want to try that now!

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Sil select said

I uh often pick fruity teas that i love and “steep” them in grey goose to have flavoured vodka to mix with juice and things that doesn’t taste completely artificial. One of my favourites is black-n-blue from serendipitea to make blueberry flavoured vodka. Not only is it really pretty but man does it mix well, and a little goes a long way

How do you steep it, do you just put the leaves inside the vodka for some time? When I mix tea with alcohol I usually brew it in water and then mix it.

Oh my god, this is amazing. I must know more about this, too. How long do you steep?

Sil select said

Yeah, i either use my libertea or i just toss the leaves straight into the vodka as if it were water, then strain it afterwards

Sil select said

haha the last time i did it, i’m pretty sure i let the tea sit in the vodka for 2 days? i sort of forgot about it. that was when it was in my glass travel mug

Mind blown. Buying new vodka tomorrow.

Sil select said

You can probably get away with an inferior quality vodka – the grey goose just happens to be what’s in the house cause i can pick it up stupid cheap via duty free when i have to travel lol

See my citron oolong martini recipe below, using oolong steeped in vodka :)

Okay, so what would you recommend I steep in some vanilla vodka?

Sil select said

Hmmm any flavour that you like with vanilla? Tried looking through your cupboard to get some ideas but then I just got hungry lol because I’ve never tried it with already flavoured vodka I’d go for maybe half a cup of vodka so as not to waste. Orange and cream might be interesting, though I’d be worried the orange would be lost since its not overly strong. I for sure want to try lime gelato now, but I’m not sure how that would work with vanilla… Basically find a tea you think might work well with the vanilla heh

Okay, I did Coco Lemon Thai in vanilla vodka for about five hours yesterday, and it is amazing. So then I tried spearmint and peppermint in another jar, because vanilla mint = awesome. They are both delicious, oh my god. This is brilliant.

Sil select said

oh yay! so glad they worked out :)

Nice!!

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I put vanilla vodka in tea. It’s especially good with DavidsTea’s Ceylon Star.

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Nicole said

Chai hot toddy:

chai blend of choice, rum, one lemon slice and honey to taste
or
chai blend of choice, bourbon, butterscotch schnapps and milk.

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I am not real fond of David’s citron oolong hot, but cold steep it in vodka, and mix 1oz with 1/2 oz triple sec and 1/2 0z lemon juice. Shake with ice! Oolongtini!

Sil select said

Hmmmm….possibilities. Wonder if I can work drunk from home tomorrow lol

Gotta let the vodka steep for a day or so…should be ready in time for the weekend ;)

What are your proportions for the tea and vodka?

I put a tablespoon of tea in 2 cups of vodka in a mason jar and left it on the counter for a few days and then strained it.

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ifjuly said

I’ve been going crazy trying to recreate a tea cocktail I had over spring break in New Orleans at the Sazerac Bar. It was called The Garden District and contained earl grey tea-infused vodka, honey, lemon, and fresh mint. I infused the vodka (made sure to use a smooth one and used a blend with ample bergamot as the drink had a lovely floral thing going on in spades), have been using good honey, fresh lemon, fresh mint…and I just can’t get it right! It’s been driving me nuts. It was very smooth and complex tasting, not overly tart or dry but also not particularly sweet. Every ratio I try I wind up with something too lemony, too sweet, or too medicinal (too much mint). Blrm.

Sil select said

Interesting

Kaylee said

Do let us know when you get the recipe down, please!

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My husband did this with Coffee beans in a Mead we had a little left of. Some of the best, yummiest mead I’ve ever had. Now I’m eyeballing the tea area wondering what we could put in the bottle next time lol.

Earl Grey booze sounds like the fast way for me to drink myself sick without meaning too because yum. If all of the stuff they used was locally grown, it could be the influence of the local goods making the flavor different.

ifjuly said

Yeah, now I’m wondering if I’ve been using the wrong type of mint. Try, try again. (:

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momo said

My friend was telling me about a cocktail at a restaurant that I basically need now: they call it a March Hare. It’s a bourbon based drink and there’s a black tea bag frozen in an ice cube. They don’t really have a set menu so I’m not sure about all the details but the one post I found on it says chai bitters, so I guess they even make that themselves. So not exactly something easily made at home but it still sounds so cool.

Earl Grey and gin is a good mix for infusing.

Tropicalia with coconut milk creamer and coconut rum is awesome too. Like a more coconutty pina colada.

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Anyanka said

This one sounds great- tea, lemonade, and gin (but I love gin): http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/Gin-Tea-and-Lemon-Fizz-201169

And this one sounds unusual and refreshing, and it’s nonalcoholic – tea, plums, fennel: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/Plum-Fennel-Iced-Tea-200605

I just got a recipe book with a lot of interesting drinks in it, several of them tea-based. I doubt I’ll get around to trying them though, I just never remember to make snazzy drinks.

(Here’s the full epicurious search I ran if anyone was interested, lots of tasty ideas: http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults/drinks?type=drink&search=tea)

Sil select said

oooh the gin one does sound delicious!

ifjuly said

I’d def. try either of those, and yeah the gin one sounds wonderful…if I never get my failed experiment upthread to work I bet that would be just about as good. Thanks for the links!

Lala said

I always make half and half lemonade and iced tea. So when I got home I put orange pekoe tea into a cup of gin. Will steep overnight. I will try making some gin lemonade tea tomorrow.

Edit: I steeped orange pekoe in 1 cup of gin for about 20 hours. Then I mixed it with lemonade. Turned out really good. I would have liked the orange pekoe to be a bit stronger though.

ifjuly said

I made that gin Arnold Palmer drink—it does require a little bit of patience as it steeps overnight—and man was it ever delicious! No one element in it is overpowering, it’s very nicely balanced and the fizz from the club soda makes it even more refreshing. Really good. Thanks so much for sharing! I envision many summer evenings out on the patio with a glass of it.

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We’ve run a bar serving exclusivly tea cocktails at a couple of events in the past! Found that there are loads of hot & cold ones which work really well. – my background was running bars so seemed an obvious thing to try and tea is a much better thing to use than mixers full of artificial stuff in my opinion!

There are a couple of ideas on our site- we’re in the process of updating it and adding more (particularly as we have another event coming up so I’ll need to dream up some new ones): http://www.bluebirdteaco.com/recipes/

And gin is an amazing thing to use, in fact, I know Gordon’s came pretty close to releasing a tea infused gin!

Anyanka said

This is cool, thanks for sharing. Of course, now I want a cocktail at nine o’clock in the morning.

Here’s one I made earlier… Raspberry Mojito using our MojiTEA as the base:

http://t.co/6XYZAD3dXr

(this thread appearing in my notifications reminded me Krisi had posted a pic the other night)

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