Tea Blog

By Stephanie Harkins [reposted from our sister blog]

Tea can make a wonderfully flavorful addition to holiday festivities. And even though a pot of hot tea on a cold winter’s day is a delight indeed, there are also a few recipes that I myself have created with teas to make the holidays a bit more special.

Eggnog Spice Rooibos
Okay, true, this first recipe calls for rooibos, which isn’t technically a tea, but this is my favorite homemade recipe of 2009, so I’m including it in this collection for sheer good flavor.

• 1 cup of cold water
• 1 teabag of rooibos OR 1 tsp loose rooibosin an infuser
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 2 cups Eggnog

In a medium saucepan, add together the cold water and rooibos, and bring to a rolling boil. Add Eggnog and spices and heat to a point just below boiling (do not allow it to come to a boil). Pour immediately into mugs, garnish with cinnamon sticks and whipped cream with sprinkles of nutmeg.

Serves 2!

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Cinnamon Assam Cider
This festive drink uses the malty character of an Assam to compliment the apple cider and cinnamon.

• 1 tsp of Assam tea
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 cup of Apple Cider
• 3-4 cloves

Brew the Assam tea using apple cider instead of water to brew your tea. This, along with the added cinnamon and clove gives it the feel of mulling spices, a very delicious dark spicy brew in the fall and winter

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Hot Yuletide Cheer
My mother used to make this recipe around the holidays, so I can’t claim exclusive ownership of this recipe, however my mother made it every year at Christmas time, so it carries a lot of special memories with it.

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 6 bags or 6 tsp of black tea
• 1 broken/chipped cinnamon stick
• 3 Whole cloves
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup cranberry or pomegranate juice
• 1 cup Burgundy wine (can be replaced with grape juice)
• Orange slices with 2-3 cloves placed in each for both flavor and visual appeal

In a large saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil. Add the black tea in teabags or using an infuser to steep the tea for approximately 5 minutes along with the cinnamon pieces and cloves in the saucepan. After 5 minutes, remove the teabags, and stir in the sugar, cranberry or pomegranate juice and wine or grape juice. Serve hot in mugs with the orange slices as a garnish.

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Merry Matcha Cookies
Matcha is fabulous in anything – tea, food, candy, you name it! This recipe utilizes the delicious flavor and nutrition of matcha to create festive holiday cookies.

• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4-6 TBSP of Matcha, depending on how strong you want the cookies to be
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup of soft butter
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Red Decorating Sugar (optional)

Combine dry ingredients (salt, baking powder, matcha, flour) together in a large mixing bowl, then set aside. Then in a different large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, beating in the egg yolks and vanilla extract as you go. Gradually fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well – resulting dough will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Using a rolling pin, roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Using holiday-themed cookie cutters, cut out shapes from the dough, decorate with your decorating sugar and place about an inch apart on the greased baking sheets.

Bake for 10-13 minutes until lightly golden on top then allow to cool.

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As you can see, tea makes a versatile treat for holiday recipes!

Stephanie is the publisher of The Tea Review Blog, a great place to learn more about tea!