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Saturday, November 27, 2010

My favourite tea recipes


When I was a child, my mother and I always used to drink tea together. We spent so much time drinking tea and chatting to each other! Tea is a big part of culture in Russia, where I come from. Most of the year the weather is cold, so it's more than just a tradition that when you get home you have a big hot cuppa..... Nostalgic. Summer time is perfect for refreshing cold herbal tea's or fruit tea's.

I have collected a few of my favourite recipes from my childhood.
The ones which my grandma and my mum used to make.
Here they are. Some of them are very easy and quite common, but they are still my favourite, so I have decided to include them as well.


Winter lemon tea


For this one you'll need to brew black tea in a pot. You'll also need a sliced lemon and sugar or honey.
When tea is ready, pour it into cups, add 1-2 slices of lemon and sugar or honey to your taste to each cup.
Stir the tea, and watch it change its colour... smells delicious!


Apple tea

For a medium tea pot of black or green tea, cut up 1 apple and add apple pieces to the pot. Cover up with a lid and leave for 2 minutes. Add sugar or honey if desired. Ready to enjoy!

Strawberry tea


 
Perfect in summer, when strawberries are fresh and sweet. 
Brew your favourite black tea in a pot. Pick a few strawberries (about 5-7 small ones, or 2-3 big ones per cup, small berries are usually sweeter than big ones, and also strawberries turn sweeter if the weather is sunny!) 
Put the strawberries into cups, mush them with a fork, add 1-2 tea spoons of sugar per a cup, and mix well. Pour tea on top of strawberries and stir gently.

Summer time special


 
In summer, we used to spend time in our family holiday house, where we had a garden with lots of herbs and different berries. My mum often used to make this tea, I remember helping her to pick the ingredients for this.
But this tea would be a bit difficult to make, if you're living in the city. Here in Australia it's hard to find some of the ingredients, but if you're lucky you might be able to find all the leaves you need!

For this tea you'll need to pick:
a few strawberry leaves
a few blackcurrant leaves
a few mint leaves
a few leaves of sea-buckthorns bush
a few raspberry leaves
* plus a bit extra, if you like you can add a few springs of lemon balm!


 
You'll need to pick more smaller size leaves and less bigger size ones.
Put all of them in a large pot and pour hot boiling water on top. Cover with the lid and let the tea brew for about 5-10 minutes or longer, if you like the tea to be stronger.
You can wait until the tea cools down, if you like it cold.
Perfect in summer!

Hypericum (St. John's wort) tea

All you need for this one is stems of St. John's wort (leaves and flowers all together). Brew as usual black tea.
Tastes delicious, we used to drink this tea instead of black. Goes well with honey.
Yummy!

Mint tea


 
I love fresh mint tea. Easy to make, you just need a few stems of mint or spearmint and hot water. Light and refreshing!
* To add a little extra flavour, you can drop 2-4 lime leaves to the pot, this makes it even more refreshing.

Orange and cinnamon tea

You'll need 1 sliced up orange, ground cinnamon, honey or sugar and a freshly brewed black tea.
Put 1 slice of orange into a cup, add 1/3 of tea spoon of ground cinnamon and a tea spoon of honey or sugar. Pour hot tea on top.
This tea goes especially well in winter.



I love to experiment with my tea and I always look forward to experience new recipes!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Kat,
    I am quite new to tea but have been enjoying a cup or 2 in the morning while getting the kids off to school lately. Unfortunately I don't sit to enjoy it but rush it down while making the lunches, getting school uniforms ready and making breakfast! Usually I drink English breakfast and I also like Madura tea which is local to us down here in Nthn NSW. It is grown at Cabarita. I like the sound of your apple tea recipe and will be sure to give it a try. x

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  2. Hi Katerina!
    Was just thinking that if you purchase a dehydrator you can collect or grow all the herbs & roots while they are fresh and in season and dry them yourself. When they are dry and crumble easily you can crush them or quickly process them in a food processor and then make up your own tea blends and pack them in containers. That way you can have all the blends you like all year round and much cheaper too......Just a thought....Roger

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  3. Hi Kate! Good to see you here!
    I know what you mean, it is exactly how I drink my tea lately, I also have to lock myself out in the kitchen otherwise kids climb all over me, while I'm holding a hot cup ! :)
    I love Madura tea, it is quite nice, I think I have tried all of their flavours, Earl Gray is my favourite.
    Hope to see you guys soon.
    Say "Hello" to the family from us! xo

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  4. Hi Roger! Thank you for visiting my blog!
    That sounds like a good idea making your own tea blends with the food dehydrator! Also thank you so much for the pictures you sent to us the other day, now we know what to look for.
    I think the hardest thing will be to start up looking for raw recipes and trying the new way of "cooking", but we're on our way.

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  5. да, чаепитие для русских - это особое удовольствие.. У нас как раз холодно стало, -10 уже!
    Так что я начинаю чай с мятой заваривать, обожаю этот свежий аромат.

    п.с. а ты, подружка, становишься отличным фотографом *))

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  6. Ой, да подружка, чай я в любую погоду пью, без него мне не обойтись! Только компании для чаепития мне тут не хватает: муж не пьет чай, дети пока еще только привыкают к чаю, но с ними за чаем не расслабишься....

    Спасибо за комплимент про фотографии! :*

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I ♥ all your comments! So please, feel welcome to say what you think!