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!