Served either hot or cold, this holiday spiced tea is fashioned after Russian tea punch.
Holiday Hot Tea Punch
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
Well, Christmas Eve has finally arrived, and as usual, we get no snow in Cincinnati. Just cold, overcast and rain. But I do see y’all are getting slammed across the northern tier of the US with a blizzard. Hopefully none of this disrupts your travel plans. Drive safe.
For my last post before Christmas, I decided to post this riff off a Russian hot tea punch. It’s really like a hot cider tea with holiday spices. I like drinking this hot or over a glass of ice (I am big on iced tea). This keeps well in a small crock pot if you want to keep it warm for guests and family to serve themselves from. It’s perfect for a brunch drink or just keeping warm all day long, inside away from the cold.
And you can probably use just about any kind of holiday spice tea in this, although I can’t vouch for all of them. Just use your own judgement if you already have a different type sitting around. The speculaas spice mix I already have posted to the blog, or you can use a commercial blend for it if you find one.
Tomorrow I am off for the day and will post again on Monday with my recipe for Blueberry Corn Muffins which I like to serve as a side to bean soups and the like around the new year.
I hope your holidays, whichever ones you celebrated, are everything you hope for and the food is wonderful. Bill and I wish you all the best for the season and the new year. Until Monday-
~Sue
Holiday Hot Tea Punch
Ingredients:
- 4 Stash “Christmas Morning” individual tea bags
- 3 cups apple juice or apple cider
- 3 cups water
- 2 (4-inch) cinnamon sticks
- 1 cup orange juice
- 4 tablespoons raw honey
- 1/2 teaspoon speculaas spice (get recipe HERE)
- pinch cloves
- 1 fresh apple, cored and chopped
Method:
- Bring water, apple cider and cinnamon sticks to a boil; add tea bags, remove from heat and steep ten minutes.
- Discard tea bags and place the tea with the cinnamon sticks in a small crockpot, along with the orange juice, honey, spices, and apple.
- Heat on high for thirty minutes or until steaming, then keep on warm/low setting to serve.
- Serve either hot or over ice.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
