Christmas Tea with Friends – How to Create Your Own Christmas Blend

When planning a Christmas Tea Party what could be more amazing then creating your own tea blend to share with friends and family.  The festive season brings inspiration and important key flavours of cloves, oranges and cinnamon to a cup of warming spicy tea.  We have listed some of our teas which mix well with seasonal spices.  We recommend the following:

English Breakfast: This is a blend of black teas from Sri Lanka and India and offers a robust body with elegant tannins.  It is delightfully aromatic with a scattering of pepper and flowery notes.

Ceylon Kenilworth:  This is our orange pekoe tea which offers subtle perfumed notes with a hint of wood and honey.

Earl Grey:  This is a lovely balance between refreshing bright keemun tea and citrus notes from the oil of bergamot.  As the orange notes are characteristically present, the addition of spice makes this an excellent choice for a Christmas Tea.

Rooibos Tea:  For a caffeine free option we suggest our Rooibos tea which is well rounded and medium bodied with a refreshing sweetness and undertones of nuttiness.

Before blending the tea you will need prepare the orange zest (if you are using Earl Grey as your base tea then omit oranges from this recipe).  Peel thick strips of orange zest from 1 or 2 oranges (you can always use the left over zest to make more tea and store it in advance).  Then tear the orange zest into smaller pieces. Arrange them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Bake for 20-30 minutes at 100C until dry.  Allow it to cool.

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons of your choice of tea
• 1 teaspoon of Orange zest
• 0.5 teaspoons Pink or black peppercorn
• 5 Cloves (you can use less or more depending on desired flavour)
• 1 Cinnamon quill broken into smaller pieces
• Half Star anise flower broken into smaller pieces (you can use less or more depending on desired flavour)
• ¼ Vanilla pod, halved lengthwise and finely sliced

Combine all the ingredients and mix well.  Boil fresh water and in the meantime fill your tea pot with hot tap water to warm it up.  Add 2-3 teaspoons (usually 1 teaspoon per person) of the newly blended tea into a tea pot infuser or paper infuser and brew for 5-7 minutes depending how strong you like your tea.  You can enjoy this with a dash of milk if needed.

You can also make this in bulk by going up on your ingredients but make sure to store this in an air tight container.

We hope you enjoy this tea recipe.  Happy Blending!!

Keep an eye out for our next blog where we tell you how to make your very own Christmas Tea Cocktail!