Christmas Traditions - Tea Infused Eggnog

It’s no surprise that Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year! I know that it can be stressful for a lot of people for many different reasons and because of this, the “holly jolly” attitude can be off putting. Like for so many, this season is tough in it’s own way. I shared before that for whatever reason, in recent years and even when I was a child, so many of my loved ones who passed away did so in the November to December time frame. My way of coping and honoring their memories is to be jolly during this season. It helps me through and I think it’s what they would have wanted!

The actual day of Christmas has always been the most stressful due to trying to please everyone with how much time is spent with what part of the family. Some of my favorite parts about Christmas are all the fun things I get to do leading up to the day!

In no particular order, here are some of my favorites that are probably on your list too!

• Picking out a Christmas tree and decorating it

• Watching all my favorite Christmas movies

• Wrapping Gifts

• Christmas Baking

• Going to see Christmas light displays

• Opening my homemade tea advent calendar

• Christmas Morning Sausage bread + baileys & Jameson!

Some of these traditions intersect with tea besides the tea advent calendar!

I’ve always known eggnog as a Christmas tradition but it was never something that we had in our house. I didn’t grow up drinking it and the few times I’ve had a sip, I always thought it was too sweet! This year though, I thought I would try tea infused eggnog!

After searching through lots of eggnog recipes, I decided to cut the stress and get some store bought eggnog. Every week, I get a produce box called The Imperfect Box. Last week they offered an almond milk eggnog so I grabbed it!

I decided to do an experiment and infuse tea into this eggnog but I wanted to use whatever tea that my tea advent calendar would give me.

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The recipe is simple:

• Heat your eggnog. I wanted until it started to boil. While it was getting to a boil, I noticed a little separation, this might have been because it’s almond milk but I’m not sure. So I stirred it until it was together again

• I then took the eggnog off the stove and poured it into a glass teapot. You could also keep the eggnog in the saucepan.

• I dumped in the tea I was using, stirred it around and then let it infuse for 10 minutes.

• I strained the tea and tasted it!

• It was definitely still very sweet but I noticed that the tea made it more robust in taste and aroma and definitely cut the sweetness!

A few notes about this experiment.

I used the tea that was in my advent calendar for days 19 and 20. These both happened to be raw pu’er teas. I don’t think that these were necessarily the best teas to infuse into eggnog but I went with the flow! Here are some other options that I would have gone with first if I wasn’t doing an experiment.

• My Morning Tea: I drink a ceylon tea every morning and I think this would be so delicious in the eggnog. I never drink this tea with milk but I do often sweeten it with honey so the sweetness of the eggnog might be a good replacement!

• Masala Chai: I could totally see this being an excellent substitute for milk when making stovetop chai! Instead of starting off with water and adding in the tea then milk, I would just bring the eggnog to a boil then add in the tea. Definitely let the flavors infuse for several minutes and then strain! This is also a tea that I would usually sweeten a little so the eggnog provides the whole package here

• Black Tea Blends: I have a feeling most black tea blends would taste good with eggnog as well. I don’t think everything would be suitable but Imagine a blend that has some spices in it or maybe even your favorite fruit!

• Oolong: The eggnog has such a powerful flavor, I don’t think any oolong would work. Specifically, I think a roasted oolong would be best. I originally wanted to use some da hong pao I had but looked in my stash and saw that I was out :D I think a nice yancha would also be so good. The roasted flavor would definitely compliment and also lessen the sweetness!

Alternate method for infusion: The above recipe calls for enjoying the eggnog hot/warm. If you like to enjoy it cold you can either allow it to cool or try cold brewing! I cold brewed tea into milk before and you can use a similar method to cold brewing tea. When choosing your tea, I like to rinse it with warm water to open them up a little before placing it in my liquid. I would probably place the eggnog with the unbrewed tea leaves into it at night before bed and then take it out about 12 hours later to strain and enjoy!

Tea Infused Mulled Wine

I’ll admit that I’m not a wine drinker. I’ve tried to like it but I don’t usually find it tasty, especially red wine. Most of my drink recipes are made with whiskey which is what I prefer. However, I know that many of you like wine and I’ve always wanted to try making mulled wine so here we go!

After looking at a lot of recipes, I realized most of the ingredients added are just to spice it up a bit. I don’t know much about wine but I do know that I don’t want to waste a really good wine by cooking different ingredients into it. I went to the store and bought a cheap bottle because I would be enhancing the flavor. Feel free to use whatever wine you like best for this recipe!

I also noticed that most of the recipes have some sort of citrus in them. What I chose to do was to use lemon and then a citrus herbal tea. I used Tangerine Ginger from Rishi Tea that came in my Sipsby box. This tea has hibiscus flowers, orange peel, ginger root, citrus oils, licorice root and schizandra berries! Yum yum yum!

I chose to use tea sachets for ease but If you want to use loose leaf, you have to strain the mixture anyway! I wanted to note that this could probably taste good with many teas but I chose an herbal tea because of the high heat. The wine is already potent and I think putting something like black tea in it might run you the risk of getting a bitter flavor.

A few notes about making this recipe. I like to use honey and because of that I added the wine and honey in the pan first and let them mix a little bit. The heat should be on low the entire time. After I added all the other ingredients (except tea bags) I kept it on low with the lid on and just let it simmer. I didn’t really time it, I did it my aroma. Making this wine is delicious but it also makes your house smell so good!!!

Once I felt that the aroma was strong I took off the lid and saw that the mixture was bubbling a little and everything was a bit darker. The cranberries had softened etc. This is when measured the heat of the mixture. My tea bags have the temperature set to 200F and so I made sure the wine was around that temperature then added in the teabags for 5 minutes. If your tea has a lower temperature, let the mixture cool a bit!

Take out your tea bags, strain and serve in mugs! This amount of ingredients was enough for 2 large mugs and a little more. At a party, it would be best to use smaller mugs and this batch could stretch a bit farther. I also garnishes with fresh cranberries, lemon peel and cinnamon!

Enjoy! Do you have a favorite mulled wine recipe?

Green Tea Cranberry Spritzer

Sparkling tea!

It's Christmas time and I have been so busy with the shop that I have been making recipes but not posting them! I recently got a bag of cranberries from my CSA and have been brainstorming about what to do with them. 

I'm a huge fan of cranberries in drinks so I started to look at what I had in the house. I try to make my recipes with simple ingredients so that you can make them with things you probably have already instead of going out to buy a bunch of items. 

I had cranberries, seltzer water and some clementines! The last thing I needed was to choose a type of tea. I wanted to chose something that embodies the christmas spirit. Lucky for me The Tea Spot generously sent me some of their lovely teas and one of them is a roasted green tea with peppermint! You can find it here  ! Peppermint is a classic christmas time flavor and with the addition of cranberries and citrus, it's perfect!

Once you brew the tea let it cool and then let it cool all the way by putting it in the refrigerator! Once the tea is cool you can use it in the drink! 

Seltzer always gives drinks a nice fizzy kick! If you are a cranberry lover I would suggest crushing up a few cranberries to add to the drink.

I filled my cup up about 1/2 way with tea and 1/2 with seltzer but feel free to change these porpotions to however you think the drink will taste best!

I mention in the recipe about adding some juice of the orange. I had a clementine on hand and squeezed half of one in each cup. You can add more or less based on your taste!

Orange + Cranberries + Green tea peppermint + Seltzer water = AMAZING!! If you want this boozy, I think this simple combo would taste delicious with a variety of drinks!