Christmas Calendar 2013 Day 10 - Christmas Tea

Christmas Tea 2013

Together we have been busy during these first days of December, so I think it is time for something, which is fast to make in the kitchen, so we can relax a little and perhaps enjoy some of the creations from the last days.

Last year it was the very first time, that I made my very own Christmas tea version 2012. Last year I used Assam tea based on advise from my loca "tea pusher". However based on tasting of this tea and discussion with some good work colleagues, we thought, that the bergamot flavour from the Earl Greay tea could good give a good flavour twist.

So this year I decided to make the Christmas tea based on Earl Grey. And inside of orange peel I used the peel from two mandarines, which was the citrus fruit available for my kitchen activities of today. So you can either use orange and mandarine depending on, what you have in your kitchen as long as the citrus fruit is organic, as you are using the peel.

Christmas Tea: - 100 g tea

• 100 g black Earl Grey
• 2 mandarines (organic) - only the peel
• 3 star anise
• 10 cloves
• 5 all spices
• 2 small cinnamon stick
• 15 cardamon capsules

1. Use a potato peeler in order to remove the peel in a thin layer of the mandarines
2. Dry the mandarine peel either at 75'C for 1 hour or on top of the radiator for a few hours
3. Cut the mandarine peel into small pieces. I used a scissor for this purpose.
4. Add the dried spices into a freezing bag, hit the spices with a rolling pin.
5. Mix the tea with broken spices and the small pieces of dry orange peel.
6. Let the tea stand for a few hours, before making the first cup/pot of tea.