Introduction:
Now that we are living in California again, there is no Christmas market for us to visit this Advent season. One of our favorite things at the Grenoble Christmas market was the thé du Noël (Christmas tea). The absence of Christmas tea has driven me to scour the internet for recipes. Most American "traditional" recipes included "orange drink mix" as the base ingredient. That is not traditional or acceptable. The recipe I settled on comes from a French blogger (post here). I have translated her recipe to the best of my ability, and have modified it only by the omission of cloves which I do not prefer.
Ingredients:
- 100 grams black tea (unflavored)
- 1 orange
- 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla powder (not liquid extract)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Procedure:
- Preheat oven to 210 deg F
- Wash, dry, and peel orange and lemon into long strips using a potato peeler (be sure to only get the zest and none of the white, which is very bitter)
- Cut peel into small even squares
- Place peel evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet
- Bake peel for 1 hour
- Mix dry ingredients together and add dried peel once baked.
- Boil water and steep like normal black tea (1 tsp tea/cup, steep 5 mins)
- Store in a metal tin for longevity
- Enjoy!
Results and Observations:
C'était bon ! (It was delicious!). The tea turned out very well. This tea can be enjoyed as is without further modification.
However, what fun would this be without a little experimentation? The citrus flavors were not very pronounced, so I think I will try increasing that. The vanilla was also not very strong (but a critical background flavor?), so I may try omitting it in the future (also, vanilla powder is somewhat pricey)
