Jan 21 2012
Tea makes an appearance in a number of cocktails, some warm and some chilled. In either instance you can often customize the drink by choosing one tea or another. Maybe you enjoy a particular green tea or maybe lavender or lemon grass teas are your favorites, feel free to experiment with those in some of these drinks. Granted, not all teas will work conversely in all of these drinks, but for the most part the tea choice is open to interpretation.For more on teas, hot and cold, and more tea cocktails, visit CoffeeTea.About.com.
Hot Tea Cocktails:
Hot tea drinks are comforting on cold winter days and anytime you need a little warming pick-me-up. I like to make my hot tea cocktails in a particular order to ensure the warmest and freshest brew. Begin by warming the water and after you have added the teas and it is brewing, mix up the other drink ingredients.
- A Nice Warm Drink
- Blueberry Tea
- English Christmas Punch
- Fine Wolf (non-alcoholic)
- Hot Not Toddy (non-alcoholic)
- Hot Toddy
- Sweet Adeline (non-alcoholic)
- Torii Toddy
- Xalapa Punch
Iced Tea Cocktails:
There are few things as refreshing as a tall glass of iced tea, especially on the warmer days of the year. The drinks below bring that tea to a whole new level by mixing it with a variety of ingredients. Tea is often used as a flavoring ingredient that sits in the background with the purpose of enhancing the other ingredients. Many of these drinks include alcohol of one kind or another and range from the tall and rejuvenating to the short and elegant. Others, like the Arnold Palmer, have skip the liquor altogether and these mocktails are fabulous for everyone.
One note of importance when making iced tea cocktails: The fastest way to brew tea is to make warm tea and this is the best way to get the full flavor from the herbs and botanicals. However, it is important to chill the tea before adding it to these cocktails. A simple way to do so is to pour the freshly brewed tea into a glass, pitcher, bowl, or something similar and place that container into the freezer for a few minutes or give it an ice bath by placing it in a larger container filled with ice.
- Arnold Palmer (non-alcoholic)
- Bee Tea
- Black Cherry Ice Tea
- Bourbon Tea
- Cherry Bitch
- Derby Tea
- Dutch Green Tea
- Gallagher Cocktail
- Ginger Tea
- Green Acres Punch
- Irish Tea Party
- Jalisco High Tea
- Kentucky Tea
- Killer Coco Chai
- Libertea
- Mad Hatter's Tea Party
- Mango Iced Tea
- Mistletoe Martini
- Natural Chai Tea Martini
- Peach Treaty
- Regent's Punch
- Royal-Tea
- Royal Wedding Punch
- Run for the Roses
- Sparkling Tea Cocktail
- Spirited Punch
- Summer Peach Tea Cocktail
- Tea Tini
Tea Spirits:
There are a few distilled spirits available that are flavored with teas. Two that I highly recommend checking out are Charbay Green Tea Vodka (and the ready to drink aperitif) and Zen Green Tea Liqueur.
Another option is to infuse a liquor (i.e. vodka, tequila, rum) with tea such as the summer royale tea infused Flor de Cana Rum in the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Simply place tea bags in the alcohol and allow it to sit to your preferred taste.
Note: If you came to this article looking for the Long Island Iced Tea and the many variations of the popular drink they are not in these lists because the name is a misnomer and they contain no tea. More about those drinks here: The Long Island Iced Tea and Its Many Offspring.
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