Tea Time Enhancers

Tea Travels!™…Tea Time Enhancers

Recipes and Photos by Ellen Easton 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Check out more of Ellen Easton’s excellent and informative Tea Travels™ articles and recipes.

Photos by Ellen Easton – All Rights Reserved.Hand Decorated Sugar Cubes by Reva Paul – All Rights Reserved

Tea Time Enhancers – For Hot Tea:

Flavors can enhance your teatime experience.  While some flavors complement one another, there are no rules as to how you combine them, only personal preference.

Be mindful that the added flavors do not overpower the original tea or food.  A plain tea may be turned into a chai by adding a dry spice mix.  A plain scone may be enriched by the harvest of a season’s offerings.  Edible flowers, fresh or crystallized, are always a welcome addition to add beauty to your tea time.

Tea Time Enhancers        Candied Flowers

Candied Ginger and Candied Orange Rind
Thinly-sliced Lemon (with a whole clove placed in the center)
Thinly-sliced Lime
Vanilla Sticks/Beans
Cinnamon Sticks
Chai Spices
Fresh Mint Leaves
Sugar Cubes
Crystallized/Candied Edible Flowers
Honey and Milk

Tea Time Enhancers-dry Chai Mix

Chai Dry Spice Mix Recipe:
Keyword: Tea Enhancers Recipe
Ingredients
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger, ground
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, ground
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, ground
  • 1/8 teaspoon cloves, ground
  • 1/8 teaspoon fennel, ground
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
  • 1/8 teaspoon star anise, ground
Instructions
  1. Mix all the spices in a bowl until blended together.  

  2. Store in an airtight container away from light.  Use to taste.

Tea Time Enhancers – For Iced Tea:

Fresh Mint LeavesSimple Syrup

Tea Time Enhancers - Fresh Mint leaves

Flavored Iced Cubes:

Brew your tea of choice.  Place the brewed tea into an ice cube tray and freeze.   Remove from trays and place into your serving glass when serving iced tea.

You may add edible flowers and herbs at the bottom of the tray before filling with the tea blend or plain water and freezing.  Citrus juices of orange, lime, lemon, and lemonade may also be frozen in ice cube trays to be served with iced tea.

Tea Time Enhancers – For Scones:

Tea Time Enhancers - Tea tray

Enhancer Tea Tray:
Top – Crystallized Ginger
Middle – Crystallized Rose Petals, Devonshire Cream, Rose Sugar Cubes,
Strawberry Preserves, and Crystallized Violets
Bottom – Lemon Curd

Curds (Lemon, Orange, Pumpkin, or Fruit)
Fruit Preserves and Jams or Rose Petal Jam
Fruit or Herb Flavored Butters
Devonshire or Clotted Cream
Honey

Pumpkin Curd:

Tea Time Enhancer-Pumpkin Curd

Ingredients:

2 pounds fresh pumpkin (halved, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces) OR 2 cups of canned pumpkin puree
2 inches of fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
Grated zest (rind) and juice of 1 lime
2 cups of granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or cubes) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 eggs, beaten

Instructions:

If using fresh pumpkin, place the prepared pumpkin pieces into a saucepan.  Add 1 cup water and bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and let simmer until tender.  Remove from heat and drain (reserving the liquid).  Puree the pumpkin solids in a blender, adding just enough liquid to allow the blades to run with ease.  NOTE: If using canned pumpkin puree, you can skip these steps.

Using a garlic press, squeeze the ginger and reserve the juice.  Discard the ginger solids.

In a medium-size saucepan over medium-low heat, place the lime zest and juice, ginger juice, pumpkin puree, nutmeg, and sugar.  Stir until the sugar completely dissolves.  Remove from heat and strain the pumpkin mixture into a heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan or double boiler of barely simmering water.  Add butter and stir until completely melted.

Using a fine strainer, pour the beaten eggs through it and into the bowl with the pumpkin mixture.  Continue cooking, stirring often at the beginning and then continuously at the end, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon, approximately 30 minutes.  Do not let it boil or the mixture will curdle.

Remove from heat and pour mixture into warm sterilized glass preserving jars.  Seal and let cool.  The pumpkin curd will continue to thicken as it cools.

Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for one (1) week.

Excellent on scones and toast, as well.

Yields 3 cups.


TEA TRAVELS™ – Wishing You Happy TEA TRAVELS!™  Tea is the luxury everyone can afford!™ and Good $ense for $uccess are the trademarked property of Ellen Easton/ RED WAGON PRESS

Ellen Easton, author of Afternoon Tea~Tips, Terms and Traditions (RED WAGON PRESS), a lifestyle and etiquette industry leader, keynote speaker and product spokesperson, is a hospitality, design, and retail consultant whose clients have included The Waldorf=Astoria and Plaza Hotels.  Easton’s family traces their tea roots to the early 1800s, when ancestors first introduced tea plants from India and China to the Colony of Ceylon, thus building one of the largest and best cultivated teas estates on the island.


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AFTERNOON TEA…TIPS,TERMS and TRADITIONS
72 pages of how to’s, 27 photos, history, etiquette and FAQ about afternoon tea, serving styles and more. “Tea is the luxury everyone can afford!™”


TEA TRAVELS™ – FOR THE HOLIDAYS
64 pages, 21 color photos. A complete holiday menu includes 25 easy to prepare recipes; theme teas, decorating & gift ideas; invitation template and secret sources.

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