Page 1 of 1

Tea and alcohol

Posted: Aug 31st, '09, 23:19
by CutieAgouti
This weekend I went to NYC and visited a few tea places. At one place I noticed a matcha cocktail on the menu. It turned out to be pretty delicious, although I couldn't really taste alcohol in it (my non-drinking friend said he smelled otherwise).

So has anyone else tried an alcoholic tea beverage? Thoughts? Favorites? I'm hoping to find more drinks just to try out for fun. :D

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 7th, '09, 15:46
by theteascoop
I just tried Firefly's Sweet Tea Vodka...I'm planning on writing a review of it soon along with some cocktail suggestions. It was tasty!

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 8th, '09, 07:27
by theteascoop
Apparently Firefly makes other tea vodkas as well: peach, raspberry, mint, and lemon. They have lots of cocktail recipes on their site as well.

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 8th, '09, 12:07
by Victoria
I tried Tea Forte' cocktail tea infuser. Couldn't taste much tea, but it was tasty nonetheless. And pretty:

http://www.teaforte.com/store/cocktail-infusions/

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 8th, '09, 16:00
by depravitea
This looks pretty interesting...
http://www.suntory.com/zen/top.html
Any one try it?

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 8th, '09, 19:03
by TomVerlain
I tried a vodka that was made to taste like "Sweet Tea" - and it did - not something I would normally want, but fun to try. (Haven't tried "Bacon Vodka" yet)

Shōchū - a japanese medium proof alcohol - is sometimes mixed with oolong. I've tried it, but prefer each by itself.

I saw a puerh cordial advertised in the New Yorker a few years ago. Never saw it in person or tried it though.

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 8th, '09, 19:44
by Proinsias
A little dash of tea instead of water can, if paired well, work nicely with single malt whisky.

Aside from some homemade vodka my mum brought from Poland the only time I've enjoyed vodka without a mixer is by sticking some dan cong leaves in a bottle of, usually bison grass, vodka and leaving it overnight - on recommendation from John at Tea Smith.

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 9th, '09, 22:35
by theteascoop
A little dash of tea instead of water can, if paired well, work nicely with single malt whisky.
Proinsias, I'm curious, what tea do you use? I'm a big fan of single malt...lapsang seems like it would be a natural if it didn't overwhelm. Thoughts?

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 9th, '09, 23:14
by Proinsias
Lapsang I tend to avoid, as I think it would probably overwhelm as you say.

Chinese greens don't impact things too much and can be pretty much used anywhere in place of water without much ill effect. If I've had a few rounds of good Chinese green and some nice whisky appears then the remaining watery brews what will be used, beats plain water in my opinion.

Yunnan gold or Keemun/Qimen can work very well but it really does depends on the batch of tea, the whisky at hand, and the strength of the brew.

Laphroaig and Yunnan Gold, a generic term I realise, can work wonders.

Very peaty malts can handle a few drops of good Chinese black/red tea well - always the tail end of the tea and never the first few brews for me though.

I'm thinking Assam might work too but I've not tried it.

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 10th, '09, 07:55
by theteascoop
That's fascinating. I can't wait to try it out!

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Sep 12th, '09, 17:30
by javier
I think mixing alcohol with tea can be a cool way to drink alcohol but to me it's definitely a bad way to drink tea, alcohol ruins the mental effect of tea. Actually I turned teetotal long ago since I discovered tea :)

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Oct 10th, '09, 23:41
by Canadiangal
Oh,
I could think of so many puns since I like t o write...and invent my own recipies :)

You can try making some MarTEAnis is that has not been done.

I have a huge 500gram bag of lychee black tea I'm "stuck" with...was the only size I could get...smallest from where I was ordering from...
It is a good tea,but need ideas on using it up...vodka sounds like a good mix...maybe.

Green tea,pear and vodka would be nice :)

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Oct 12th, '09, 18:23
by theteascoop
Bigelow has a list of marTEAnis
http://www.bigelowtea.com/recipes/beverages.aspx

I'm going to have an article on the English Tea Blog on exactly this topic actually.

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Oct 18th, '09, 23:06
by Canadiangal
theteascoop wrote:Bigelow has a list of marTEAnis
http://www.bigelowtea.com/recipes/beverages.aspx

I'm going to have an article on the English Tea Blog on exactly this topic actually.
That's funny.
I never see these things in Canada. or never pay attention to them.
The people I know that mix drinks in bars always do so from scratch and I never hear about these things....

Re: Tea and alcohol

Posted: Oct 31st, '09, 08:39
by dooble
Heh pretty interesting results...

I've discovered strongly flavoured tea+bailey's to be a good combination. Totally ruins the tea flavour though. And beer with green tea on the side, the malty after taste with tea is delicious :P.

The finest greens/whites don't seem to pair with any alchol though.