Cooking tea liquor at home – 5 best recipes

As the famous meme Confucius used to say: “Whoever does not drink qiai is qimo.” It is also impossible to speak clearly about tea liquor, because not many people know about it. However, in Europe this drink enjoys some popularity. Well, in order not to spend fabulous money, we will prepare liquor from tea at home.

The most famous tea liqueur in Europe is the Slovak TatraTea, originally a traditional drink of the inhabitants of the Tatra Mountains. Slovaks are harsh people, so they simply called this drink tea, despite the fact that even without measuring instruments, it contained 52% alcohol by volume. Modern TatraTea is prepared in a wide variety, from the classic 52% “Original”, to 22% coconut drink, which is already more like a liquor. The production uses Indian Assam tea, spring water, oak shavings, as well as a variety of herbs, spices and berries.

A few years ago, the Dutch plant Bols also made an attempt to supplement its collection of liqueurs with tea, but apparently the usual Bols Sweet Tea could not surpass the drink created in 2003 by a Slovak businessman. Now only Green Tea liqueur, which is made from Japanese green tea, has remained in the line. Both drinks cost horse money, undeservedly, so we will cook them ourselves, according to already traditional recipes.

Classic black tea liqueur

In fact, our reader Oleg Chursin “forced” me to write this article, for which I am very grateful to him. Oleg took this recipe from one “respected” site, but reworked it for himself, because frank nonsense was written on this “respected” site. It is very nice when our readers participate in the development of Rum, leave forest reviews and amuse our pride. Oleg, thank you very much!

It is very important to take good tea, because it is he who plays the main role here. Ideally, since they decided to look up to the Slovaks here, it should be Assam. You can use flavored teas, but be very careful, because not all of them go well with alcohol. Cognac or whiskey here gives the drink an oak character, which in production is most likely provided by oak chips. So! you can safely use vodka or good moonshine, previously infused with oak chips, that is, homemade “cognac”.

The recipe is as follows:

1. Boil simple sugar syrup from 125 ml of water and 125 g of sugar. To do this, mix water and sugar in a saucepan, bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 3-5 minutes, removing the white foam. After that, the syrup must be cooled to room temperature.
2. Brew tea in the remaining water and leave for 3-5 minutes. Strain through a sieve or French press, cool to room temperature.
3. In a container for infusion, preferably glass, mix syrup and tea leaves, add cognac and vanillin / vanilla sugar / vanilla extract.
4. Infuse the drink in a dark, cool place for 14-16 days, then filter through a cotton filter and start tasting.

Recipe in practice:

Classic green tea liqueur

An equally interesting recipe that will eventually produce a liqueur similar to Bols Green Tea. The recipe indicates green food coloring – this, as they say, is not for everyone, but the Dutch liqueur has a rich ruby ​​uXNUMXbuXNUMXbcolor and it will be impossible to achieve such an effect without a dye.

Pour green tea leaves into a liter jar and fill them with vodka, then shake the jar well. Tea should be of the highest quality possible, preferably Japanese, if you want to create a liqueur similar to Bols Green Tea. You need to insist tea on vodka for a maximum of 24 hours – if you keep more, the liquor will turn out bitter. However, I advise you to try already 10 hours after the start of the infusion. After 24 hours (or less), the infusion must be drained through a sieve, and then simple sugar syrup and coloring are added to it as desired. Wait at least a week before tasting.

Tea liqueur “Exotic”

Unremarkable recipe, except for the tea used. Instead of the usual black or green teas, it is recommended to use teas: Genmaicha (Genmaicha), Rooibos (Rooibos), smoked Lapsang Souchong (Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong), Earl Gray or green with jasmine.

Cooking according to the scheme of the previous recipe. These teas are flavored or contain too many tannins (in particular, Rooibos), so I recommend insisting no more than 10 hours, while after a few hours of infusion, start tasting, and when the result satisfies you, drain. Make a simple syrup or use honey – it can be melted with a little water. Honey will have to be defended longer, but the drink will turn out to be softer and more interesting.

“Better to stay 3 days without salt than one day without tea…”

(Chinese folk wisdom)

Masala chai (Indian spiced tea) can also be made in the same way. For 5 teaspoons of tea leaves you need 750 ml of vodka. In masala tea, by the way, they use the same “warm” spices and you can cook it yourself. To do this, take black tea and add to it to taste: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, fennel seeds and cloves.

Savory tea liqueurs

In the first recipe, a kind of symbiosis of spicy tincture and tea liquor is obtained. The recipe certainly deserves attention and is recommended for use.

For liquor, it is better to use whole spices bought from the market. So, it is better to replace ground cinnamon with bark or chopped sticks, use fresh ginger, and chop nutmeg while making liquor on your own.

1. First, brew tea in 200 ml of water. We insist 5-10 minutes and drain.
2. We put the lemon zest and the spicy mixture in the jar, add the brewed tea and pour everything with vodka.
3. We put the jar in a dark, cool place and insist for 2-4 weeks, periodically stirring the mixture.
4. Strain through a sieve, filter through a cotton filter. We prepare a simple sugar syrup 1: 1 and bring the drink to the sweetness we need. I would start with 12-15%.
5. Then the liquor needs to be insisted for another week and you can drink it.

The next drink can compete with the Slovak TatraTea. Now you can still get grapes, so hurry up (however, you can also try from canned grape juice).

Place all ingredients in a jar, pour juice and vodka. Insist no longer than 5-6 days, shaking occasionally. Strain through a sieve, filter if necessary. Now you can bottle and stand as long as you have the patience (preferably in the refrigerator, juice after all). You can also try to insist tea and spices on vodka separately, and then add grape juice to them, in which sugar must first be dissolved. I think that would be more correct.

You can savor tea liqueurs in their pure form, or as part of cocktails. This is an excellent digestif, in the homeland it is served after almost every meal. Of course, such a drink is good to add to tea. You can make such liqueurs for the summer and cook with them, for example, Samurito (Samuraihito) – Mojito with the addition of tea liquor, or simply quench your thirst with liquor diluted with ice and tonic. In the homeland of this drink, they will simply pour you a glass of 52% tea and say with all their hearts:

Bon appetite!

What will mean nothing less: Bon appetit!