Sophisticated cocktails for tea lovers: recipes and inspiration
Add some sophistication to your cocktail hour with our delicious tea-infused recipes.
Funnily enough we really love tea - but come 6pm on a Friday evening something a little stronger is occasionally called for! Cocktails have a reputation for being overly sweet and a little unsophisticated. But try infusing one of our loose leaf teas into your tipple and suddenly you have a refined, aromatic and complex drink. Spirits that mix brilliantly with teas include rum, whiskey, gin, vodka and bourbon.
Tips for making cocktails with tea
- Use a generous amount of tea so that the delicate flavours aren't overwhelmed by the alcohol. Allow your tea time to properly infuse.
- Invest in a cocktail shaker so that you can create a cold cocktail that isn't too watery
- Experiment using a variety of tea types - we love green teas, earl grey teas and chai teas for cocktail making!
- Use good quality alcohol
Recipe: Baroness Grey Gin & Tonic
Ingredients: 2 tbsp Baroness Grey tea, 35 cl bottle of gin, tonic water to serve
Method: Mix the Baroness Grey loose leaf tea leaves with the gin and allow to infuse overnight. Strain to remove the tea leaves. Mix the infused gin with the chilled tonic water and serve with a slice of lemon to bring out the citrus flavours of the Baroness Grey blend. Voila!
Recipe: Vanilla Green Tea Gimlet
Ingredients: Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lime, sugar syrup to taste, 2 tbsp Vanilla Green tea leaves, vodka.
Method: Add the tea leaves to the vodka and allow to infuse overnight. Add infused vodka, sugar syrup and lime juice to a cocktail shaker and shake. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a slice of lime zest.
Recipe: Rum Masala Chai
Ingredients: 4 tbsp Masala Chai tea, milk, sugar, dark rum.
Method: Make your masala chai by warming the tea together with the milk and sugar in a pan over a low heat (quantities to taste). Strain into a mug and add a good dash of rum. Simples!
