Staring at my fruit bowl, I pondered good uses for an apple; apple pie, apple crumble, potato salad with apples. Of course, apple tea! I had never made it before but thought it must be easy. Just cut up some apples into tiny cubes, dry them in the oven on low heat and blend them with black tea and cinnamon to use whenever. However, for some reason they really lost their flavour when I tried this method. In fact, they became a bit bitter.
Trying to gain inspiration, I had a quick look at what the other tea companies were putting in their apple tea to make it so delicious. One Melbourne- based company’s ingredients for their Turkish Apple tea is as follows:
Sugar, acidifier (E330), natural and artificial apple flavouring (2%), maltodextrin (maize), antioxidant (E300), anticaking agent (E341), colour (E150d)
Wow, that was a lot of sugary and artificial ingredients and absolutely no tea. Looks like I’m on my own here! So, after a few attempts and tweaks, I realised the only way to go was using fresh apples and simmering them in water for a while.
I tried a few different tea bases; black, green, oolong and found that English Breakfast works best as the malty, robust tea is complimented by the sweet, caramely apples. Add in a stick of cinnamon and a little bit of sugar and the flavour reaches a whole new level. This is the kind of tea you want to be having in front of the fire in the middle of winter (yes, it does get cold here in Melbourne!).
Serving: 2 cups
Time: 12 minutes
Ingredients:
2tsp St. Julien Tea English Breaky tea (you can find it here)
1 apple (green or red)
1 cinnamon stick
Sugar (to taste)
Method:
Boil 550ml of water in the kettle. Pour into a saucepan.
Spoon English Breaky tea into the water. Turn down to simmering.
(You can buy our golden spoons here)
Dice apple into small pieces and place them into the water.
Put cinnamon and sugar into the water.
I used a German candied sugar, but you can use any type of sugar; white granulated, raw, brown, etc.
Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on.
Remember to strain the tea before it is served. My teapot has a built in strainer but, if you don't have one, you can use a sieve.
Pour into your cup and voila, you have the perfect cup of fresh apple tea!
You can buy our signature glass here and hummingbird coasters here.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this recipe or have any suggestions.
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