Adding Extra Flavor to Your Tea
Recently I told you guys about the ins and outs of adding milk to your tea. But as everybody knows, there’s a lot more options than that! For many years, tea makers have added fruit and herbs to their tea blends. But sometimes, you want to add a little something yourself. Well I’ve got a couple of tea tips to help you out.
Naturally, there’s no limit to what you can put into a cup of tea. Cinnamon, mint, blueberries, strawberries…you name it—the possibilities are endless. So I’m just going to stick with the most common ones for today.
Sugar is probably the most common addition. It has been combined with hot tea for generations to sweeten the flavor. If you want to add a little sweetness, using sugar is healthier than artificial sweeteners. Honey and agave nectar are also good alternatives. But remember, they have fructose instead of sucrose, which is about two or three times as sweet, so take that into account when adding them.
(Important side note: I’ve read that babies cannot properly process honey until they’re about one. So if you’re pregnant, maybe hold out until the whole breastfeeding thing is over and done with.)
As for when and how to add your sweetener of choice, there’s no one way to do it. But I suggest you add it immediately after pouring the tea so that it can dissolve while it’s at its hottest. Sometimes I even pour it into the cup before I pour the tea! I’m just crazy like that.
As everyone knows, tea is extremely good for you. It’s rich in antioxidants, which can aid in the prevention of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, dementia, etc. As I told you in another post, milk actually nullifies those healthy antioxidant effects of tea. Well, if you’re like a bit of lemon, I’ve got good news—you’re not losing all the healthy stuff tea offers by adding it. In fact, lemon actually increases the amount of antioxidants, making tea even better or you! This is especially true with green tea, which has more antioxidants than black teas.
Lemon can also help if you have hard water coming out of your pipes. It removes the weird calcium deposits that can sometimes cloud your tea.
There is one down side of lemons though—studies have shown that the actual lemon wedges have all kinds of foul bacteria on them. So if you’re in a restaurant, I suggest you squeeze the juice but leave the lemon itself in the saucer.
When adding lemon, add it after the tea has been poured. It should be an accent to the flavor of the tea, not mixed in as it’s brewing.
One final word of warning: don’t add lemon AND milk to your tea. The lemon will make the milk curdle, and believe me, you don’t want that.
Hope this helps you with your next cup of tea!
Tags: flavor, fruit, lemon, Milk, sweet, tea, tea tips
