This is going to be a shorter post to share a tip/trick I employ to make my spiced tea last longer.
I just wrote about what a pleasure it is to drink spiced tea during the holidays – and if there’s one thing I like to be able to do is to keep drinking that tea for awhile even after the holidays. And the fact that they’re only sold at this time of year – well, I just want them to last as long as I can make them, since it’ll be another three quarters of a year before I can get more.
I started doing this one year when I missed the window to restock my Harrods spiced black tea (maybe not the worst Christmas ever, but holy moly, I sure missed not being able to enjoy that tea that holiday!). After that, not only did I start buying more than one tin a year, but I cut back on how much I used for each cup.
So my tip is this – instead of steeping only the spiced tea for your cup of tea, use just enough to get the flavor (like half a teaspoon). Then combine it with your favorite daily black tea so that you get the benefit of the spiced tea but have only used a little of it. (So you’re basically using one and a half tea bags or so per cup).
Use your favorite steeping bags or utensil (my favorite bags are currently these disposable unbleached paper bags that I get from TerraNaturale on Etsy. And the last time I ordered 200 bags, they sent me a nice little tea scoop for a gift!).
Try to get a few bits of the citrus or other bits along with the flavored black tea in your half-a-teaspoon. I personally find that I can taste plenty of the spice flavor, even when I just use that much.
So not only can this make the specialty tea that you buy last longer, it can make even a not-so-great daily black tea taste good (you know, the kind you’re only drinking because you would never get rid of tea, even the not-so-great ones).
Happy holidays!
Very Nearly Tea Time 