Tea & Booze

When I’m not drinking alcohol, I will be drinking tea. I think anyone that appreciates a good dram will also appreciate the nuance of a good tea. The way tea is treated, talked about and consumed runs many parallels to how people treat, talk about and consume a cocktail, a spirit, or some other kind of booze. So it’s not really a surprise that when these two worlds collide the results are truly wonderful.

The ways you can incorporate tea into your world of cocktails, spirits and mixology vary greatly, and I’m sure new ideas will constantly be coming to life! However there are a few techniques and methods that I love to focus on.

Tea Syrups

Probably one of the simpler techniques that you can always rely on is making tea syrups. Make a simple syrup, but instead of using water and sugar, use brewed tea and sugar. A standard simple syrup is usually a ratio of 1:1 of water to sugar, so when making a tea syrup you can absolutely use that method, but a few other things to consider is the type of tea you’re using, how long you brew your tea and obviously the ratio of tea to sugar.

I find that my favourite results come from a loose leaf earl grey tea, I make sure to not over-brew it because sometimes over-brewed earl grey can have some undesirable flavours that can’t be balanced well with the sugar. I use the standard 1:1 ratio for the syrup and it’s an absolute treat when using it in rum cocktails, it brings such an interesting character to drinks. Try using a tea syrup in something like a Daiquiri and see what you think!

Depending on the tea you’re using, sometimes over-brewing is not the worst thing. Bringing in some of those more tannic, slightly bitter flavours might be ok in the syrup if you use it the right way. If you do go for a more tannin forward brew I would recommend increasing your sugar:water. At least 1.5:1 or even 2:1, that extra sugar can usually balance well against the flavour profile of the tea and gives you a more complex syrup. Be mindful if you are using 2:1 syrup to adjust your specs in cocktails, if the recipe calls for 30ml simple syrup and your syrup is 2:1, use 15ml. Make other adjustments accordingly.

There are certain teas that are smoky in flavour, these are a great tea to make your syrup from and can incorporate smoke into a drink in a fascinating way. Which leads me to my next point…

Smoking Drinks With Tea

Lighting up some Chai to smoke the glass for a Penicillin

Using smoke as an ingredient in cocktails is always fun, obviously it’s a bit of theatre and makes drinks look more exciting, but smoke as an actual flavour can also enhance a cocktail. Smoke isn’t just a uniform flavour either, depending on what you’re burning for your smoke you will get many different aromas and flavours. Usually American Oak is a great wood to smoke as you get a nice smoky vanilla and charred marshmallow essence, it’s very reliable. If you get a smoking gun kit or something similar you might receive a number of other different woods, usually apple wood, cherry wood, maple wood etc. All these woods will produce a different ‘flavour’ of smoke when you burn them, but you don’t have to just stick to using woods when smoking drinks, tea is another great smoke-producing ingredient!

When using tea for smoking your drinks it’s best to use loose leaf tea. If you have a smoking gun or some other kind of smoking tool just put the tea where you would usually place the wood, light it up and smoke your cocktail. If you don’t have a tool for this it’s always easy to just sprinkle a bit of tea on a flame resistant surface (chopping board, stone, plate) and light the tea up, then place your glass over it to trap all that smoke in the glass. Chai is usually great to use for smoked cocktails, also Hojicha provides lovely results too. Tea-smoked cocktails are just another fantastic way to incorporate tea with cocktails.

Brewing Tea With Spirits

When you brew a cup of tea (that’s not cold brew) you will use hot water, the hotter the water the more extractive it is. Alcohol also has similar extractive abilities that increase as the ABV% goes up. When using spirits that are at least 40% ABV you can brew your tea relatively quick and easy. Depending on the tea you use and the ABV of the spirit this can take anywhere between 30 seconds to a few minutes.

This technique can add wonderful, interesting and nuanced notes to your spirit that might be fun to drink on it’s own, but more likely will be better to use in a cocktail. I love using a white rum or a gin to brew the tea, being careful to tailor the right tea to the right spirit.

Using Tea To Dilute Whisk(e)y

When drinking a whisk(e)y it’s always encouraged to try adding a little bit of water to explore your dram. Sometimes this dilution can reveal wonderful changes, more interesting flavours and aromas, or it might just make the whisk(e)y more enjoyable overall. Instead of using water for this though, try it with tea. There are so many ways to do this, you can do it with a freshly brewed tea that is still hot and this will have a big impact on the flavours coming through from your whisk(e)y. Temperature always plays a big part on how you perceive the flavours and aromas of the whisk(e)y, so using a tea that’s still hot will give you a different experience to using that same tea once it has cooled down.

You can use the tea in just little drops or dashes, you can carefully measure it with a pipette to accurately bring your whisk(e)y down to a certain ABV% (see the dilution calculator) or you can just throw caution to the wind and pour in however much tea you’d like into the dram. All these methods will result in so many variations and experiences when it comes to enjoying your drink.

If you like your whisk(e)y the way it is but still want to experience the magnificent marriage of tea and whisk(e)y you can always just have a pairing of tea and whisk(e)y. Much like how you enjoy a boilermaker with a sip of your dram first then the beer or vice versa, you can take the same approach with your tea-whisk(e)y pairing! This too can demonstrate how certain complimenting flavours, contrasting flavours or transforming flavours come through as you enjoy both drinks.