There are many ways to drink tea. The English traditionally drink their tea with milk and often sugar, the Indians add to this a range of spices, chili as well!
In Russian, black tea is traditionally drunk with lemon and sugar, or sometimes even with jam. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice to black tea has the effect of clearing the liquid, it transforms it from dark nearly opaque brown to a transparent orangey brown in a matter of seconds. This is because the hydogen ions produced by the acid in the lemon juice suppress the ionisation of tannins, the polyphenols that otherwise give tea its brown colour.
The reaction makes the tannins lose not just their brown colour but also their astringency, so strong black tea can be made drinkable this way – especially with the addition of a little sugar to take the edge off the bitterness. Unlike milky tea, lemon tea made this way remains tasty at any temperature.
Because tea in general is very rich in antioxidants, it proves to be a good fight for cancer. They say that drinking tea with milk destroys the benefits of these chemicals; they seem to be mopped up before they ever reach the blood, so if you want to drink strong tea which has plenty of caffeine, isn’t mouth-shrinkingly astringent and still gives you the full health benefits of tea, lemon tea may well be the way to go.
For Lemon Spice Tea:
2 cups Warm Water
2 Inches Stick Cinnamon (broken into pieces)
2 tsp Honey
2 Tea Bags
2 Slices Lemon
Extra Lemon Slices to garnish
In a 2-cup measure combine water, honey, lemon slices and cinnamon.
Microwave uncovered, on for about 4 minutes or just till steaming hot.
Add the teabags.
Cover and steep for 4 minutes.
Remove tea bags, lemon slices and cinnamon. Garnish with additional lemon slices, if desired.
*****
For Lemon Ginger Tea:
2 cups water
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tea bags
1/4 cup freshly grated ginger (adjust as per your taste)
2 tsp honey
Thin slices of lemon garnish
In a saucepan bring water to a boil.
Add lemon juice, the squeezed lemon, and ginger. Let steep about 10-15 minutes.
Stir in honey.
Add the tea bags and let it sit till desired concoction is achieved.
Strainer and chill thoroughly.
Serve with thin slices of lemon.
Info from here.
tea with lemon, ginger and honey, that’s what i’ve been drinking for years.
Love that picture, looks beautiful… I am a coffee person though π
Its nice to see Tea on Coffee’s Blog π π
Lovely Pics Coffee. I have been great Fan of Tea.
Thanks for sharing π .
Btw, Hope you got my entries, I sent email few days back with pics.
Keep rocking with lovely posts π .
I have nt had the spiced up version of Lemon tea….really cool pic π How’ve u been?
We have russian neighbors. When we visited them, they served tea. On the side, they had Jam and we had no clue why.We then saw the host have small tsp of jam and a sip of tea. Lovely pics!
lovely pics!! i have tea, lemon and honey when i feel i havea cold or a bad stomach π
I’ve had the lemon spice tea before and liked it, though not a favorite:) still prefer the indian milk and elaichi tea:)
but the lemon ginger tea looks awesome!
You drank tea??? Really? Or did you make this for someone else… out with the truth COffee π
Coffee is blogging about tea! WOW! π i though you didn’t like tea π
Love the spicy lemon chai!
Lovely Pics..But I prefer coffee most times…
coffee, gimme coffee π i am not a tea person. its K’s dept
oh!!! and the english usually prefer just plain tea without sugar and milk here π
Hey lovely pics..must be tasting nice as im not a tea person..
Your pictures are beautiful. And lemon and ginger tea works wonders for a clod or sore throat.
I love Lemon with masala chai. Good one coffee. Happy Monday morning to ya!:)
Awesome lemon tea recipes, Coffee! Pics look great, too. π
i love tea in any form and yours look great! i have an entire cabinet dedicated to teas π
I thought you didn’t like tea? π
Wow…Looks So Refreshing. This will be good for summers ahead.
Coffee likes tea! π
I’m drinking some lemon+ginger+spice+tea as I type this!
I like my tea with milk, sugar and ginger but this chilled lemon-ginger-honey tea looks nice and refreshing. I must try it before the summer ends !
Tea? on Coffee’s website??!! Then This has to be a HIT!!! Looks Super!!!
I love tea..!! Like tea with ginger, lime and sugar apart from the usual addiction!
Hi there my name is Jeena and I have started a food recipe forum that I thought you would like to join here Click here for food recipe forum
I would love to see you on there to chat about food and cooking you can talk about anything you like and start your very own topics. π
or see my main food recipe website Jeenas food recipe site
Hope to see you soon
Thanks
Jeena x
[…] Lemon Spice Tea […]
Very informative – I particularly like your explanation about what happens to the lemon in the tea.
Now Cinnamon Tea comes in a convenient pyramid shapped tea bag.
The tea bag works like a mini tea pot and is full of Ceylon Cinnamon.
http://www.cinnamon-tea.com
I just came upon this post of yours when looking for “Tea” posts and realised my submission for CLICK this month is similar to your tea picture!