Have you ever had the Russian Tea that is made from Tang and Country Time?
It was a favorite of mine growing up. I particularly loved it when I was given a cup of hot water and a spoon. I would heap in the mix until I had a tangy, sugary “tea”.
Oh gosh. Do you remember Tang?
Astronauts drank Tang.
That made us feel like we should drink Tang.
We never thought about the reason why astronauts drank Tang. They had to drink Tang!
We don’t.
Here on Earth we can drink freshly squeezed orange juice. So much more delicious than a powdered mix.
Nowadays I shudder at how much sugar I consumed.
Since having kids, I’ve tried to replace processed foods with whole foods. But I didn’t want them to miss out on Russian Tea since it reminded me of my childhood.
All the flavor of that nasty mix can be found in this homemade Russian tea recipe. But it’s made with whole food ingredients – no powdered mixes.
Make up a batch of this homemade Russian Tea, and you’ll find you get all the flavor with out any of the chemicals.
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- Juice of one lemon (approx 1/2 cup)
- Juice of two oranges (approx 1 cup)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 4" cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- 4 black tea bags
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, combine the 4 cups of hot water, lemon juice, orange juice, honey, cinnamon stick, and cloves. Bring to a boil.
- Remove from heat and add the tea bags. Allow to steep 3 minutes.
- Pour through a strainer into 4 tea cups. Enjoy!
I suggest serving this on your next snowy day. Curl up with a good book and enjoy!
By the way, did you know you can reuse your cinnamon sticks?
Do you remember Russian Tea?
You might be a Natural Green Mom if:
I am 73 and I do remember my grandmother making Russian Tea. I do remember that in addition to what is listed in the above recipe she also used nutmeg, allspice and pineapple juice. It was so delicious. It was a real treat for us and her guest.
As someone who lived in Russia, I never saw this drink there, lol!!! It sounds good anyway. “Real Russian Tea” is just black tea, squeeze of lemon…. and maybe a splash of milk or spoon of sugar to taste.