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With the recent heatwave in the UK, we found drinking iced teas a great way to keep cool at Vada, using blends and recipes from Bird & Blend Tea.
Bird & Blend Tea
Bird & Blend Tea Co. is an independent, award-winning tea company on a mission to create their own innovative, top-quality blends. The brand offers a range of creative blends including herbs, flowers, fruits, caramels, and chocolate.
As well as the unique tea blends (like peach & elderflower Bellini tea), Bird & Blend provide recipes on how best to brew (hot or cold) their tea and mix into a delicious serve, sometimes alcoholic. We tried Bird & Blend’s recipes to mix up three ice-cold beverages, using Strawberry Lemonade, Blue Raspberry and Peach Soda teas. Brewing these tea are more that just making a cup of tea, the recipes are closer to cocktail mixology. We will definitely be buying more for the rest of the summer.
Peach Soda Margarita recipe
Using:
- Peach Soda Tea – made with apple pieces, hibiscus, cardamom, rose petals, freeze-dried peach and orange peel;
- Rose water
- Tequila
- Peach liqueur
- Sugar
- Salt
- Lime
Method:
- Brew the tea according to the instructions, and leave to cool – we did this the night before. Strain before using.
- In a cocktail shaker, add 3 parts tea, 1 part tequila, 1 part peach liqueur and a dash of rose water.
- Shake with plenty of ice.
- Wipe a lemon segment around the rim of a martini glass, and dip the rim into a sugar and salt mix.
- Pour the cocktail into the martini glass and serve with a wedge of lime.
Strawberry Lemonade Iced Tea recipe
Using:
- Strawberry Lemonade tea – made with eal strawberry chunks, tangy lime leaves and zesty orange peel.
- Honey
- Lemon
- Strawberries
- Sparkling water
Method:
- Brew the tea according to instructions, and sweeten with honey to taste. Then leave to cool, again this can be done the night before and left in the fridge. Strain before using.
- When ready to serve, half-fill a tall glass with ice and then pour in half tea, half sparkling water.
- Garnish with lemon slices and fresh strawberries.
Blue Raspberry Unicorn Fizz recipe
Using:
- Blue Raspberry tea – made with a blend of Chinese Sencha green tea, freeze-dried raspberry pieces and butterfly blue pea flowers, which magically turns the cuppa naturally bright blue
- Vanilla essence
- Honey
- Sparkling water
- Lemon
Method:
- Brew the tea according to instructions and strain – or make a batch of concentrate and leave in the fridge so as to be able to pour this drink whenever wanted.
- Add the cold (very blue) tea to a cocktail shaker with ice. Add a couple of drops of vanilla extra, a squirt of honey to sweeten and shake.
- Serve in a martini glass. Top up with a dash of sparkling water. Squeeze a dash of lemon into the tea to watch the tea magically swirl into unicorn colours.
To try Bird & Blend Teas, pop into their flagship Tea Mixology store in Brighton, shops in Royal Tunbridge Wells or Bristol, or visit birdandblendtea.com.
