Salem College Tea

Growing up, usually during the holiday season, a jar of "Friendship Tea" or "Russian Tea" would find its way to our home by way of a gift basket of some sort.  This drink was a mixture of Tang, Instant Nestea granules, lemonade mix, sugar, cinnamon and cloves.  You mixed a Tbsp or two in hot water and had a nice hot  drink on a cold winter day.  I loved it.


Alison W. turned me on to the real thing.  She took me to a little shop in Winston-Salem by the name of Salem Kitchen; a gourmet food to-go and catering company. We got some cheese straws, a frozen Moravian Chicken pie to take home and Salem Iced Tea; the real "Russian Tea".  I was hooked on it; and I don't even drink sweet tea.

I bought a cookbook at an estate sale called "The Old Salem and Museums Cookbook". I looked to see if there was a recipe for this tea since it is supposed to be a Salem recipe.  Indeed there was a recipe called Salem College Iced Tea.  Story behind the recipe, as published in the cookbook is this:

"A Salem College dietician, Miss Helen Vogler, started making and serving this iced tea in the college dining room many, many years ago.  Years later the recipe was acquired by Moravian ladies in Old Salem who served it at teas and receptions.  The tea became popular so the recipe was shared and is now enjoyed throughout our city. ~ Mary S. Leonard"

Alison acquired the recipe from Salem Kitchen and made a batch.  I made a batch of the recipe in my cookbook. We compared and started tweaking our recipes to make them taste exactly the way we wanted.  Here is mine.

Salem Tea
Adapted from "The Old Salem and Museums Cookbook"
Makes approximately 1-1/2 gallons

Ingredients:
3 quarts cold water
zest strips from one orange (peeled, not grated with no pith)

4 sprigs fresh mint
2 Tbsp. whole cloves
5 cinnamon sticks
5 family-size tea bags (black tea)
2 cups Sugar-In-The-Raw (Turbinado Sugar)
1 cup orange juice, fresh squeezed (~ 5 medium oranges) or Tropicana 'no pulp' OJ
Fresh squeezed juice from 8 lemons (you'll get anywhere from 1-1/4 cups to 1-3/4 cups)
1 - 46 ounce can pineapple juice

Method:
In a 5-1/2 quart or larger Dutch oven, combine the water, orange zest, mint, cloves and cinnamon. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.   Remove from heat, add tea bags and steep for 15 minutes.  Strain the solids. Return strained tea mixture to the pot and add sugar.  Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add orange juice, lemon juice and the pineapple juice (I don't always use the full can of pineapple juice.  You can add as much or as little to suit your taste). Cool and refrigerate overnight. 

Serve over ice or hot during the summer as well as the winter.  When Thanksgiving rolls around it just seems the right time to make a batch. When serving hot, especially on a cold winter night, it's extra special with a little bit of Bourbon in it.

NOTES:

Needs to be stirred up from time to time

Before adding to the mixture you can run the pineapple juice through a fine sieve to remove some of the fine solids