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

Iced Peach Tea

Perfect for a hot summer day; picnic or tea party.  You'll love this even if you don't take your tea sweet.  Papa and I have enjoyed this refreshing quaf the past couple of days while sitting in the shade on the back porch.

August is my favorite peach month.  The peaches are sweeter and you can easily find freestone peaches.  Clingstone are fine to eat out of hand but extremely frustrating when you cook with them and have to slice them up.

Since this is made with fresh fruit you will want to drink it within a day or two.

Iced Peach Tea
Makes approximately 2 quarts

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
9-1/2 cups water, divided
3 large fresh peaches
2 - one quart tea bags

Method:
In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and 1-1/2 cups of the water.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Wash peaches and slice (keep skin on).  Add peach slices to boiling sugar water.  Lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes.

Boil remaining 8 cups water and add tea bags to make 2 quarts tea; set aside.

 Pureé the peach mixture in a blender until smooth.  Press through a fine mesh strainer.

Add 1-1/2 quarts of the black tea to the peach pureé.  Stir and if you want the tea thinner you can add more of the tea; purely a personal preference.

Place in refrigerator until cold.  Give the tea a stir prior to pouring over a glass of ice.  Garnish with a mint leaf or a thin slice of peach.

Strawberry-Limeade Iced Tea

When our weather turns hot in Texas a cold glass of anything is pure heaven.  This flavored tea is part of April's Southern Living's spread on Strawberry Delights.

The base recipe is for Strawberry Limeade which is great all by itself.  You can add a little spritzer water to zing it up a bit.

For the iced tea version, you simply substitute fresh brewed tea for the iced water.

The strawberry limeade mixture doesn't lend itself as a sweetener for the tea, just flavors it nicely.  Between the two, I would stay with the base recipe and leave out the tea.  The strawberry and lime flavors are more prominent and the coloring is much prettier without the tea giving it a murky look.

Strawberry Limeade Iced Tea
Makes 7 cups

Ingredients:
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 cups freshly brewed tea, chilled
2/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 large limes)

Mise en place:

• brew tea and set aside to cool, then chill in refrigerator
• wash, core and slice strawberries into large mixing bowl
• measure out sugar
• juice limes

Method:
Stir together the strawberries and sugar in a large bowl; crush strawberries with a wooden spoon, and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Process strawberry mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.

Press mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into a large pitcher; using the back of the spoon to squeeze out juice; discard solids. 

Add cold tea and lime juice, stirring until blended.  Cover and chill 2 to 4 hours.
For Strawberry Limeade, use 4 cups cold water instead of tea.