Lightly Alcoholic Tea Punch!!!

I wanted to thank everybody for your kind feedbacks on our tea punch!!! Great to know everybody loved it!!!

The recipe was inspired by the Punch story. In old times, sailors in the sea had nothing to do but mixed drinks with spices. Punch, which means 5, includes 5 elements-Bitter (TEA!), sour, sweet, weak and arrack. The original punch was alcohol based. I replaced alcohol with tea!

Our Lightly Alcoholic Tea punch was born!!!

Taste profile: very refershing, very well balanced tastes, has the aftertaste of bitter, sweet, and sour, with nice fruity aroma, beautiful presentation!! THE BEST! Absolutely delicious!!

To make the drink more healthy, I made a revision on the original Tea Punch recipe. Here's the reduced Sugar version:


Prepare time: 20 minutes, plus at least 3 hrs to chill
Yields: 20-24 servings (or approximately 96 oz)

Ingredients
6 oz Sugar (or adjust to taste)
2.5 cups of Apple Juice (unsweetened, from concentrate)
¼ cups of Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
2 cups of Grapefruit (from concentrate)
½ cups of Tequila
¼ cups of Vodka
4 Tea Beyond Grade A Blooming teas-assorted
6 cups of spring water
*Strawberry Gingerale ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Boil spring water and get the sugar dissolved in hot water: Right before the water reaches boiling point, add sugar in and stir until completely dissolved.

2. Steep the tea: drop 4 blooms and steep for about 15 minutes.

2. Mix Apple Juice, Lemon, Grape Fruit, Tequila and Vodka in a punch bowl

3. 15 minutes later, mix all liquid together. Let blooming teas stay in the mixture.

4. Cover with the plastic wrap and put it in refrige to chill for about at least 3 hours.

5. When serve, float on Strawberry ice cubs in the punch bowl and serve!!

*Strawberry ice cubs:

Ingredients: Ginger ale and whole strawberries (or strawberry pieces)

Fill the ice cube mold with ginger ale and add whole/sliced strawberries pieces to each cube. Freeze to use. Please allow roughly 1 day to process.

Tips for preparation:

1. Make sure to use very good branded ingredients to get the best results, such as apple juice, etc. Good quality ingredients always bring the high quality results!

2. Alternatives for sugar: you can use honey, if you prefer, or Stevia. Volume might be different. Add it gradually and taste it.

3. Avoid use water to make ice cubes-Water will dilute the drink. (see, I'm SMARTIE ^0*;))

4. Strawberry Gingerale ice cubes: use Strawberries that come with green leaves for ice cubes. It creates nicer presentation in the beverage, also looks very fresh!

4. Leave the blooming tea in the mixture: it creates nicer presentation, exhotic and continues to release the tea flavor.

Here's the original tea punch recipe if you have a sweet tooth:

http://teabeyond.blogspot.com/2009/12/exotic-blooming-tea-punch.html

Exotic Blooming Tea PUNCH!

Alcohol level-light, light sweet

Exotic Blooming tea punch is inspired by original punch which had been quaffed by sailors, explorers and patriots for centuries. The word punch either comes from Indian word “panch”, the Sanskrit word “panchan” or the Persian word “panj”, all meaning five, from the fact that this drink is made of five ingredients: tea (bitter), sugar (sweet), lemons (sour), water (weak) and arrack (alcoholic).

Best for: any parties (wedding service, Baby shower, Birthday party, etc), holidays, Family gatherings, BBQ events, Fund-raising events, Corporate events, etc. It has beautiful presentation.

Taste: refreshing, subtle, delightful, light alcohol that fits everybody's appetite.

Prepare time: 20 minutes, plus 2-3 hrs to chill
Yields: 20-24 servings (or approximately 96 oz)

Ingredients
1 cup Sugar
2.5 cups of Apple Juice (unsweetened, from concentrate)
¼ cups of Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
2 cups of Grapefruit (from concentrate)
½ cups of Tequila
¼ cups of Vodka
4 Blooming teas
6 cups of spring water
*Strawberry ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Brew tea first: Boil 48 oz spring water. Then drop 4 blooms to brew 15 minutes.
2. Mix Apple Juice, Lemon, Grape Fruit, Tequila and Vodka in a punch bowl
3. 15 minutes later, take all blooms out (will need to put back later) and add 1 cup of sugar to the tea. Stir gently until sugar fully dissolved. Mix all liquid together and put 4 blooming teas back to the mixture.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in refrigerator to chill for about 2-3 hours.
5. When serve, float on Strawberry ice cubs in individual glasses or in punch bowl, whichever you like.

*Strawberry ice cubs:

Ingredients: Ginger ale and whole strawberries (or strawberry pieces)

Fill the ice cube mold with ginger ale and add whole/pieced strawberries to each cube. Freeze to use. Please allow few hours to process.