I read about spiced orange peel tea like this in a book as a child and have been making it for years. It’s such a great mild and spicy warm drink, not really tea at all, but very cosy. In the book recipe, the ingredients are briefly covered in hot water before serving – but of course fiction authors aren’t (usually) recipe developers, so that tasted like nothing. Simmering the tea for a while brings out a much more distinct flavour from both the orange and spices.

If you have plenty of oranges to use, try making this two ingredient chocolate orange mousse, vibrant red cabbage orange salad, or another drink with an orange ginger beer mocktail.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Oranges: if you want to use dried orange peels, you can, and omit the juice from the oranges. This will make a more spice-dominant tea with a milder orange taste.
• Spices: it’s important to use fresh whole spices as old spices won’t have much flavour.
• Honey: this is optional and can be omitted if preferred. Use maple syrup if preferred.

Step by Step

Step 1: add the orange peel and spices to a pot with water.

Step 2: simmer until slightly reduced, then add the honey and orange juice. Serve hot.

Recipe Notes

Please keep in mind that this is a rather mild drink, more along the lines of a children’s fruit tea than a strong tea or highly spiced drink. You can up the spiciness by adding more ginger, or mixing ginger juice into the tea. There’s a similar tasting recipe in my cookbook made with only dried ingredients.

How to Store

The tea can be kept in a sealed container (like a lidded jar) for a few days in the refrigerator. Reheat on the stove top before serving, or serve cold.

Expert Tips

• Sweeten to taste: add as much or as little honey as you’d like. If you do add orange juice, you might prefer to leave the honey out altogether.
• Keep your orange peels: apart from being useful for teas like this, keeping orange peels to dry on radiators in the winter time will add a nice fresh scent to your home. They make excellent fire starters, too, if you have a wood-burning stove.
• Change up the spices: add other spices to the mix if you’d like. Cracked cardamom pods are nice, or something like star anise.

More Cosy Recipes

Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate
Pear Cider
Cranberry Tea
Lemon Ginger Turmeric Tea