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In one chapter you’ll find various healthful teas combined with fruits. These are a treat at any time and can become party punches. The second chapter in this part turns juices into cocktails with the optional inclusion of liquor or wine.

Chapter 14

Tea Party

In This Chapter

• Fruit juices mixed with black tea

• Delicate green tea drinks

• Party punches

Juices and beverages made with fresh juices are sociable drinks, and this chapter’s recipes are perfect party fare. The basis for these refreshing drinks are different teas that you combine with various fruits, spices, and even a few vegetables.

Like all recipes in this book, these juices make two servings. But you can multiply them as many times as you’d like if you’re filling a punch bowl.

Touting Tea

Tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in the world after water. This is good news, because tea offers important health benefits as well as hydration.

Green tea was the first tea studied for its cancer-fighting benefits. But recent studies indicate that any tea derived from the leaf of a warm-weather evergreen known as Camellia sinensis has similar properties. This includes all green, black, and red (oolong) teas. The leaves of this tree contain chemicals called polyphenols, which give tea its antioxidant punch. Herbal teas do not derive from this leaf and so do not have this particular health-promoting chemical.

The degree of processing determines whether a tea will be green, black, or red. Green teas are the least processed. They are simply steamed quickly before packaging. Black and red teas are partially dried, crushed, and fermented. The length of fermentation, which causes the leaves to blacken, determines whether the tea will be red or black.

Liquid Lingo

Polyphenols are antioxidants that help protect cells from the damage of free radicals, neutralize enzymes essential for tumor growth, and deactivate cancer promoters. They are now known to help prevent cancer, and they are tied to preventing heart disease.

Tea also has fluoride for strong teeth, virtually no calories, and half the amount of caffeine found in an equal size cup of coffee. The question hasn’t been answered as to whether decaffeinated teas have the same polyphenols. Caffeine is a natural component of tea leaves. We do not yet know if removing caffeine also removes polyphenols.

Brewing Bravado

Centuries-old rituals go into brewing the perfect cup of tea, and every self-respecting native of either China or England would balk at the sight of a tea bag sitting in a cup.

The first step of this brewing process is to warm the tea pot with very hot water, and then drain it. Then place the loose tea into the empty pot, and pour water over it. The temperature of the water and the amount of time needed for the tea to brew varies with the type of tea:

• Green tea should steep in 200°F water for 2 to 3 minutes.

• Oolong tea should steep in 200°F water for 4 to 7 minutes.

• Black teas, such as Irish or English, should be brewed

Liquid Lingo

Steep is the verb used when dry ingredients, such as tea leaves, herbs, or dried mushrooms, are soaked in hot liquid until the flavor of the ingredient is infused into the liquid.

by water at a full boil and allowed to brew for 3 to 5 minutes.

The Herbal Alternative

A number of plants, both herbs and flowers, are dried and brewed into tea. Some of the more popular are chamomile, which many devotees say calms the nerves and lessens muscle cramps, and rosehip tea that’s made from the berries formed by wild roses. Tea made from the petals of St. John’s wort is touted as possibly relieving depression.

Rosemary, sage, thyme, ginger, and cinnamon are all used to infuse herbal teas. Herbal teas don’t contain any caffeine, but they also don’t have the same antioxidant benefits as green or black tea.

Black Tea, Orange, and Peach

3 ripe peaches

2 oranges

1 cup strongly brewed black tea, very

chilled

1½4 cup