Old Fashioned Tea Time Recipes
Tea time, or afternoon or evening tea time to be more specific, is a well known and well respected tradition around the world. Taking cues from a favored English pastime, tea time themes can range from Victorian elegance to purely whimsical, and you certainly do not need to spend hours in the kitchen preparing for a tea time party of your own. There are plenty of quick and easy tea time recipes that you can use.
Tea
Although you can generally use whatever type of tea you want for tea time, one of the most commonly used is Thai tea. For this recipe you will need: 1 gallon water, 8 Chinese star anise, ground, 1 tbsp. orange flowers, 1 tbsp. powdered vanilla, 1 pinch clove powder, 1 pinch chopped cinnamon, ¾ quart long cut China black tea leaves, 1-2 cups sugar, 1 quart half and half cream, red food coloring and crushed ice.
To make this tea, you first need to boil the water. Then you add the star anise, orange flowers, vanilla, clove, cinnamon and tea leaves to the boiling water. Continue boiling for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat, cover and steep until lukewarm. Strain the mixture, add sugar to taste, and serve in clear glasses over plenty of crushed ice, topping each glass with half and half cream.
Sandwiches
Sandwiches are not necessary for tea time, but are generally served and usually appreciated. You can prepare small sandwiches with simple flavors like cream cheese, mozzarella and tomato, tuna salad, or ham and apple. Just make sure that you spread a thin coat of mayonnaise, butter, or cream cheese on the bread before making the sandwiches in order to keep the bread from getting soggy.
Tea Favors
Giving tea favors is also a wonderful idea, so that your guests have something to take home with them after the meal. Beaded bracelets are a great idea, as they are fun and inexpensive to make. You can also make Victorian fans to give out, which are incredibly easy to make, by folding accordion style using pretty wallpaper and ribbon or long tear-drop cardboard shapes, and then decorating them with ribbons and tassels.
The most important thing to keep in mind with planning your tea time is to ensure that you and your guests have fun and enjoy yourselves. This may mean that rather than sticking strictly to the typical ideas, you can try to come up with some new and creative ones of your own, in order to make your tea time personalized and fun.
