Evil Tea

[ewt]

I recently read of rosefox's evil tea recipe. There are a few things there that are difficult or impossible to get in the UK, so I can't do exactly the same thing, but looking at the ingredients it seemed like they were mostly things you could get at your standard foreign-people-from-spicy-places corner shop.

Pretty much on cue I developed a sore throat. So, when I got in this evening and ensured that the cat I am sitting is happy and healthy, I went right back out again to the local Iranian (I think?) shop for various ingredients. I also stopped by the Sainsbury's for a few things they didn't have and some ice lollies to cool my mouth after I subject it to such rough treatment.

When my throat is sore I really don't like rough foods at all, so instead of drinking the tea with the ground spices in it, I'm going to do it another way and steep the tea on the stovetop, then pour it through a coffee filter.

To one saucepan containing perhaps 1.5L of water, I added:
2 cranberry, raspberry and elderflower teabags (for the hibiscus and rosehips)
2 wild fennel teabags (why fennel is cheaper to buy in tea I don't know. I shouldn't be buying it at all but the wild seeds aren't ripe yet outdoors)
2 peppermint teabags
2 ordinary bog standard teabags
2 or 3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tbsp Tabasco-a-like hot sauce
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tbsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp sage
4 tbsp thyme

By the time I'd added all this STUFF it was boiling, so I turned the heat off and will leave it for about ten minutes before straining some off into a mug with copious quantities of honey in it. I'm not really up for the alcohol in rosefox's recipe; I'm not going to buy any bad Scotch and I'm certainly not going to waste good Scotch by putting it in something that is designed to burn every nerve cell it touches.

I don't see why you couldn't use molasses or maple syrup instead of honey, or indeed leave out one thing or another if you had to, although I'm pretty sure I'd want some sort of sweetener in it.


Observations so far: it smells like a really strange curry, and this is not something you want to make in your best teapot. I will definitely be keeping a large glass of water on hand to alternate with when drinking this stuff. In concept it's a little bit like my Adaptable Lemonade: maple syrup, lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne pepper and as much hot or cold (still or sparkling) water as you like. I suspect it will be rather more unpleasant than that to drink, though. But hey, if it works... and if it doesn't then I get more Olbas pastilles from somewhere and get on with things.

Comments

[battlekitty.livejournal.com]

(Suspecting the stuff you couldn't get was tea bags...)

Yogi teas are sold in Waitrose (I think that's where I saw them...) and I reckon you might be able to get some of the others in Health Food shops (is the one here open on Sundays?) or specialist tea & coffee shops (Algerian Coffee Stores has a good range of odd herbal tea bags)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Yogi teas are available, but some of the others are a little more difficult. Also, I was SO not going to go out in search of open health food shops at 7pm on a Friday; I do like that so many of these things can be acquired at simple corner shops in London.

Maybe I've done it wrong but I'm actually finding the tea kindof nice, if a bit spicy for my tastes. It would be beautiful made in milk instead of water, but I guess they call that "Chai".