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Tea in Mead

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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
Well if you were making tea to drink, here, if it's loose tea, it's usually 1 teaspoon per cup (half pint sized mug) and 1 teaspoon for the pot.

Most teabags here, would actually make 1 and a half mugs, but most people will just put a bag straight in the mug and top it off with boiling water....

Then there's the factor of how strong you actually want it, and how strong the brand of tea you're using is.......

Were you planning on making a tea and then adding the liquor ? Or were you intending on just dropping the teabags into the mead ???

regards

fatbloke
 

dr9

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 12, 2009
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athens ga
I had a wedding cake last night that was Peaches and Sweet Tea, made by some gal who has been featured on Food Network a couple of times. It tasted very good. I also just discovered a peach tree on my new property. So... making a sweet mead that will finish with peach flavor and tea flavor.. that is the goal. That's why I ask the question. I know the peach part of it is a totally different discussion, but there's alot of info I've found just searching the site so far. My main question would be how strong to make the tea. And I know that's very subjective as well.
 
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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
I had a wedding cake last night that was Peaches and Sweet Tea, made by some gal who has been featured on Food Network a couple of times. It tasted very good. I also just discovered a peach tree on my new property. So... making a sweet mead that will finish with peach flavor and tea flavor.. that is the goal. That's why I ask the question. I know the peach part of it is a totally different discussion, but there's alot of info I've found just searching the site so far. My main question would be how strong to make the tea. And I know that's very subjective as well.
Well most of the recipes I've seen that use tea for the tannin element would normally use something like 1 teabag per cup (half pint mug), make it with just the teabag and boiling water to about the 250mls level and let it stew until cold.

I'm thinking that if you wanted to double that, you might get some detectable tea flavour. Though I'd think I'd be heading along the lines of making the mead with the fruit, then once it's done, rack it to another fermenter and then allow 2 teabags per cup (the same 250/half pint mug), make it with just boiling water, let it stew and go cold and use it for topping up. Taste it, if you don't get any detectable flavour, then just put the used teabags into the batch and another fresh one and let them steep in the mead for a couple of weeks or so - tasting periodically to see when it gets to the stage where you like it.

Tea will extract in cold water, but it can take a long time. That's why it's normally made with water about the 98 C/208 F sort of temperatures to get the best flavour, quickly.....

regards

fatbloke

p.s. Oh and it depends on what you can get locally. Darjeeling is often advertised as the "champagne of tea", but you might find Liptons or Twinings Orange Pekoe locally. If you don't mind mail order, then one of the "British" brands should do the trick i.e. PG tips, Typhoo, etc etc
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
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Ottawa, ON
If you don't mind mail order, then one of the "British" brands should do the trick i.e. PG tips, Typhoo, etc etc

Typhoo is available at some grocery chains here in Canada, it's a good tea! The only one I've found with a consistent decaf (yeah, I know, but caffeine is bad for me), Tetley decaf was sometimes just coloured dishwater and also double the price :mad:... Typhoo Decaf is what I use when I use tea tannins for my wines, one cup with one bag, brewed till cold, per gallon.

Another wine forum (now defunct) had a hopped tea mead recipe and he used a LOT of teabags, comparatively... I think that user used to be here too but if it's on here I couldn't make the search engine cough it up :)
 
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