9th Tea of Christmas 2021: Plum Pryanik Honeybush!
Tea Description: For the third of four brand new tea blends for our 12 Teas of Christmas box for 2021, I created a tea inspired by a treat I encountered last year about this time called Pryanik – a Russian baked sweet treat similar to gingerbread made of flour & honey.
I received a commercially prepared version of this treat (via Universal Yums) & it was a slightly dry cookie-ish kind of sweet that tasted very little of ginger or gingerbread – or honey, for that matter. Despite that, I found this treat to be rather enjoyable. It wasn’t overly spicy. It was a bit like a dense yet soft, mildly spiced cookie with a very thin layer of plum-y filling & a thin, crisp, sugary glaze on top. I don’t recall it tasting strongly of any one particular ingredient & I think I liked the IDEA of a Plum Pryanik more than the actual thing – or at least – that particular actual thing. I’m sure that anyone who makes this stuff at home – I’m sure it’s really awesome.
Anyway, I was inspired to create a tea with these flavors: gingerbread (a little stronger with the ginger because that’s how I roll), honey & plum. I started with organic honeybush & a little lemon grass because one of the recipes I found for Pryanik included a lemon-y glaze & it sounded good like that. Then I added spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, aniseed & of course, ginger (I used organic candied ginger in this) & some freeze-dried plums as well as a little bit of honey essence to create a Pryanik experience for your teacup. It’s got a lot of stuff going on in this blend – but it all works together really nicely & since it was that experience with something that called itself Pryanik that inspired this blend, I decided to call this tea Plum Pryanik. It’s naturally caffeine-free which makes this a delightful late-night ‘snack’. It’s also organic, vegan, gluten-free, allergen-free & all natural – not to mention YUMMY!
organic ingredients: honeybush, lemongrass, candied ginger (ginger root & cane sugar), plums, cinnamon, aniseed, cardamom, nutmeg & natural flavors
to brew: shake the pouch really well – this blend has a bunch of ingredients & the flavor is best when all these ingredients are represented in each measurement. Use 3 ½ grams of tea to 12oz of very hot water (195°F) & steep for 10 minutes. Strain & allow to cool for at least 5 minutes & it’s even better if you allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
This is a “sweet” dessert tea, so a little sweetener won’t hurt. There is a little bit of sugar in this from the candied ginger – so don’t oversweeten (taste before you sweeten). I tried it first without sweetener & it was tasty. Then I tried it with a little bit of sugar & it was a little better that way (tasted more dessert-y). For my third taste test, I tried it with a drizzle of honey & that brought it to next level – it really enhanced the sweet, honeyed notes of the honeybush..
