I've had several requests to share how I made my tea-infused honey from the Be-Well tea recipe and what tea I used. I've been delaying because I wanted to experiment with different infusion methods first, but I've realized that I don't have to wait until it's perfect! I want to share my thoughts now and get more minds involved in the experimenting. Will you help?
Having a few tasty infused honeys in our cupboards would open the door to many many many recipes! Tea cocktails or baked goods or even a simple honey drizzle.
The basics of infusing honey
You will need:
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1 cup of mild-flavoured honey
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mason jar with a lid
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2-3 tbsp of flavourful tea (amount depends on the tea choice)
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additional herbs & spices (optional)
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strainer
What to do:
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Place your tea in the bottom of the mason jar. If you're using other ingredients add them too. Things like vanilla beans can be chopped up - more surface area means greater flavour extraction.
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Pour the honey to coat and fill the jar.
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Wipe the jar if you're messy. You don't want to screw the lid onto sticky honey.
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Infuse for a minimum of 6 days. Flip the jar when you notice the ingredients have floated to the top.
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Strain the honey through a fine metal strainer. You lose a bit of honey in this step, but it's worth it!
My first attempt
I used Oollo's honey-scented black tea. This already has honey notes, but it's also got a bakey, dried fruit thing going on. I was going for subtle and wanted to see how much flavour would impart from a straight tea like this.
I used 3 big tbsp since the leaves are big. I infused it for 6 days before trying it, but actually never strained the tea out. You're best to strain out the tea and other herbs and spices you used. Since I was using a large leafed tea, I didn't bother straining them out.
The flavour was definitely subtle and suited drizzling on ice cream, rather than including in an icing recipe. or stirring into a breakfast tea.
Some things I'm going to try next:
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Grinding the tea first or muddling with additional ingredients.
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Putting the ingredients to be infused into disposable tea filters.
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Using heat for a fast infusion method.
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Infusing other teas. Our most popular tea, Orange Blossom Chamomile, would be amazing. So would Persian Palace (rose and cardamom!)
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Infusing organic honey with a new black tea arriving soon for Christmas. I'm really excited to try this!
What I ate with my tea-infused honey:
I drizzled my honey over some homemade "Ice Cream" made from a frozen banana!