I am not into sweets; when the dessert tray is passed around, I politely decline. There is one sweet holiday tradition, however, that I just can’t get enough of. Gingerbread is my little holiday dessert obsession. I only eat it this time of year, even though I could easily whip up a batch of cookies even in the heat of summer.
My aversion to sugar also transfers over to my love of tea. I don’t sweeten my teas. I’ll drink water over sweetened teas! I don’t think you can really appreciate the complexity of the leaf when you change it with a bunch of additional stuff in your cup! But — my tastes change during the holidays, and I really enjoy a gingerbread tea latte! This is totally opposite of my usual preferences! Anyway – if you embrace the flavors of the holidays like me then you’ll be happy to know that these are easy to make at home. Simply go through your tea pantry and find a basic black tea spruce it up with some spices. Most of us have ginger in our spice cabinet. Or — you can go the easy route and find a flavored tea from one of the big tea companies.
If you want to make it yourself, here is a yummy gingerbread syrup concoction (originally created to sweeten coffee – but it will work with tea) perfect for adding to a base of black tea. Sweeten to taste and leave room for a bit of half and half and you’ve got an awesome gingerbread tea latte.
If you want to try the flavored teas popular this time of year…get a good quality one. I’ve been happy with everything I’ve ever ordered from Adagio Teas.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
I can really relate to this post. I also don’t like overly sweet baked goods, and I also don’t sweeten my tea.
There are actually a lot of holiday cookies that I like, though. One thing that I absolutely love is gingerbread cookies that are made with a lot of molasses. My family also isn’t big into sweets, so they bake a lot of cookies that cut the sugar in recipes in half or even sometimes down to less than one-half. I really like sweets like that and have taken over the same practice in my own baking.
I wonder if you could add molasses to tea…it would be slow to dissolve but it might work really well if you’re going for one of these holiday blends.