Next week’s World Tea Expo is taking place alongside the Bar & Restaurant Expo, which is fitting. Although we may view tea and alcoholic beverages as two entities, they’ve long been entwined.

Europeans were first introduced to tea in the early 1600s, although only the wealthiest could afford such a luxury. At the same time, British East India Company employees discovered punch during their travels. Whether the word “punch” truly derived from Hindustani panch, meaning “five” (see earlier post), isn’t clear. However, the drink’s five elements:

• spirit
• citrus
• sugar
• spice/tea
• water

remain the foundation of today’s cocktails:

• alcohol
• acidulant
• sweetener
• bitter
• dilution

Punch was soon brought to Europe, where it might be served with tea, thus also serving to indicate social standing.

As Phil Attee explains in our book, Tea for Dummies (2023:258–59):

In Europe, both tea and spices were highly valued and seen as status symbols. Punches would be served at parties and social gatherings along with tea, and it was only a matter of time before they were mixed together. There is some evidence this practice began in the late 1600s; it was in 1732, in Philadelphia, that we see one of the first examples of tea in a mixed drink. The Philadelphia Fish House Punch . . . incorporated black tea with rum and brandy to make tipple that was reportedly very popular with the likes of George Washington, among others. Later, in 1862, it was cemented in history when Jerry Thomas wrote The Bartenders Guide, the first American book dedicated to mixed drinks. The very first chapter is about punch, and one of the very first things he mentions is that you should use tea instead of water for your punch recipes.

While brewed tea can serve as the dilution, as Jerry Thomas recommended in 1862, tea also nails the “bitter” category. Phil notes that

bitterness is most often found in plant-derived compounds such as phenols and polyphenols, including flavonoids and catechins, and caffeine—all of which are found in tea. (emphasis added; Tea for Dummies 2023:260)

In addition, many teas work particularly well with sweeteners, thereby adding layers of flavor and complexity to the final product. Lisa McDonald—tea sommelier, owner of TeaHaus in Ann Arbor, and my co-author of Tea for Dummies—takes advantage of that fact, creating tea syrups to add to sparkling wine for a refreshing tea-mimosa, for example.

Lisa also incorporates time-honored preservation techniques as she concocts novel alcoholic beverages. Vinegar, sugar, and alcohol can all preserve fruit. When she makes a shrub, Lisa goes a step further and adds tea to the mix. She may select one with natural sweetness, or she may use a tea to add a touch of bitterness or an earthiness and so on. Tea can be used to accentuate or balance other flavors.

When we brew a cup of tea to drink, we steep the leaves in water. A chemist would call this an infusion, which is a type of extraction. In other words, the chemical compounds contained within the tea leaves transfer to another medium, the brewing water. This type of extraction is used to make tea syrups and shrubs.

However, plant materials infuse more readily into alcohol than into water. Therefore, for more intense flavors, tea leaves can be steeped in alcohol rather than in water. The higher the proof, the more intense the extraction. The resulting tea-infused spirits, tea tinctures, and bitters join tea syrups and tea infusions as elements for exciting alcoholic beverages.

At the World Tea Expo, Phil and Lisa will be teaching the classes “Practical Tea Chemistry: Food Preservation with Tea” and “Brews and Stews: Applications for Your Tea Chemistry Experiments” that will explore innovative uses of loose tea with alcohol. I’ll share some of their content here, and you can always pick up Tea for Dummies for some terrific ideas and recipes in the meantime.

Source: Tea for Dummies, by Lisa McDonald and Jill Rheinheimer, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2023.