Holiday How-To: Russian Friendship Tea
When we were at Biltmore last week, Max and his eagle-eye spotted free hot drink samples (yes, I trained my child well.) We had never heard of “Russian Tea” before, but Max and I tried it and instantly fell in love! Sweet, citrusy, spicy, and so perfect for the holidays. We knew we wanted to make our own at home, and after some research, we made up our own dry mix recipe so we could whip up Russian Tea on demand all winter long. This mix makes a wonderful holiday gift, too – a great alternative to hot cocoa or apple cider. It’s inexpensive and super-simple to make, a great projects for kids. You can package the mix in jars or bags, and they would be lovely paired with homemade cookies (gingersnaps, perhaps?) or even a special mug to make a charming, holiday gift.
This recipe makes about 6 cups of mix, and one cup of mix makes 8 “servings”, so this is an easy way to make 6 gift bags. I also made up some festive tags to print out and tie up your tea mix! (see below.)
Russian Friendship Tea Mix Recipe
2-1/2 cups Instant Orange Drink Mix
(like Tang)
1-1/2 cups Instant Lemonade Mix
(like Country Time)
1-1/2 cups Instant Unsweetened Tea
1/2 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
(all spices are the dried, ground kind- not whole!)
In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients until thoroughly combined. (That’s pretty much it, folks!)
Use a funnel to portion one cup of mix per jar or bag. To make the tea, add 2 tablespoons of mix per one cup of hot water. Stir. Sip. Yum. (Instructions are included on the back of the print-out labels.) There are even three colorways to chose from so you can pick your favorite! Print these onto white card stock size 8-1/2 x 11. Each page includes 6 labels, so you’re good to go! Click on each image below for a high-quality PDF print out. * The files are large, so it may take a few seconds to load. Please be patient!
This is a great recipe to add to your holiday gift-baking & making arsenal – I hope you enjoy it! Please print our and use these labels as often as you like.
Happy Holiday Baking!
PS: I don’t know where the name “Russian Friendship Tea” originates from. If anyone knows the history I’d love to hear!
Packaging materials in these photos: half-pint caning jars will hold just about 1 cup of mix, and I tied the labels on with striped bakers twine. In the second photo, the mix was wrapped in a clear cello bag closed with a twist tie, and presented in a small, windowed bakery bag.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I love it! I think this idea would be perfect for sweet and simple gifts. And I always love your tags.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
“russian” tea with no tea in it…there is no way a russian would ever come up with a drink like this, ha ha.
but the label is super cute, i LOVE it.
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Love it! Any tips to get the mix in the jar to look all swirly like yours?
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Michelle: The swirly thing happened all by itself! Not sure why, perhaps using the funnel helped? I think it’s because the instant tea is lighter than the rest of the ingredients, maybe.
Jen: Technically, it does have instant tea in it (though I doubt the Russians would approve of that, either!) It mostly tastes orangey and spicy, though.
I’d love to find out the history behind the name “Russian Friendship Tea”, if anyone knows!
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:39 pm
This sounds yummy and easy to make-I think I actually have all the ingredients!! The labels are super cute too!!
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Oh I just found your blog and am so very glad I did!! I love your shop- my first order (cause I’m sure they’ll be many more) from you guys arrived just before Thanksgiving. I used your cupcake boxes and polka dot papers for the cupcakes we delivered to the children’s hospital on Thanksgiving Day.
I’m definitely going to make this tea for gifts! What a fun alternative from cocoa mixes!! Thanks for all the inspiration!
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:42 pm
This is perfect and easy! I want to send my family something yummy and different for the holidays. I think this would go quite nice with all the cookies everyone else makes: )
Thanks!
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Sounds tasty! I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
December 4th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
My mom used to make this all the time! Thanks for the memories!
December 5th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Hey! What a wonderful website. Thanks for sharing this beautiful (and tasty) tea! Anything citrus: I’m there.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Hello Amanda,
This is great!
~ Gabriela ~
December 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
My mom also used to make this. We always gave it to our teachers for Christmas. I love it. I can’t wait to whip up a batch. We used to call it Spiced Tea. Russian Friendship Tea is a funny name for something made of Tang, instant tea and instant lemonade. Either way it still tastes great!
December 8th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Ooh, super-cute! I will definitely be doing this! Quick questions though: is dried ginger the same thing as ground ginger? And are the dried cloves supposed to be ground or whole? Thanks for the resources and the recipe!
December 8th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Christina: Yes! All the spices are supposed to be dried and ground. Sorry if that was worded kinda funky – I’ll fix that!
December 8th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
“We had never heard of “Russian Tea” before, ” most russians probably have not heard of this tea either. russians drink tea black with lemon and sugar or honey. very few exceptions.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
We Russians in America do drink spiced tea if we enjoy it (as my mother does), but yes, as Daria says, we drink our chai (black tea) with lemon and honey quite a bit more often. Instant orange, lemon, and tea? Not so much. But it’s a darling name. Too bad I can’t give it to my family and friends.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:43 am
my mom used to make this too! thanks for the recipe- i am going to share it with all my friends this holiday season.
December 9th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
i like it like ya write it like that…
December 14th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I did this project/recipe today for holiday gifting. It turned out great!! I took photos and posted them on my blog. Thanks for the wonderful idea!
December 16th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
This is so great. I put together some gifts for my daughter’s teachers using your tags and recipe. Thank you! I also have a picture using some of your retro dot liners on my blog post. Lovely!
January 11th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
[...] the all tha packaging fun as I made this version of Bake It Pretty’s Russian Friendship Tea (lemonade+orange drink+instant [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Hello, like Your Blog a lot. I found it on yahoo will add it to bookmark and come back often again to read and follow. Please continue to do great job you do on it.
February 4th, 2010 at 1:58 am
I enjoyed reading this
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:09 am
This blog is great. How did you come up witht he idea? 6 1 8
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Reading this post made me realize a few things, especially about my kitchen… will try and make good use of this… thanks!
July 4th, 2010 at 9:55 am
DELICIOUS!!!