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Tea Caudle: A Recipe

tea caudel hot drink with wine

When I stumbled upon the recipe for Tea Caudle at Vintage Cookbook Trials, it seemed like a perfect melding of my love for historical cookery and tea. I had made Medieval Style Caudle before, and this seemed like it could be an improvement thereupon. Still, I thought it funny to see how little this drink had changed in three centuries; the addition of tea is the main difference; other than that, nutmeg just replaces the older saffron.

I made a half recipe, consisting of:

8 ounces Pinot Grigio
2 cups strongly brewed Pu Erh Tuo tea
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of sugar
nutmeg

Into the pot went the yolks, tea, sugar and wine. I beat them up together with a whisk, then kept stirring it over medium heat. The color immediately turned to something like tea with cream.



I expected the mixture to thicken, but even after it began boiling it never did any such thing. I figure it just has too much liquid compared to the egg yolks to get that kind of effect.

I poured a cup of the finished product and sprinkled it with nutmeg. The flavor? Not quite what I expected -- oddly it tastes pretty much like sweet tea with lemon! It's a good way to make a more astringent tea with some extra calories, it seems. (The part of me that dabbles in historical beauty recipes actually wonders if it might make a good face wash...) The nutmeg is not really noticeable -- I made the second cup without it and couldn't taste a difference.
I think if I were to make this again, I would go off-recipe a bit. A nice cream sherry seems like it would better compliment the taste of the tea, than a white wine. I might also consider adding a whole nutmeg to the pot and letting it boil with the rest, to better infuse its taste into the mixture.

If tea caudle is your cup of tea, another drink in the vein in Bailey's Irish Cream with tea. 

Bailey's and coffee is a famous combo, but I'd never given real contemplation to Bailey's and tea till I saw this recipe from the official Bailey's Facebook Page.

Is there a better fall drink? We didn’t think so, either. Ingredients: 1.5 ounces Baileys® Original Irish Cream 3 ounces brewed chai tea Raw brown sugar Cinnamon stick Directions: Brew a pot of chai tea. Add 2 teaspoons of raw brown sugar for every cup. Stir until dissolved. Fill a coffee mug with chai tea and Baileys Original Irish Cream. Stir with cinnamon stick. This drink can also be served cold. Simply chill tea and serve drink in a tall glass over ice. This recipe contains no more than 0.6 fl. oz. of alcohol per serving.

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