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.
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- The Girl With A Curl » Blog Archive » Is It Christmas Yet? - [...] the all tha packaging fun as I made this version of Bake It Pretty’s Russian Friendship Tea (lemonade+orange drink+instant ...
- Homeade Gift Ideas from iVillage » Bake It Pretty – cupcakes, baking supplies, cupcake toppers, cupcake liners, baking ideas, party ideas, tutorials and more. - [...] s excited to report that our Russian Tea recipe is included in a fabulous roundup of homemade foodie gifts ...
- The Season For Giving « Talking Washingtons - [...] We’re planning to make some of this, too! [...]
I love it! I think this idea would be perfect for sweet and simple gifts. And I always love your tags.
“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.
There is instant tea in it!
Love it! Any tips to get the mix in the jar to look all swirly like yours?
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!
This sounds yummy and easy to make-I think I actually have all the ingredients!! The labels are super cute too!!
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!
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!
Sounds tasty! I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
My mom used to make this all the time! Thanks for the memories!
Hey! What a wonderful website. Thanks for sharing this beautiful (and tasty) tea! Anything citrus: I’m there.
Hello Amanda,
This is great!
~ Gabriela ~
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!
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!
Christina: Yes! All the spices are supposed to be dried and ground. Sorry if that was worded kinda funky – I’ll fix that!
“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.
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.
my mom used to make this too! thanks for the recipe- i am going to share it with all my friends this holiday season.
i like it like ya write it like that…
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!
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!
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.
I enjoyed reading this
This blog is great. How did you come up witht he idea? 6 1 8
Reading this post made me realize a few things, especially about my kitchen… will try and make good use of this… thanks!
DELICIOUS!!!
Love this site- was looking for friendhsip tea recipes and hot coco recipes for Christmas gifts. Thanks a lot.
I live in Sydney and have never seen instant lemonade mix, can you suggest an alternative??
Back in the cold war days, this was a popular mix to give. Maybe this was wishful thinking about the nuclear scare everyone went through in those days.
My son and I made a few jars of this mix this afternoon! We plan to give them to his favorite teachers just before the Thanksgiving break! Wonderful idea – thanks so much!
I make Russian Tea the old fashion way with brewed tea and plenty of squeezed oranges and lemons with spices. I make it in large batches and store it in the fridge. For me the taste is more pure.
This is super tasty and so easy to make into a gift! Thanks for posting it
The ingredients look so good! Gotta try it!
I can’t wait to try this! My mom used to make a hot tea mix when we were kids. She would make a huge batch, storing it in a giant Tupperware container with a just the right size scoop for one cup. It was easy enough for us kids to make on our own. I’ve thought about it from time to time, wishing I had written down the recipe before mom passed away a few years back. I’m hoping this is the same recipe she used. Thanks a bunch!!
Hi, my family has made this tea for years we called it spiced tea, but we would put a few red hots in the bottom of the cup when making it. We would drink it all winter long, espically if you were sick.
You really make it seem really easy along with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something that I believe I might never understand. It kind of feels too complex and very large for me. I’m having a look forward in your next post, I will attempt to get the grasp of it!
The Maldives …… a favorite of Russian criminals like Putin and his underworld cronies.
We have made this in our family for generations and called it Holiday Spiced tea. We have amended it by ditching the sugar and the allspice for powdered iced tea(like Liptons). It goes further and tastes better. Glad this is being shared.
I loved your recipe, but here in Russia we’ve never heard of such tea. Amazing how things are called sometimes))
Anyway, thanks for all your projects, they’re graet!