Currant tea
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Fragrant currant tea is a favorite drink from childhood and a warm memory of summer in the village.
I love currant tea so much that I even planted a blackcurrant bush just for it! Because the best leaf for currant tea comes from black; white and red are less fragrant. But you can take berries of any color. By the way, I am a convinced supporter of currant tea with berries: in its pure form, tea made from currant leaves, without berries, is less tasty, although the smell is not inferior to mixed tea. So if you have such an opportunity, you can even dry (wither in the oven) blackcurrants for the time when the berry has already departed, but the leaf is still there. Add it little by little and you can extend the currant tea season for another couple of months!
Please note that currant leaves from the tips of the branches are more fragrant, not the lower ones. In addition to them, it’s a good idea to add a sprig of mint or lemon balm to currant leaf tea, but only one: after all, we want currant tea, not mint! Currants have a much more subtle aroma than mint, which can easily overwhelm this note, so it is very important not to overuse it.
The amount of water and leaf that I give is approximately 2 small cups. In general, it’s impossible to put too much currant leaf in a teapot, so don’t be shy!
Ингредиенты
Black currant leaf - 5 g
Currants - 8 g
Water - 300 ml
Рецепт
1. Knead the currant leaf and mint sprig thoroughly in your hands. You should feel a strong smell of currants in the air and juice on your hands.
2. Mash fresh currants either in a teapot (with a spoon or pestle, if it fits into your teapot), or directly with your fingers, if there are few berries. We don’t crush it too much, not in a puree, but only slightly. The currants should give off taste and smell, not seeds that will float in the finished tea. If you crush the currants with a pestle or spoon, it is convenient to do this at the bottom of the kettle, before adding the currants. If you use your fingers, the bookmark order does not matter.
3. Pour hot, but not boiling, water over the currants.
4. Let the tea brew for ten, or even fifteen minutes. It can be more than 15, but the temperature there will simply be much lower - many say that this is not tea, but a lukewarm mud. But the taste becomes more intense the longer the currant tea is steeped.
5. Tea made from currant leaves and berries is almost colorless, so it is good to serve it either in colored cups or in cups with a beautiful design on the bottom that you would like to show to guests. Crushed berries don't look very good, but they're tasty. They usually don’t slip through the spout on their own, so if you love them, you can remove them from the teapot with a teaspoon.