Grandma's Russian Tea

Made it per this recipe with a small couple of exceptions : I used decaf Lipton to brew the tea. Tastes amazing. Served hot or cold. For a little festiveness we added Amaretto to the hot drink served in a mug and over ice we served it with a splash of Southern Comfort! Both were amazing ! Definitely making again. (I did cut down in the sugar started with only 1/2C ended up using about 3/4 C.

I had a different version (Tang) of this tea years ago and it was delicious. I had a few ingredients left after the holiday so I decided to try this version. Typically I like to make new recipes as written but it is altered as I use what I had on hand. I had a lot of instant green teas on hand so I used three different types: 4 Tazo green ginger tea, 4 Bigalow green tea with lemon, and 2 Lipton Mandarin orange green tea. I used 12 ounces of orange juice concentrate and omitted the lemonade concentrate. I did not have cinnamon sticks so I used ground cinnamon. I used a half a cup of sugar instead of one cup and still found it to be very sweet. I actually liked how it tastes prior to adding the sugar. I also added extra cloves, allspice and cinnamon because I really love those flavors together. :). I garnished with a bit of lemon slice. This was very tasty, it did not have the tart taste as I remembered from the Tang version, but I found this version more "fresh" in a sense. I loved it! It filled up 3 mason jars (gifts for family) after it cooled and I had a bit left over to pour into my blueberry lemonade in the fridge! yum! I would surely make this again, using 1/4 c of sugar or none at all.

Loved it! I always squeeze fresh orange and lemon in my tea but the addition of the cloves and Allspice really added a lot to this tea. I'll be making this one again and again. Thank you Grandma!