Citrus Thyme Tea with Candied Sumo Orange Recipe + Giveaway

Citrus Thyme Tea with Candied Sumo Orange Recipe

It’s a super simple recipe and you can keep a big batch of it in your fridge. You can even make ice cubes with the tea and throw some in your water if you want a bit of flavour. Personally, I’m not keen on drinking water, so this helps. Also, the longer the thyme, lemon and candied orange peels sit in the tea, the better the flavour.

I decided to use the unsweetened Pure Leaf tea so I could control the sweetness of the drink. The sweetness comes from the candied orange peel and syrup, but for a sweeter version feel free to use the lemon Pure Leaf tea which has added sugar. It’s a very versatile recipe and can easily be made into a cocktail with some bourbon too.

Citrus Thyme Tea with Candied Sumo Orange Recipe

Photos and recipe testing by: Brenda

Yields 2 glasses

Ingredients

Citrus Thyme Tea with Candied Sumo Orange

• 3 generous Tbsp of candied Sumo orange peel, plus 2 tsp of the syrup (recipe below)
• 4 large sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 Meyer lemon
• 1 bottle of unsweetened Pure Leaf iced tea, well chilled
• 8-10 ice cubes
• Optional: Bourbon for a cocktail version

Candied Sumo Orange Peel (makes ~⅔ cup)

• Peel from 2-3 large Sumo oranges
  • This recipe used Sumo oranges, but any orange of your choice will do
• Equal weight of water and sugar (minimum 250g water and 250g sugar) for the syrup

Notes for success

• This is a non-alcoholic recipe but it can easily be made into a refreshing cocktail by adding a generous splash of bourbon.
• Simmering the orange peel before candying softens the peel and removes some of the bitterness.
• The Candied Orange Peel recipe makes more than the drinks need, but candied peel will keep for many months in the refrigerator. It’s extremely versatile and a small amount can brighten up a dish, savoury as well as sweet.

Method

Citrus Thyme Tea with Candied Sumo Orange

1. Crush the ice by placing the cubes into a sturdy ziploc or plastic bag and gently pounding with a meat mallet or small bat. Alternatively, crush the ice by using a blender. Divide the crushed ice evenly between 2 glasses.
2. Slice the lemon in half crosswise. Cut one of the halves into very thin slices for garnishing the glasses. Juice the remaining half and measure out 1 Tbsp of lemon juice for the punch.

3. Place the candied orange peel and 2 sprigs of thyme into a cocktail mixing glass or a large measuring cup. Muddle the peel together with the thyme for several seconds. Add the 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, the orange syrup, and the iced tea. Stir well to mix the ingredients together. Taste the mixture and add more orange syrup to taste.
4. Divide the mixture evenly between the two glasses and garnish with the remaining sprigs of thyme and lemon slices. Serve immediately.

Candied Orange Peel

1. Use a sharp heavy knife to cut the peel from the oranges in wide slices. Lay each slice flat with the pith side up and carefully slice off as much of the white pith as possible. Stack a few slices together and cut them into thin strips a few mm wide.
2. Place the citrus strips into a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 3 minutes, then drain into a fine mesh sieve and rinse under cool running water. Repeat this two more times, then drain the peel well.
3. Place the water and sugar for the syrup into the pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
4. Add the orange strips, give them a brief stir in the syrup, and allow the mixture to simmer very gently for at least an hour and a half. The peels will become transparent and the liquid will reduce to a thick syrup. Allow the peels to cool completely in the syrup before transferring to a container for storage.

 Enter to win 2 tickets to Eat! Vancouver Food & Cooking Festival + a Pure Leaf prize pack!

The 2015 EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival is a week-long festival taking place throughout downtown Vancouver from April 26th to May 3rd.

Prize pack includes Pure Leaf real brewed tea full product line up in Canada (1 bottle of each: unsweetened, lemon, raspberry, peach and green tea with honey), and 2 EAT! Vancouver tickets valid during the following times:

EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival 2015

Friday, May 1 2pm – 9pm
Saturday, May 2 10am – 9pm
Sunday, May 3 10am – 5pm

Where:
BC Place Stadium
777 Pacific Boulevard,
Vancouver, BC

How to enter:

1) Comment on this post with what Pure Leaf tea you want to try.

unsweetened, lemon, raspberry, peach and green tea with honey

or

2) Tweet: RT and follow to enter! Win a @PureLeaf prize pack + tickets to @EAT_Vancouver from @followmefoodie! #RealLeafBrewed http://bit.ly/1GCL3vc

or

3) “LIKE” the Follow Me Foodie Facebook Fanpage and comment with a Pure Leaf tea you want to try.

CONTEST CLOSES Thursday, April 30.

Terms & Conditions:

1. Contest open to Canadian residents.
2. FollowMeFoodie.com retains the right to approve entries.
3. Prize not negotiable, cannot be exchanged or taken as cash.
4. Allow 15 days for prize delivery of Pure Leaf tea.
5. If winner does not respond within 30 days of the closing date of the contest another winner will be selected.

This post is in partnership with Pure Leaf. The views and opinions expressed in this blog, however, are purely my own.