At my grandmother’s house, I grew up drinking this Russian tea mixed with pineapple juice. Nowadays, I make it at home on extremely chilly days, during the holidays, whenever I have visitors around, or when I’m sick (because of the vitamin C). The best way to make the house smell lovely is to simmer it on the stove. I don’t know why it’s called Russian tea; my grandmother just always named it that. Reheating this is also fantastic.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 20 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 3 quarts |
Ingredients
- 2 family-sized tea bags
- 1 quart boiling water
- 1 ½ quarts water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 6 whole cloves
- 1 (12 ounce) can pineapple juice
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 (6 ounce) can frozen orange juice concentrate
- 1 (6 ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
Instructions
- Steep tea bags in boiling water until tea is of desired strength, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags.
- Combine 1 1/2 quarts water, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a large pot; bring to a boil.
- Add brewed tea, pineapple juice, sugar, orange juice and lemonade concentrates, and allspice to the boiling water; stir until sugar dissolves.
- Serve immediately, or reduce heat to low and keep at a simmer until ready to serve.
- Use any tea you like. I’ve used regular black, decaf, and cinnamon spice teas, and they’re all great. If you used a spiced tea, you may want to adjust the amount of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.
Reviews
wonderful cold weather drink
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 found this recipe when I had a cold and wanted something with juice and spices and I loved it! I made it again when I was having a cookie decorating party. And I’ve made it twice since. The only changes I made were using ground cloves since I didn’t have whole cloves and using a half a cup of sugar instead of a whole cup of sugar.?? I cook it in the instant pot on slow cooker to keep it warm because I like it best after the spices have had time to meld with the juice flavors. Thanks for sharing it! It is super Yum!
It’s so much like the recipe I fell in love with as a teen. I used 1cup lemon flavored ice tea, instead of part plain tea. After I tasted a cup, the cloves were overpowering (it was a new bottle and pungent). So I added 1 extra teaspoon cinnamon and almost 50% more lemon tea, sugar and Tang. It’s sooo good!
I have made this a couple times and it is very good. One time I didn’t have lemonade so I doubled up the oj concentrate, but that batch did not come out very good. So make sure you have both oj and lemonade.
It is wonderful. I used 3 family tea bags and 2 single green tea bags and 1 3/4 sugar. It was perfect! Will definitely make it again.
It was so easy and the taste is as I remember from my childhood. Well make this for years to come.
This tastes just like the one I remember from my teens. (I’m now a grandmother.) This was served at an afternoon “tea” for an organizational meeting I attended. The powdered form is good, but this is just so much better. Plus, your home will smell wonderful!
Excellent for the holidays!
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.
I love this version. I usually make my own orange juice and lemon juice but the frozen juices work well. I am making this again today. First time I did use a total of 2 1/2 quarts of water.
I am absolutely in love with this recipe. I got this recipe two days ago and I am already on my third batch. My husband and I love it so much! One thing that I think should be tweaked is the amount of sugar. I found that it was tasty without that whole cup of sugar! 🙂 Feel free to add some additional cloves or cinnamon to give it some extra spiciness!
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!
Fixed this last night. Is great! One question. Is it supposed to be 1 1/2 cups of water or 1 1/2 quarts of water?
I had this same one when I was a kid and sick. Warm I just remember it as soothing and making me feel better.
Made this. Used Trader Joe’s White Pomegranate tea, it gave it a lovely red color. Followed the recipe exactly except that I did not have a family sized tea bag so I just used four single-serve tea bags per family bag.