Alcohol-Free Tea Punch, Green Tea, Lemon and Sugar
Reader ratingsThe green tea, lump sugar rubbed on lemon peel and lemon juice of Jerry Thomas’s 1862 tea punch, with hot water in place of the brandy and rum, served from a warm bowl.
- Recipe makes
- About 6 cups, 12 punch cups
- Prep
- Total
Steep the tea for about 3 minutes while the bowl warms.
Alcohol-free tea punch in a white china bowl, with lemon slices, a ladle and a small teapot.
The story behind the recipe
This is Jerry Thomas’s 1862 tea punch with the brandy and rum left out: strong green tea, lump sugar rubbed on lemon peel, and lemon juice, served hot from a warmed bowl. In How to Mix Drinks, Thomas makes it with “an ounce to a quart of boiling water” of “the best green tea,” poured gradually into a hot bowl that holds half a pint each of brandy and rum, a quarter pound of lump sugar and “the juice of a large lemon.”
The tea does the work
With the spirits gone, the tea carries the bowl, and it is strong tea: an ounce to a quart is nearly four times an ordinary pot. The lemon and sugar are there to soften its bitterness, and the sugar rubbed on the peel, which Thomas recommends “in order to increase the flavor,” brings the lemon oil in without any pith. We put two cups of hot water in place of the pint of spirits, so the bowl holds the same volume and the tea stays at his strength.
Thomas’s bowl was set alight before the tea went in; there is nothing to light here, and nothing in his book makes this version, so it is our adaptation. The bowl with brandy and rum is Tea Punch, Green Tea, Brandy and Rum from 1862.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Steep the tea for about three minutes and strain it at once; green tea left longer at this strength turns harsh. Taste before serving and add more lemon juice if it seems flat.
Green tea went into richer punches too, as How Milk Made Franklin’s Punch Clear shows, and Russian Tea, Spiced with Orange and Cloves is another hot tea sweetened and sharpened with fruit.
68. Tea Punch.
Make an infusion of the best green tea, an ounce to a quart of boiling water; put before the fire a silver or other metal bowl, to become quite hot, and then put into it
½ pint of good brandy. ½ do. rum. ¼ lb. of lump-sugar. The juice of a large lemon.
Set these a-light, and pour in the tea gradually, mixing it from time to time with a ladle; it will remain burning for some time, and is to be poured in that state into the glasses; in order to increase the flavor, a few lumps of the sugar should be rubbed over the lemon peel. This punch may be made in a china bowl, but in that case the flame goes off more rapidly.
Recipe makes: About 6 cups, 12 punch cups
Ingredients
For About 6 cups, 12 punch cups. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 6 cups, 12 punch cups.
- Loose green tea28 g
- Boiling water, for the tea4 cups
- Large lemon1
- Sugar cubes115 g
- Hot water, in place of the spirits2 cups
- Lemon, thinly sliced (optional)1
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 28 g loose green tea
- 4 cups boiling water, for the tea
- 1 large lemon
- 115 g sugar cubes
- 2 cups hot water, in place of the spirits
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced (optional)
Equipment
Kettle
Teapot or heatproof jug
Fine strainer
Punch bowl
Ladle and heatproof cups
Instructions
Warm the punch bowl by filling it with hot water; leave it to stand.
Put the loose green tea in a teapot or heatproof jug, pour on the boiling water, for the tea and steep for about 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, rub a few of the sugar cubes hard over the skin of the large lemon until they turn yellow, then squeeze and strain the lemon’s juice.
Empty the bowl. Put in all the sugar, the lemon juice and the hot water, in place of the spirits, and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Strain the hot tea into the bowl, stirring with the ladle.
Float the thinly sliced lemon on top if you like, and serve hot in punch cups.
Nutrition
35calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 6 cups, 12 punch cups
- Servings
- 12
Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for granulated sugar, lemon juice and brewed green tea, for one 1/2-cup punch cup.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is Thomas’s bowl with water in place of the spirits. For half a bowl, halve everything.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Changes from the source: the brandy and rum are replaced by the same volume of hot water, and there is no flame. The steeping time, straining the tea and the lemon juice, warming the bowl with hot water and the floating lemon slices are ours. His pint is a US pint, so half a pint of each spirit made 2 cups between them; a quarter pound of lump sugar is about 115 g of sugar cubes, and an ounce of tea is 28 g.
Storage
Best served hot as soon as it is made. Any left over can go in the fridge and be served cold over ice later the same day.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
A modern alcohol-free adaptation of “Tea Punch”, No. 68, in Jerry Thomas, How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon-Vivant’s Companion (New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1862), pp. 36–37
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-freeMocktail
- Drink family
- Punches & Cups
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1860s
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- ChristmasDry January
- Season
- Winter