Ingredients
The tea
- 4black tea bags
- or 4 teaspoons loose black tea
- 1 litrewater
- freshly drawn
The spirit
- 200 mlsingani
- Bolivian grape brandy
- or 50 ml per glass
- adjust to taste
The sweetening and citrus
- 4 tablespoonssugar
- or to taste
- juice of 2 lemons
- or 3 limes
- strips of lemon peel
Sometimes added
- 2cinnamon sticks
- 4whole cloves
- a few slices of fresh ginger
- a little honey
To serve
- heatproof glasses
- with handles if possible
- a slice of lemon per glass
- a cinnamon stick, to stir
Directions
- Start by boiling the water in a kettle or pan. Use freshly drawn water rather than reboiled water. Reboiled water tastes flat because it loses its air.
- Warm the teapot with a little hot water first. Pour that water away before adding the tea. Add the tea bags or the loose black tea. Pour the boiling water over the leaves. Add the cinnamon and cloves now if using them.
- Cover the pot and let it steep for five minutes. Do not steep black tea for very much longer. Strain the tea into a clean jug or pan. Remove the tea bags or strain out the leaves. Leaving them in keeps extracting bitterness.
- Stir until you can feel no grains at the bottom. Taste it and adjust the sweetness now. It should be clearly sweet but not syrupy. Add it off the heat rather than while boiling.
- Taste again and balance the sweet against the sour. It should taste bright rather than flat. Warm the serving glasses with hot water. Cold glass cools the drink very quickly.
- Use heatproof glasses or sturdy mugs only. Thin glass tumblers can crack without warning. Pour the hot sweetened tea into the glasses. Fill them to about three quarters full. It also stops the alcohol boiling away in the pot.
- Heat drives off alcohol surprisingly quickly. Never boil the spirit into the tea directly. Stir each glass gently with a spoon. Add a slice of lemon to float on the top. Serve it immediately while it is properly hot. It must be drunk hot to be any good at all. Make it fresh, because it does not keep well. The brewed tea can be made an hour ahead.
Technique
- The name is a joke. Té con té means ‘tea with tea’, with the second ‘té’ politely standing in for the singani rather than naming it.
- Add the singani to each glass rather than to the pot. Alcohol evaporates quickly in hot liquid, and pouring at the glass also lets each person set their own strength.
- Hot alcoholic drinks are absorbed quickly, and the sugar and heat disguise the strength. At La Paz and Oruro altitudes, where this is most often drunk, visitors adjusting to thin air should be especially careful. That is ordinary local caution, not medical advice.
- Water boils below 100 degrees at Andean altitude, so tea brews more weakly and more slowly. Highland cooks use more tea and steep it longer. At sea level, brew normally and do not exceed five minutes or the tea turns bitter.
- Use heatproof glasses or sturdy mugs. Thin tumblers crack when hot liquid hits cold glass; warming them first helps.
- Singani is Bolivia’s protected grape spirit, distilled from Muscat of Alexandria grown at high altitude around Tarija. It is frequently compared to pisco and Bolivians consider it a distinct spirit; the atlas records that and stays out of the argument.
Substitutions
- Pisco replaces singani if singani is unavailable, and the drink still works, though it is no longer strictly té con té.
- Any decent grape brandy is a reasonable stand-in; a heavy oaked brandy is less suitable, since singani is clean and floral.
- Lime replaces lemon and is used interchangeably in many households.
- Honey replaces sugar and gives a rounder sweetness.
- Strong black tea of any kind works; there is no traditional single variety.
- The drink can be made without alcohol at all, as a spiced sweet lemon tea, which is what children are given at the same gatherings.
Variations
- A version with cinnamon and cloves steeped in the tea is common at fiestas and is more warming still.
- Sucumbé and other hot Andean spirit drinks belong to the same cold-weather family, though they are milk-based rather than tea-based.
- Some vendors add a little ginger, which gives an extra warming bite.
- A stronger version, with the tea used simply to soften the spirit, is drunk late in carnival nights.
- Té con té made with coca tea rather than black tea is drunk in some highland households.
- A non-alcoholic spiced lemon tea, served to children at the same gatherings, uses the identical base.
History
Warms Andean nights, especially during Oruro’s carnival and highland fiestas.
Frequently asked questions
What is Té con té?
Té con té is a cocktail from Bolivia: strong black tea laced with singani, sugar and lemon, drunk hot. Warms Andean nights, especially during Oruro’s carnival and highland fiestas.
How long does Té con té take to make?
Té con té takes 5 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Té con té?
Yes, within limits. Pisco replaces singani if singani is unavailable, and the drink still works, though it is no longer strictly té con té. Any decent grape brandy is a reasonable stand-in; a heavy oaked brandy is less suitable, since singani is clean and floral. Lime replaces lemon and is used interchangeably in many households. Honey replaces sugar and gives a rounder sweetness. Strong black tea of any kind works; there is no traditional single variety. The drink can be made without alcohol at all, as a spiced sweet lemon tea, which is what children are given at the same gatherings.
What is the most important thing to get right in Té con té?
Start by boiling the water in a kettle or pan. Use freshly drawn water rather than reboiled water. Reboiled water tastes flat because it loses its air.
