Properly Sauced - Lemon Evolution Tea-tail

By Carrie Becker in Food on Jun 30, 2010 6:20PM

Much to our delight, cocktail menus and restaurant beverage programs have been transforming in a great way - the revival of classic cocktails, gin based drinks and most recently the tea trend.

David Burke's Primehouse sommelier Rachael Johnson recently hopped on the tea bandwagon by introducing a tea-tail with wine cubes. We love the use of wine in this cocktail so we caught up with Rachael to obtain her recipe and grab some sommelier insights.

“As the wine cubes melt, the drink will transform in flavor, balancing lemon and bright berry flavors with a touch of herbal aromatics,” says Johnson. “Visually stunning and very refreshing, this summer cocktail will delight your senses.”

If we had a veranda to sit on, we'd sip this tea-tail every night. Enjoy!

Lemon Evolution Tea-tail

Ingredients
3 bags Lemon Zinger tea
2/3 cups sugar
½ bottle light red wine (Pinot Noir, Grenache or Gamay work well)
½ lemon
4 springs of thyme

Directions

Brew Lemon Zinger tea as directed on the box. Sweeten by adding sugar. Mix until dissolved, and refrigerate until needed in a pitcher.

While the tea is brewing, prepare "wine cubes." Select a bottle of your favorite light red wine (these lighter reds will help balance the lemon flavor of the team. Pour the wine into ice cube trays, leaving about 1/3 of each cube empty. Fill the remaining space with water. Adding water will help freeze the cubes more quickly and eventually melt more slowly in your tea-tail.

Freeze the wine cubes in your freezer. When finished, pop them out of the tray and place in freezer bags labeled with the type of wine.

In a tall glass, alternate wine cubes with regular ice cubes. Pour sweetened tea over the cubes, and garnish with a squeeze of lemon and sprig of thyme.