Royal Tea
It’s a Royal Tea cocktail kinda day! I actually didn’t know it was a Royal Tea cocktail kinda day when I woke this morning — but isn’t that the funny, marvelous thing about days?
So here’s a Royal Tea toast to this day, and the spark of pure magic it bought me in the midst of a surreal, disappointing, frightening year! ting-ting.
I started today with the already thrilling objective of Getting to Leave The House —WHOA!—using the totally essential excuse of delivering our school’s Scholastic Book Club orders to self-isolating students. We ran a virtually no-contact system, utilising the school’s existing Drop & Go line. Worked brilliantly. We practiced social distancing to perfection, and parents didn’t even have to leave their cars to receive their goodies.
Oh the joy on those little faces in the back seats when they got their books. (And the relief on the parents’ faces.) Books truly are THE best gifts.
It was a huge morale boost for me handing out those books today, too. The sun was shining, I had other adult humans to talk to in person who were NOT my husband, no offence honey, love you babe, and there were swarms of Ulysses butterflies dancing around us in the blossoming playground trees. Today is a lucky day, I thought to myself; high on laughter, novels, sunshine, and butterflies.
Such a lucky day, as it turned out, I was pouring myself cocktails by 3pm! But that’s a wonderful story you’ll hear another day.
For now, I want to share the recipe for a Royal Tea cocktail with you — so that, if your day turns out to be a Royal Tea kinda day, you’re ready to go! Have a drink, virtually, with me…until we can all have one together.
Traditionally, this cocktail is made with Earl Grey tea, but I used my favourite tea, instead: Royal Devonshire tea, locally grown and pesticide free, by Nerada Tea.
Royal Devonshire is a black tea with vanilla, and it has a delectable fragrance.
If you’d like something caffeine-free, I cannot recommend Nerada’s Rooibos & Vanilla tea highly enough. Fabulous health benefits, too.
(Boy oh boy am I going to kick myself if the pandemic hoarders find this tea brand…)
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ROYAL TEA COCKTAIL
Ingredients:
2 parts gin (mine is always pink)
2 parts brewed, steeped & cooled tea (Royal Devonshire for me!)
Splash of lemon juice
Sugar to taste*
Ice cubes &/ fruit as desired (I love blueberries or kiwi fruit)
Garnish — lime wheels
*Lots. Am an unabashed sweet tooth! Unless my dentist is reading, in which case this is obviously a lie. Also I just flossed & brushed.
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Last word. Dear Reader: you are doing a beautiful job of surviving this wild crazy year. Keep going! You can do this!
xx Averil