On I went, operating under the delusion I have nothing to say, until a yesterday when routing around in the pantry, complaining in my head about the three half-consumed boxes of Chex cereal Darren brought home from the store to “make” Chex Party Mix (that translates to “Paul get busy”) and the left-overs from the “Friendship Tea” Darren made for some of the folks in his office for Christmas.

My head conversed with itself  and declared a new years promise; to rid the coffers of the half consumed jars of Tang and instant decaf tea and other never to be revisited products.  On further digging I came across a zip-topped plastic bag of the finished Friendship Tea.  “A-ha, a tumbler of tea would be tasty about now”.  I set about making a jumbo glass of iced tea.  It looked a bit grainy and lumpy with the cinnamon and spices floating on the surface above the ice.  I had never made iced Friendship Tea (my Mother called it Russian Tea in the 70′s).  I drank the first glass down, noting the strange spiciness of the odd familiarity to Horchata (an iced Mexican rice, sugar, and cinnamon beverage), sans the rice starchiness.  It was kinda weird that I fixed myself a second bucket of tea and thought the same thing as I sucked it down too.

That night after dinner I told Darren about making iced Friendship Tea that afternoon, he declared he wanted some too.

I mixed him a glass the same way I did mine.  The grainy floaty brown foam above the ice not deterring me.  “Yuck!” he exclaimed.  “Maybe it would be better if you heated it.”  So he tottled off the the kitchen to microwave the tea.  When it reached a boil, he poured it into a mug and sat back down.  After the first sip of the heated drink, he had the same opinion as his first taste of the iced drink.  “What is that?”,  “It’s Friendship Tea!?,” and with some thought I confessed….”or is that the cinnamon, cayenne and sugar combo I put on the Snicker Doodles that I brought home from the kitchen?”

No wonder it tasted funny?

Here’s a my version of the recipe with a twist:

Russian Friendship Tea

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar (or so, to taste)

2 cups instant Tang orange drink

1/4 cup unsweetened iced tea mix powder

1 (1/4 ounce) envelope unsweetened lemonade mix (Kool-Aid)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Directions:

1.  Mix all ingredients well and store in an airtight container.

2. To use, fill a mug with boiling water and stir in 2-3 teaspoons of mix, to taste.  Or mix with water and add ice for iced tea.

3. Wait for a reaction.

But tonight I am to be brief, now off to bed, Chocolate Snicker Doodles await me in the kitchen at 8:00 am tomorrow.  Loads of them.  Central Market starts a new promotion in a couple of weeks.

Check back for more thoughts, recipes and tricks.