Many people buy spiced tea as a fall and holiday favorite; perhaps the most popular is Constant Comment.

But you can make your own with the tea and spices you already have in the kitchen. In addition to black tea, you can make green spice tea or white spice tea, or rooibos (caffeine-free) spice tea, exactly as Ruth Bigelow did when she created Constant Comment tea in 1946.

We’ve seen a lot of recipes for spiced tea made from instant powdered tea, a can of Tang, and a can of powdered lemonade, mixed with nutmeg and cinnamon.

With all due respect to the first three ingredients: Yuck! Make your spice tea with whole-leaf tea and real lemon juice.
 
 
EASY SPICE TEA RECIPE

Ingredients

 
You can keep playing with the spices until you have your perfect recipe. Consider adding cardamom, chocolate, ginger, licorice, and/or peppercorns.

Then, you can fill pouches with your signature tea blend (using loose tea, not bags) and give them as gifts to tea-loving friends.
 
Preparation

1. COMBINE water, cinnamon, and cloves in a medium pan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. ADD tea bags; steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and spices.

3. SERVE the tea hot or iced with a lemon wedge and choice of sweeteners, although the spice flavors are so exciting that no sweetener is necessary.

[2] It’s easy to make spice tea without special tea bags like these. On the other hand, a tin of spice tea bags makes a nice seasonal gift (© by Aimee Seavey | New England Today).

It can be either.

 
 
MORE TEA

Find more of our favorite teas and recipes in our Gourmet Tea Section and our Tea Glossary.