Tea mocktails. Testing out Smith Teamaker Camelia Sour recipe
I tried the Camelia Sour tea mocktail recipe by Portland-based Smith Teamaker. Here’s what happened. (In my previous post, I tested out another one of their tea mocktails, the Silver Lining. You can check it out here if you haven’t already).
The recipe for the Camelia Sour tea mocktail by Smith Teamaker immediately caught my attention. Sour cocktails are my absolute favorite out there. Amaretto Sour was the first of this cocktail family I fell in love with, then my palate developed and now I gravitate more towards amaro and whiskey sour. I found the Camelia Sour recipe to be super enticing. First of all, because it uses a blend of second flush Assam, Pu-erh and Keemun black teas. I didn’t have this specific blend on hand, so I chose to substitute it with a blend I designed myself of equal parts of loose leaf Assam black tea + Colombian black tea + loose ripe pu ehr. I couldn’t be happier with the results, because it gives incredible complexity to the mocktail and really mimics a good whiskey or bourbon. I also found the use of aquafaba instead of egg whites very exciting. If you’re not familiar with aquafaba, it is the liquid you get when draining a jar or can of cooked chickpeas aka garbanzo beans. It is literally vegan egg white, you can even make meringue with it, it’s kinda magical.
As you know, I like to test and tweak tea recipes in order to maximize tea flavor in the final result and here I increased the tea concentrate and reduced the lemon juice compared to the original recipe. I also increased the aquafaba because I like my sours to have a persistent foam on top and substituted maple syrup with a smoked tea and vanilla cocktail syrup I like a lot.
The result blew my mind. This tea mocktail has quickly become a staple around here and you’ll see from the photos I took, I couldn’t resist and took a few sips. You will too if you make it, I promise!
Here’s the original recipe.
And below is my take on it. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Ingredients for 1 mocktail:
4 oz tea concentrate (recipe below)
3/4 oz lemon juice
2 tablespoons aquafaba (chickpea water)
2 teaspoons smoked tea vanilla syrup or maple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters
Method:
The method is the same as the original recipe. Add all ingredients to shaker tin and dry shake (without ice) for 15-20 seconds. Add ice and shake for an additional 10-15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with lemon peel if desired.
Tea concentrate:
1 tablespoon loose-leaf Assam black tea
1 tablespoon loose-leaf Colombian black tea
1 tablespoon loose-leaf ripe pu ehr tea
8 oz (236 ml) water at 212 F (100 C)
Steep for 5 minutes. Strain and re-steep the same tea leaves once more for 5-6 minutes. Let cool.
Disclaimer: this post is not sponsored. I’m not affiliated with any of the brands mentioned.