What Is a Black Tea Smoothie?
There are two routes you can go with a black tea smoothie. The first is the more simple and straightforward blended ice drink -- kind of like a frappe you’d get at a coffee shop. The other is a traditional fruit smoothie with an infusion of black tea. Which direction you decide to go depends on where your smoothie craving is taking you.
What Kinds of Teas Are Good in a Black Tea Smoothie?
Whether you are creating an icy frappe or a fruity blended smoothie, you will be adding ingredients that will dilute the tea flavor. If a strong tea flavor is important to you in your black tea smoothie, you will need a tea that brews bold and strong. You may want to experiment with adding double the tea leaves you would use for your everyday cup of tea when steeping black tea for your smoothie.
If you’re using a blend that goes beyond your basic black tea, you have the opportunity to get really creative in your flavor blending. Are you making a strawberry smoothie? Add a touch of elegance with a floral flavor, like our Reading Nook rose black tea. A blueberry smoothie can be boosted easily by a savory hint of lavender and bergamot from our Delightful Morning lavender Earl Grey tea. Consider spicing up a citrus smoothie with an infusion of Full Moon vanilla chai tea with butternut.
Black Tea Frappe
Frappes are a type of blended ice drink that have become very popular with the coffee crowd. The strong flavor of black tea makes it an ideal candidate for frappe fame as well. You can make your own tea frappe at home by combining a strong brew of black tea (chai or another spice tea will give your frappe an especially bold and dynamic flavor), crushed ice, milk or a non-dairy substitute, and your choice of sweetener.
We recommend adding maple dust or honey dust into your smoothie as both dissolve easily and aren’t going to make your blender all sticky.
Black Tea Frappe
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons your choice of black tea
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup milk or milk substitute
- 1-2 cups ice
- Sweetener, to taste
Directions:
Steep your 2 teaspoons of tea in 1 cup of boiling water. Chill tea in the fridge. (Alternatively, cold brew your tea the night before.)
Once chilled, combine tea with milk, ice, and sweetener in blender, and blend until smooth.
Black Tea Fruit Smoothie
Black tea gives a burst of caffeine and tea flavor to the classic fruit smoothie. There is as much room for creativity with a black tea smoothie as there is with ordinary fruit smoothies -- which is to say, there is a near infinite diversity of fruit and tea combinations. Some great ingredients to accentuate the flavor of your black tea in a smoothie include mint and lemon.
When making tea for a black tea smoothie, be sure to make it extra strong and chill it beforehand so you don’t end up with a lukewarm smoothie!
Black Tea Fruit Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons your choice of black tea
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup milk or milk substitute
- 1 cup frozen fruit or berries of your choice
- 1 banana, chopped
- Sweetener, to taste
Directions:
Steep your 2 teaspoons of tea in 1 cup of boiling water. Chill tea in the fridge. (Alternatively, cold brew your tea the night before.)
Once chilled, combine tea with milk, frozen fruit, banana, and sweetener, and blend until smooth.
If you’re a black tea purist, there are plenty of ways you can expand on these black tea smoothie recipes to delicious effect. However, you can make smoothies out of almost any other kind of tea you can think of. Try out these other recipes for smoothies made with green tea, matcha, herbal teas, and all kinds of spiced chai to shake up your morning routine!
