Two glass mugs of berry and tea smoothies with white and blue straws and sprinkled with fresh berries and sprigs of mint as an example of how to make food with tea.

The Best Ways to Easily Add Tea to All Your Recipes

Combining your drinks and food with tea is a creative and delicious invention. You can stretch the uses of tea far beyond the traditional methods of steeping, straining, and sipping. From tea-infused cocktails to scrumptious desserts and even noodles, you’ll discover tempting ways to bump up the flavor of your favorite dishes and treats with tea leaves.

Hardly anyone uses tea to its fullest potential. In another blog, we went through some not-so-typical uses for tea that included everything from scrubbing pans to aromatherapy bath soaks. But what about when it comes to food?

It turns out, adding tea to your recipes is super easy. When you think of enhancing the flavor of a dish, desserts might come to your mind first. But tea shouldn't stop there! 

Let’s dive in and discover how you can bump up the flavor if your drinks and food with tea. For most recipes, you can find a way to infuse tea leaves into a base ingredient.

Make a Tea Base: Broth, Butter, Oil, & Milk Infusions

Oil with herbs and botanicals in small vials as a creative way to incorporate food with tea.

If your recipe already calls for oil, milk, butter, or broth, you have an excellent starting point for creating tea-infused ingredients. Making food with tea is ridiculously easy when a tea leaf infusion is involved. Choosing the type of tea to add to your dish might be the hardest part.  

To create a quick tea infusion, simply heat up the oil, butter, milk, or broth, and steep the tea in the hot liquid for at least five minutes. If you want a stronger flavor, add more tea leaves. Strain the tea leaves out of the infusion, cool it down if needed, and add it to your recipe as you normally would.

For a slower tea infusion, you can cold brew the tea leaves overnight in the refrigerator with the base — such as milk or broth. You can infuse oil with tea leaves and leave the mixture on the counter until it’s fragrant and has a hint of tea.

How to Use Tea in Baking & Desserts

Two hands kneading pastry dough on a dark wooden tabletop.

Buttery Tea Cookies

A tall stack of cookies as a food with tea, with a person grabbing for the top cookie.

Cookies and tea might be the perfect food with tea pairing — but what about making cookies with tea inside? That sounds like a win-win! You can add tea leaves directly to your cookie batter or add a splash of strongly steeped tea. 

Shortbread cookies will benefit from the addition of any kind of dark or flavorful tea. You can even mix your fruity jams and spreads with a tea infusion. A tea like Wildberry Melange Herbal Tea will make an excellent surprise ingredient for your next batch of thumbprint cookies. 

Soaked & Sweetened Cakes

A baker dusting a fruity cake as an example of food made with tea.

One of the best ways to use food with tea is to keep your cake from drying out by brushing the layers with a sweetened tea soak. Mix a little honey or sugar into your hot and freshly steeped tea of choice. As the cakes come out of the oven, poke them with a toothpick or fork all over and brush the cakes with the sugar tea.

The warm cakes absorb the tea quickly, so you may want to apply the sugar mixture a few times to make sure your cakes are infused with enough flavor. Once your cakes are cooled completely, decorate them as usual. For an extra burst of tea flavor, add the same kind of tea to the icing or frosting as well. 

Creative Ice Creams & Custards

A black bowl of homemade strawberry and tea ice cream with a sprig of mint.

Custard-like desserts are one of the best mediums for food with tea infusions. Heat your cream or milk and steep the tea in the liquid for at least five minutes before straining and cooling down. With this simple infusion trick, you can make anything from Chai Tea crème brûlée to Jasmine Green Tea ice cream and even Coconut Biscotti Tea-flavored flan.

Infused Chocolate

A stack of broken chocolate bark pieces infused with tea and nuts on a table with purple flowers.

Anyone who has worked with chocolate knows that chocolate — although delicious — can be finicky. Add a decadent Earl Grey Tea or Spice Tea directly to your melted chocolate for an extra burst of flavor. 

But, here’s a fair warning: chocolate will seize if any water or moisture makes its way into the bowl. So, add only dry tea leaves directly to the chocolate. Let the flavor naturally infuse into the warm liquid chocolate as it cools — you can eat the tea leaves. 

How to Use Tea in Snacks & Salads

Colorful fruit popsicles on a table with fresh grapes, kiwi, watermelon, and oranges.

Fruity Applesauce

A hearty glass ramekin filled with tea-infused applesauce as an example of food with tea.

Applesauce is so easy to transform into a food with tea. We recommend using a tisane tea — also known as herbal tea — to add extra fruity flavor. 

Heat up cut and peeled apples over the stovetop with a hearty splash of steeped herbal tea until the apples are soft. Smash them with a potato masher or fork to enjoy homemade fruity applesauce. It’s a healthy snack without any added sugar that you can feel good about.

Guilt-Free Popsicles

Pink herbal tea popsicles with fresh mint leaves on a table.

Popsicles are a perfect summertime treat that helps cool down everyone in the family — from parents to kids — and you can make this food with tea. 

Herbal tea popsicles are a great way to keep everyone cool and also keep an eye on their sugar intake. Simply steep a strong batch of hot herbal tea — like Strawberry Hibiscus Bloom — strain, and freeze the tea for sugar-free, guilt-free, and caffeine-free snacks. Add frozen berry bits or sliced grapes for a little burst of natural sweetness.

A Spin on Salad Dressings

A fresh salad with tomatoes, carrots, and radish on a checkered table with a bottle of oil as a food with tea infusion.

Salad dressings are a creative way to put a spin on your everyday food with tea. You can infuse your olive oil with tea and let it sit on the counter — allowing it to get stronger over time. Or add a small but strongly steeped dose of tea to your dressing for an extra burst of unique flavor. 

How to Use Tea in Cooking

A woman with brown hair and an apron stirring a black pot on a white stovetop.

Flavorful Rice & Quinoa

A black pot of cooked rice on a table as an example of food with tea next to a cup of tea.

You can use tea in place of water for just about every grain-like dish, including rice or quinoa. Switch out the water for an equal amount of steeped tea. You can also add tea leaves directly to the recipe for a more potent flavor that’s strongly mixed with the tea as it cooks.

Refreshing Cha Soba

Three bundles of dry green cha soba noodles as an example of food with tea.

Did you know that some noodles are already a food with tea? Cha soba is a kind of Japanese noodle that is made with buckwheat and green tea. These beautiful green noodles are served chilled over ice and dipped in a refreshing, potent broth during the scorching summer months. 

Juicy Chicken Salad Sandwiches

An example of food with tea on a white table with a chicken salad sandwich and a summer salad in a white bowl.

Brighten up any chicken salad recipe with a splash of bold tea. Steep a strong cup of your favorite tea and add it directly to your chicken salad, leaves and all! This adds a burst of flavor and helps keep the chicken a little more juicy. 

Try a plain English Breakfast Tea or a daring fruity blend like Pineapple Ginger Green Tea. If there’s fruit in your chicken salad, a fruity infusion might help bring out the flavor in your food with tea.

How to Use Tea in Cocktails & Smoothies

An icy tea cocktail in a glass mug with citrus slices as an infused drink with tea.

Unique Cocktails

Two pink cocktails with ice, rosemary, and figs.

Tea and cocktails? Yes, please! Herbs and alcohol always pair well together, and so do tea and alcohol. 

You can infuse any alcohol with a complementary tea. Steep high-quality oolong tea in a bottle of gin and just let it sit for a while — a few weeks or maybe a few months or even longer. You can also infuse bourbon or whiskey with a strong pu-erh or black tea. The longer you let the ingredients meld together, the more complex the flavors will become. 

Energetic Smoothie Booster

Two blackberry and mint smoothies in glasses on a table as an example of food with tea ice.

If you want to enjoy healthy food with tea, try adding “tea ice” to your smoothies. How? Switch out your ordinary ice cubes for iced tea cubes. 

Steep a strong batch of tea before freezing it in an ice cube tray and using the cubes as needed. If you steep green or black tea, you might just get a little caffeine boost too. 

Where to Find Organic Teas & Handcrafted Teaware

A tall glass tea pitcher with fruit-infused tea on a table with vases of flowers, pastries, and tea canisters.

What is the first way you will improve your food with tea? No matter the kind of tea you decide to use, you want it to burst with flavor. Teabloom carries USDA Certified Organic teas grown naturally on reputable farms and estates. 

From the start, Teabloom has been on a mission to elevate and clean up the tea industry one teacup at a time. Their teas are exquisite, but their teaware is even more extraordinary. Each piece is handcrafted from borosilicate glass — a revolutionary and clean material. Teabloom always has the flavor of your tea, your health, and the sustainability of the planet in mind. 

Discover a better way to enjoy tea with Teabloom. Start a new, clean tea ritual today.

www.Teabloom.com