French Quarter Libations - Tea

Cousine Marie Carmelite called them, "French Quarter Libations." Using the word libations, was about as close as this grand antique and octavian lady, could bring herself to admit that her time-honored Southern sweet ice tea recipes -- the very ones that she'd sipped all day every day of her adult life -- contained alcohol.

Marie Carmelite lived her entire life in an old building on Royal Street, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her home had been originally owned by a retired plantation master by the name of Marcel Plauche.

It had been under it's gray slate roof since the very early 1800s. She claimed that her recipes for her French Quarter Libations, came from recipes written scraps of papers she'd found in the attic of that house.

She admitted that she had changed the recipes from black tea, when she discovered that green tea was the only tea fit for iced tea (her opinion). That was a late life mindset, for ice tea wasn't a common place drink, until electricity and refrigeration arrived in New Orleans.

Today, in the Southern states, green tea is second only to water in drinkable popularity largely because of its widely reported healthiness. There are those who know that green tea is an acquired liking. Americans now drink about six and one half gallons of iced green tea per person.

It is important to know that the green tea you purchase is from the tea plant scientifically named, Camellia sinensis. It'll have a lighter, sharper, slightly more grassy flavor than other green teas. You'll not find that flavor in green tea mixes (or in stronger black and Oolong teas). You'll find that drinking genuine green tea, helps to quench thirst on hot days, aids in digestion, and also contains other known health benefits.

I'm sure that my Cousine Marie Carmelite and other Cajun relatives did not know in their era, that habitually drinking green tea every day, reduces the risk of developing stomach and lung cancers. However, I can't help but wonder if the drinking of iced teas was one of the contributing factors in our personal family tree's longevity -- for at a time when the average life expectancy was much lower, members of our family were all living well into their nineties and beyond.

Like many other Cajun relatives, Cousine Marie Carmelite served cold green tea spiked with liquors and wines. Here is one of her recipes:

Ingredients:

• 1 quart boiling water
• 1/3 cup loose green tea
• 1 quart cold water
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1 blood orange cut in half and very thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups of honey
• Optional: Any libation of choice to taste

Instructions:

Bring water to a full rolling boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and while the water is still bubbling, add all the tea at one time. Brew five minutes. Stir and strain into a container holding 1 quart cold water. Cool at room temperature. Add remaining ingredients. When read to serve pour into ice filled glasses.

Note: With this recipe the "libations" were discreetly served in the prettiest little tea pots, placed off to the side of the table -- for grownups only. Also, the only exception to only using green tea, was made in the morning when she used a black assam tea which she referred to as "my breakfast tea" taken with a fresh bagniette from the bakery across the street.

Near New Orleans, yet as far away from the French Quarter culturally as you can get, tea libations are just as popular, as they are in the city. This is one adaptation of an old Cajun family recipe that is served often by families along the Bayou Fourche, near Chacahoula.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of strong loose green tea
• 2 cups of raw brown sugar
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 3 cups of any fruited wine

Instructions:

Make your tea in the usual manner, strain well, then pour it while still boiling hot into a large stainless steel sauce pan over the raw brown sugar, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add one cup of heavy cream and gradually stir in the three cups of wine. Chill and serve over ice.

Note: This recipe can be modified on cold nights to only heating it up to boiling point, serving it hot, being very careful to immediately remove it quickly from the heat, to not curdle the cream.