We came across this curious recipe in an old book from the 1950’s simply called, “How to make Wine”. It was sitting in the book shelf of 2 Sisters Bar & Books, which we covered back when it opened.
Curiously, it’s a recipe for making wine out of tea. No, there are no grapes involved (only raisins) and given that I’m no scientist, I can’t exactly see where the fermentation will come from (the lemons maybe?), but it was an interesting thing to come across–especially as it blends two of my favorite things: wine and tea. It almost seems to be some older form of homemade Kombucha before that became all fashionable as of late.
I’ll definitely have to give this a go once winter formally sets in and the days call for making strange wines.
3 responses to “To turn tea in to wine”
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Had a copy of this book when growing up.
Tried a few of the recipes – Blackberry, Elderberry etc.
The best, by far, was Tea Wine.
You’re right – the lemons provide the yeast.
The yeast seems to be on the skin of the lemon and forms a multicolored skin/crust during the fermentation.
You have to be careful to remove all of it before bottling.
Tea wine tastes a bit like sherry.
Thanks for showing the recipe in your post, I will have another go at making it and see if I can repeat my childhood success.
PS I’d really like to get hold of a copy of this book, but I can’t remember the author or publisher (or any details really).
To help me with my Internet search, could you please give some more details of the book?
Unfortunately I don’t remember the author either as it was a book in the bar that I took the photo of and don’t actually own the book. Sorry about that.