Natural 2-Ingredient Raspberry Oolong Tea

Beautifully light, impressively sophisticated, this Raspberry Oolong Tea is the perfect natural afternoon tea drink. Serve warm, cold, with or without lemon.

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Originally when I was thinking of a drink pairing for the soft Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies Dusted with Cardamom Sugar, I thought Blood Orange. Blood Orange and cardamom are such a great pairing. But I wanted hot tea when I was eating these cookies. Beyond lemon, I don’t love fresh citrus in hot tea. Hot orange isn’t my favorite (outside of mulled wine, I will allow it then). So then I thought of other fruit that would work with cardamom and immediately thought raspberry!

Well I had some raspberries on hand and oolong tea I figured would make a great base for this drink. Oolong tea is great because I find it has some nice grassy tones, but not aggressively. I also often find floral notes in oolong tea and I love me some floral. You know what also goes well with floral? Cardamom! So this pairing almost made itself. While the cookies are most assuredly not vegan or paleo, this drink is! So pour yourself another cup of this healthy tea.

Yes, it is simple. Yes, it is easy. And yes, it is delicious! Why complicate it when you do not have to? This Natural 2-Ingredient Raspberry Oolong Tea is the perfect pairing for the soft Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies Dusted with Cardamom Sugar. Sometimes making a drink doesn’t need to be difficult to be complex and this Natural 2-Ingredient Raspberry Oolong Tea proves it!

Natural 2-Ingredient Raspberry Oolong Tea Recipe Notes & Substitutions

Raspberry– Ok so there are a couple things you can do here. I used fresh raspberries. Frozen raspberries would work too, just be mindful it will reduce the water temperature for steeping the tea. You could also try freeze-dried raspberries if you have those. I would recommend using a tea bag for this to keep the finer particulates out. Don’t like raspberry? No worries! Try strawberries in place of raspberries or even blackberry. Both with still work with the cookie pairing.

Oolong Tea– Oolong tea is one of my favorite styles of tea. It is neither green nor black. It often comes with full leaves rolled into little tea pearls. I love the flavor notes I get from it, with often some vegetal flavors similar to green tea but also a nice floral presence. This will likely be a tea you find mostly as loose leaf tea, which i love and prefer to bagged tea. If you want to learn more about oolong tea, check out this blog post by Teatulia. If you do not have or do not want to use oolong there are a couple good substitutions. Jasmine green tea would be your best bet. Other green teas would also work including matcha. Please not that if you use matcha the recipe steps would change. Brewing matcha is far different from other teas. With matcha you create a tea powder suspension not a steeped liquid, that is why it comes powdered.

Water Boiling Temperature– This can vary based on the tea style you use. However, I recommend trying boiling water with your teas first or start with the manufacturers recommendations. You can get as technical as you want with water temperature for tea. However, at the end of the day what you like best will be the best temperature. If the tea you steep is too strong or bitter there are a couple things you can do next time. Number 1, reduce the water temperature. The hotter the water the more compounds you will pull out, this includes compounds that create bitterness. Lower temperatures pull out the easily extractable carbohydrates, which is why a lower steep is used for green tea. This helps keep them sweeter and less bitter. The other option you have is steep it for less time. Both options work, but experiment to find the best temp and time for your cup of tea.

Why this Pairing Works

This was the perfect afternoon tea pairing with the Gluten Free Sugar Cookies Dusted with Cardamom Sugar! The best part, it is so easy to make too! You could throw it together quickly when guests come over and you want a treat. Oolong and raspberry comment each other so well. The raspberry seeds complement the earthy tones of the oolong. The tartness of the raspberry actually helps to tone down the bitterness by rounding off the edges. The sweetness of the raspberry makes everything better.

The Raspberry Oolong Tea is also beautifully light to compliment the light cookie. The cookie is not an intense flavor so some drinks will overwhelm it. This tea is light enough to not overshadow the cookie, but also bright enough to pair with the cookie. The raspberry also works so well with cardamom. Cardamom has notes similar to mint to me. They both have a menthol character and warming notes. These warming notes pair perfectly with a hot beverage because it has a perceived cooling to your palate. These mint notes pair with the fruity raspberry (similar to a Strawberry Mojito).

Raspberry also works perfectly with the cardamom. The menthol character of the cardamom complements the tart and fruity nature of the raspberry. If you want to bridge the gap between the cookie and the tea even more, put a spoonful of the cardamom sugar on the outside of the sugar cookie in the tea and watch the paring come even more alive! So be sure to give this Natural 2 Ingredient Oolong Tea and Gluten Free Sugar Cookies Dusted with Cardamom Sugar a try!