Tea Jelly

Strawberry Pomegranate Tea Jelly

If you enjoy sweet tea, tea with your toast in the morning, herbal, green, black, any kind of tea, you will love tea jelly. Not to be confused with tea infused jelly (which is also delightful) that is made using gelatin. No, this is a jelly like you spread on toast and made using pectin. I was going through a jam/jelly making phase recently and ran out of strawberries and rhubarb to put in pretty jars for gifts this winter. So I started researching and doing a bit of trial and error. I found that liquid pectin produced more success than powdered pectin. Here is a basic recipe and I encourage you to explore with different tea. Chai tea seems like it would be particularly delicious spread on a scone with clotted cream. What is your favorite tea? Is it fruity like ginger peach? Is it spicy like Chai or Market Spice? Have fun and create collections to give as gifts!





Basic Tea Jelly

Tea Jelly on a Biscuit

• 1 3/4 C water
• 12 tea bags (I used strawberry pomegranate herbal)
• 1/4 C orange juice or related juice (I used white grape)

*if not using juice, increase water to 2 C

• 3 C sugar
• 1 (3oz) pkg liquid pectin

1. Bring water to boil, add tea bags and steep for 30 mins. Discard tea bags.
2. Add juice and sugar to brewed tea and bring to a boil stirring until dissolved and then occasionally to prevent burning. Don't stir too vigorously. It will tend to foam up.
3. Boil for 2 min. stirring ocassionally. 
4. Remove from heat and add pectin, return to boil and allow to do so for 1 min. Skim off any foam. 
5. Pour hot jelly into jars and process for 20 min. I got 4 8oz jars from this recipe.

Enjoy your tea, spread on toast next time, rather than (or in addition to) in a cup!

Adapted from a recipe by Sue Neitzel from her blog Old Fashioned Living.