Sparkling blends
Bubbles without the booze
A sparkling tea gives you everything a celebratory drink should – lift, aroma, a bit of drama in the glass – with zero alcohol. All it takes is a strong tea concentrate and something cold and fizzy.
The concentrate is everything
Sparkling water dilutes. If you top up ordinary-strength iced tea with soda, you end up with something thin and timid. So brew a concentrate at roughly three times normal strength: 15 g of loose tea in 500 ml of water, steeped at the usual temperature for the usual time. Longer steeping adds bitterness, not strength – use more leaf instead.
Chill the concentrate completely before it meets the bubbles. Warm liquid knocks carbon dioxide out of solution, so a lukewarm concentrate gives you a quick foamy rush and then a flat drink. Fridge-cold concentrate, fridge-cold soda and a cold glass keep the fizz alive for much longer.
Sweeten the concentrate, not the finished drink. Stirring syrup into a sparkling glass flattens it fast. Mix your syrup and any citrus juice into the concentrate, taste it – it should taste slightly too strong and slightly too sweet on its own – then let the soda bring it back into balance.
The golden ratio
Start at 1 part concentrate to 2 parts sparkling water. Lighter teas like white tea or a green oolong can go to 1:1.5; robust Assam or smoky blends can stretch to 1:3. Pour the concentrate over ice first, then add the sparkling water slowly down the side of the glass or along a bar spoon. Give it one gentle lift with the spoon, never a vigorous stir.
Choose your bubbles
| Fizz source | Flavour effect | Bubble size | Pairs with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain soda water | Neutral, lets tea speak | Medium | Any tea, especially delicate ones |
| Home soda maker, high gas | Sharp, prickly | Fine, lively | Citrus and herbal blends |
| Mineral water (naturally sparkling) | Slightly salty, round | Fine | Green and white teas |
| Tonic water | Bitter quinine, sweet | Medium | Earl Grey, grapefruit, rosemary |
| Non-alcoholic ginger beer | Spicy, sweet | Large | Rooibos, black tea, lime |
We keep every serve non-alcoholic, so we skip fermented sodas that can contain trace alcohol. If you buy ginger beer, check the label says alcohol-free.
Recipe: Sparkling Earl Grey lemon
Ingredients (4 glasses)
- 15 g Earl Grey tea
- 500 ml water at 95 °C
- 60 ml simple syrup
- Juice of 1 lemon, plus peel strips
- 1 litre chilled soda water
- Large ice cubes
Method
- Steep the tea for 4 minutes, strain and chill fully.
- Stir syrup and lemon juice into the cold concentrate.
- Fill glasses with ice and add 120 ml concentrate to each.
- Top slowly with 240 ml soda water per glass.
- Twist lemon peel over the surface so the oils mist the drink, then drop it in.
Non-alcoholic · The bergamot in Earl Grey comes from a citrus grown mostly in Calabria, Italy – lemon echoes it perfectly.
Recipe: Ginger rooibos fizz
Ingredients (4 glasses)
- 15 g rooibos
- 500 ml boiling water
- 30 g fresh ginger, sliced
- 40 ml honey syrup
- Juice of 2 limes
- 800 ml alcohol-free ginger beer or soda water
Method
- Steep rooibos and ginger together for 7 minutes.
- Strain, stir in honey syrup and cool completely.
- Add lime juice to the cold concentrate.
- Pour 120 ml over ice in each glass.
- Top with ginger beer for heat or soda for a drier finish.
Non-alcoholic · Caffeine-free · Rooibos is grown in the Cederberg region of South Africa.