Spruce Up Your Morning Cup Of Tea With A Splash Of This Creamy Holiday Beverage

It's hard to believe tea could get any cozier, any more complex, any tastier, or any more comforting. But there's a genius way to achieve all of those upgrades, and it only requires adding a splash of one other beverage: Eggnog. That's right — get into the festivi-teas.

Eggnog is a timeless holiday ritual, a beloved beverage many of us look forward to each winter. It's creamy, sweet, and spiced, and may or may not be warming and boozy, depending on how and when you serve it. But the classic eggnog recipe calls for eggs, both whole milk and heavy cream, and sugar — the finished result is incredibly rich. If you combine it with tea, however, not only is the eggnog making all of those aforementioned upgrades to the tea, but the tea is also helping the eggnog by slightly reducing its thickness and cutting its richness with fragrant aromas and even more spices. It's a mutually beneficial win-win.

To pair eggnog and tea, think about the spices that are actually typically in eggnog. Nutmeg is standard, but some recipes call for cinnamon and cloves, and other additions like vanilla. Eggnog, therefore, is a good match for teas with similar spice profiles, as well as some potential contrast. Chai, for example, is a perfect choice. If you know your chai, you're aware it includes spices like ginger, cardamom, and peppercorns, with earthy black tea. With eggnog's nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves, you'd get a complex profile and perfectly balanced consistency. 

To combine tea and eggnog, start with a ratio of 1 cup of tea to a ½ cup of eggnog. While you're making your tea, heat up your eggnog. Either stir it continuously over low heat on your stove, or microwave it in a mug for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between. Combine the tea and eggnog and enjoy — of course, you can also add any number of things like a sprinkle of some of the spices in the eggnog or tea, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, orange zest for a pop of brightness, and so on. You can play around with your tea-to-eggnog ratio and your garnishes every time you make this delight of a drink, and you can even add booze to make it an evening drink. Some of the best spirits to spike eggnog with also work a treat with tea, like whiskey, brandy, and rum.

In terms of the tea itself, there are so many options even beyond chai. Think about all the many different types of tea. Aged pu-erh tea boasts notes of chestnuts, honey, and dried fruit, which would create a gorgeous fruitcake-like profile with eggnog. Many specific herbal tea varieties provide a world of flavors to play with, too: Ginger tea would bring sweet heat to eggnog, rooibos is perfectly nutty, cinnamon tea would really amplify that warm spice already present in 'nog, and licorice root tea brings out the complex, cozy, Christmas cookie-like character of eggnog.