Old Fashioned Russian Tea Mix (Made with Tang)

There’s a whole generation of us who can taste this before the cup of Russian Tea even hits the table. I posted this on TikTok last week and the comments filled up with the same sentence over and over: “My mom used to make this. My grandma kept a jar of it. Somebody’s aunt sent it in the mail every December.” If you’ve got that memory sitting somewhere in the back of your mind, this is the recipe, and it takes under 10 minutes to put together.

Russian Tea is a powdered mix, orange and warm, a little tart and a little spicy that makes a mug of spiced tea worth remembering. The jar looks like it’s full of sunset, bright orange shot through with the darker specks of cinnamon. It smells like oranges and spice the second you take the lid off. In the cup it comes out somewhere between hot orange juice and a spiced tea, sweet but not cloying, with that cinnamon warmth sitting underneath it.

Where You’ve Had This Before

Russian tea isn’t Russian and it isn’t really tea, which is half its charm. It’s a mid-century American invention that spread through community cookbooks and church suppers, handed around on index cards and stapled into fundraiser booklets. It turned up at Christmas bazaars in little jars with ribbon on them. It lived in a lot of kitchens through the seventies and eighties and then quietly disappeared from most of them, which is why it hits so hard when you see it again.

If you grew up with it, you probably remember it being around in cold weather and at the holidays more than any other time. We had it a lot after skating or sledding instead of cocoa. And we all had it in our scouting groups as kids too, that is to say myself, my husband, and our boys.

Ingredients for Russian Tea

There are only three things in the base mix and you’ll find all of them in your basic grocery store. Add them to the grocery list and you’re on your way to make a mug of memories.

• Tang, or another powdered orange drink mix
• Instant iced tea with lemon
• Ground cinnamon
• Optional ingredients as suggested by YOU on social media are listed below

Fix Up Your Cup

The base mix is good on its own, it’s how I make it in my house. BUT after having the post go viral on TikTok AND Instagram there were a lot of people who love the tea with other ingredients and say their version is worth making. I’ve been trying them out too, and I have to agree the variations are delicious as well. Add them when you’re serving, not to the jar, unless you want to add them to the jar.

• Cinnamon red hots
• Cardamom
• Ginger
• Allspice
• Cloves
• Nutmeg
• Apple Pie Spice
• Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Top a cup with Whipped Cream, suggested on social media, I haven’t tried it yet!

I tried the red hots version first and it’s delish! Finding red hots was an adventure and some people said they’re not being made anymore. They are still being made but they’re available in limited markets and at limited times. Theres a lot of candy competing for your dollars and I think red hots or cinnamon imperials are not that popular these days.

If You Want To Use Lemonade Powder

A lot of people make their Russian tea with powdered lemonade in it, and there are two different ways they go about it. I tried the powder in a cup and I liked it a lot.

Some add it on top of what’s already there, roughly a third to a half cup of lemonade powder stirred into a batch this size. The lemonade mix definitely adds more citrus punch to the drink.

Others skip the lemon iced tea, use plain iced tea instead and add lemonade powder. I think that’s the original version but I culd never find plain iced tea powder so I went with the lemon added version.

One thing to watch, sweetened lemonade powder on top of Tang can tip the whole thing over into entirely too sweet. So deciding how much to add is best done trying it in a single cup to see if you like it and how much you like per cup. Then multiply it up from there.

You can also just add a spoonful to your own basic mug and enjoy it that way.

Make It For Gifts

This is one of the easiest and frugal gifts you can make for friends and family that people are actually happy to get. A batch fills a jar, costs a few dollars, and takes just minutes to mix up. Add a tag and a bow and you’re done.

It’s also a good one to make with kids, because the whole job is dumping and whisking and scooping. Nothing to bake or cook or worry over.

How To Store Russian Tea Mix

Keep the mix in a jar with a tight lid, somewhere cool and dark like a cupboard or pantry rather than on the counter in the light. The only real enemy here is moisture, because every ingredient in this is a powder and powders clump the second they find any humidity. Make sure the jar is completely dry before you fill it, and use a dry spoon every time you scoop so you’re not introducing water into the jar.

As for how long it keeps, the mix itself is shelf stable which is probably why it was so popular in Alaska when I was a kid. If it does clump up on you it hasn’t gone bad, it’s just taken on moisture. You can usually break it up with a fork or a quick whisk and carry on.

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