Hot orange drinks for winter afternoons (six recipes from our kitchen)
At home, in season, oranges turn up at breakfast, at the mid-morning break, at lunch and at dinner. That left the afternoon. We have dealt with it by putting the orange in a mug.
Here are six hot drinks with orange for those winter afternoons when it is dark by six and you want something that smells of peel and cinnamon before it even reaches the table. Several of them use the peel, and that comes with one condition: the orange must have nothing on it. Ours leave the orchard with no wax and no post-harvest chemicals, picked on the day you order, so the peel goes into the pan just as it is.
Which orange you will have to hand, month by month
In December and until mid-January we pick Navel. From mid to late January comes the Navelate, which Guillermo considers the best orange there is and which he eats, in his own words, by the kilo. In February and until mid-March, Navel Lane Late. Any of the three will do for these recipes. You notice the difference when you eat them, not when you boil them.
1. Glühwein: mulled wine with orange
This is what people drink at the Christmas markets in Germany and Austria, standing up, in gloves, with red noses. It also works perfectly well sitting down. You need a litre of red wine, an orange sliced with its peel on, a cinnamon stick, two or three star anise, two or three cloves, 50 g of sugar and a vanilla pod. Mix everything, bring it briefly to the boil, strain and serve hot.
For an alcohol-free version, swap the wine for grape juice. You will most likely find you can leave out the sugar.
2. Russian tea with spices and orange
Three teaspoons of black tea, a little grated orange zest (or orange powder), half a teaspoon of cloves, a cinnamon stick, three tablespoons of honey and the juice of half a lemon. Heat a litre of water, add the tea, orange, cinnamon and cloves, and leave to infuse for ten minutes. Strain and finish with the honey and lemon.
Orange powder is peel that has been dried and ground. A jar of it in the cupboard earns its place, and it is made from peel that would otherwise end up in the bin. Provided it has no wax on it, of course.
3. Orange, cinnamon and ginger
The juice of one orange, half a teaspoon of grated ginger, half a litre of water and a cinnamon stick. Boil the water with the ginger and cinnamon, take it off the heat and add the juice at the end; it has no need whatsoever to boil. If you like it sweet, a spoonful of orange blossom honey.
The simplest of the six. If you only try one, make it this one.
4. Black tea with orange, ginger and honey
A close cousin of the previous one, with more body. Make a black tea, add a teaspoon of grated ginger, the juice of an orange and a spoonful of orange blossom honey, and leave it to stand for five minutes.
With freshly picked oranges something curious happens: the kitchen smells of orange before you have finished squeezing. No further ceremony is required.
5. Orange, ginger and garlic, for the brave
Three oranges, three or four cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of grated ginger and honey. Squeeze the oranges, add the crushed garlic and the ginger, and heat until it starts to boil. Take it off the heat, leave it for ten minutes, strain and sweeten with honey.
Not the most elegant recipe in the repertoire. It has its loyal following, who tend to be the same people who put garlic in everything.
6. Juice with ground almonds, for bedtime
This one needs no heat, we admit. It stays on the list because it belongs to the same family of winter recipes, and because it is drunk at the hour when the other five are long finished. Squeeze an orange, add two teaspoons of ground almonds, stir and drink it before bed. It comes out thick, almost spoonable, and is more filling than it looks.
None of these six drinks promises anything beyond what is in the mug. We leave the promises to the herbalist with the scented candles; we will stick to the orange.
Frequently asked questions
Why does it matter that the orange has no wax?
Because in the Glühwein and the Russian tea the peel goes in, sliced or grated, and the same goes for any recipe you add zest to. If you are going to boil the peel, it is better if there is nothing on it. Ours come off the tree with no wax and no post-harvest chemicals.
Can I use juice from a carton?
You can. You lose the smell of freshly squeezed orange and you have no peel, which in the Glühwein and the Russian tea is half the recipe.
Which honey should I use?
Whatever you have at home. We suggest orange blossom honey, which comes from the flower of the orange tree and gets on well with the fruit of the same tree. Guillermo, incidentally, takes it at night in a glass of hot milk, which is also a winter drink, even without an orange in it.
If you run short of oranges for the afternoon, our Valencia oranges are picked on the day you order and reach Germany, France and Austria in 3 working days, and the rest of the EU in 3 to 5. The orange blossom honey for recipes 3 and 4 is in the honey we have chosen.
