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Orange-Flowers, Tea Of
Take half an ounce of orange-flowers. Put them into a jug, pour over them half a pin of boiling water, and leave them to infuse for a few minutes; strain the tea, and sweeten it either with sugar or honey. Probable cost, uncertain, orange-flowers being seldom offered for sale. Sufficient for half a pint.
A simple tisane of citrus blossom, of the kind kept for nerves and sleeplessness as much as for pleasure. Two words in the original need untangling before anything else.
- "Half a pin" is a misprintRead it as half a pint, which the closing line confirms: Sufficient for half a pint. That is 10 fl oz in British measure, about 285 ml.
- Half an ounce of flowers is a great dealFourteen grams of blossom in 285 ml of water would give an intensely perfumed, faintly bitter infusion. Dried orange blossom is generally used at around 1-2 g per cup; the older quantity probably assumes fresh flowers, which are mostly water and far bulkier for the weight.
- Which flowerThe blossom meant is that of the bitter or Seville orange, Citrus aurantium, the same flower distilled for neroli oil and orange-flower water. Sweet orange blossom works. Ornamental shrubs sold as "mock orange" (Philadelphus) are a different plant entirely and are not a substitute.
- SourcingCassell's note that the flowers were "seldom offered for sale" still largely holds in Britain and North America. Dried orange blossom is sold as a tisane in Middle Eastern, North African and Spanish groceries; fresh blossom means having a tree, and one that has not been sprayed.
- Infusion time"A few minutes" means three to five with a lid on the jug. The aromatics are volatile and leave with the steam, so cover it; longer steeping mainly draws out bitterness rather than scent.
- If you have no flowersA few drops of orange-flower water in hot sweetened water gives a rough approximation of the aroma, though not the slight bitterness or body of the infusion.
- SweeteningThe recipe allows either sugar or honey without preference; honey suits the floral note. Add it after straining, off the boil.
Orange-flower tisanes belong to the long European tradition of household eaux and infusions treated as mild medicine rather than beverage: orange blossom was classed among the gentle nervines, given for restlessness, palpitations and sleeplessness. The blossom of the bitter orange had a broader life in the perfumery and confectionery trades, distilled into neroli oil and into orange-flower water, which flavoured cakes, creams and syrups across France, Spain and the Levant long before it reached the English kitchen. Cassell's frank admission that the price is "uncertain, orange-flowers being seldom offered for sale" is a useful piece of evidence in itself: in late Victorian Britain the distilled water was a shop commodity, but the fresh flower was something you had only if you or a neighbour grew the tree, most likely under glass.