Tea cocktails are most definitely a thing, from teas designed specifically for cocktails (like the Owl’s Brew) to many ways of infusing tea into booze, even smoking tea into it. Tea can add two great dimensions to a cocktail: lightening the alcohol content or adding a plethora of flavors into a drink that you don’t usually get through alcohol and mixers alone.

10th Avenue Tea is a new tea company with a specific passion for the environment. Available in 4 flavors: Green, Chai, English and Tropical, 10th Avenue gives you a unique option for how to work your tea into cocktails, though: because their tea is concentrated and dry, you can adjust tea strength on the fly and mix drinks quicker than if you were using pre-made teas or teas you have to brew before you use.

I experimented a little bit with 10th Avenue and I think I’ve found the perfect ratio for using their tea in a near-unlimited variety of cocktails: 2 parts spirit, 1/2 part citrus, 1/2 part simple syrup, and then the tea, which I’ve been making with 1 oz of water. Here are the drinks in the photo above:

Midsummer Dream (by Greg Mays)

• in a shaker, add:
• 2 oz spiced rum
• 2-3 shakes of 10th Avenue Tropical Tea
• 1 oz water
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
• garnish with a lime twist

Bourbon Bulldog (by Greg Mays)

• in a shaker, add:
• 2 oz bourbon
• 2-3 shakes of 10th Avenue English Tea
• 1 oz water
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
• garnish with a lemon twist

Note I made the exact same drinks above but substituted Green tea for Tropical and Chai for English on a recent podcast episode. They also turned out great, but the Green/Spiced Rum drink was a runaway favorite.