Soothing Orange Peel Tea Recipe

Love citrusy drinks? Then, you are going to enjoy this simple orange peel tea recipe. It’s made by steeping leftover citrus peels that have been dried for weeks (yay zero waste!).

If you’re a tea lover, then check out all my tea recipes including ones for lemongrass (another citrus flavor), ginger and more.

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Ingredients

For this recipe, you need: dried orange peels, water and a sweetener.

In the Caribbean, especially during citrus season, you will find long orange peels hung on the kitchen window or on a line. The peels are left for a couple weeks until they become dehydrated and crisp. Then, they can be left outside or placed in a brown paper bag and stored in the fridge. They can last for years in there. I used pieces of dried orange peel for this recipe. Oh, by the way, you can find the dried peels on Amazon too.

Taste of orange peel tea

Orange peel tea made by steeping for 5 minutes has a strong citrus taste that is slightly sweet and very pleasant. But, if left to steep for longer, the tea will develop a slightly bitter after taste. This bitterness also comes through when brewing the peels. So steeping for 5 minutes will give you the best tasting tea.

How to make orange peel tea

I’m adding an initial step for the orange peels. Wash an orange (like navel, Parson brown, etc) thoroughly with mild soapy water and rinse completely. Peel the fruit to form a long ribbon peel. Hang in an open, well ventilated place for a couple weeks. When the peel is dried completely and feels brittle, break a couple pieces off to make the tea.

Bring water to a boil using the kettle or a small saucepan on medium heat. This can take about 5 minutes. I’m using the saucepan here. Turn off the heat.

Tear the orange peel into smaller pieces. Add to the hot water.

Leave to steep for 5 minutes. I’ve experimented with leaving the peels for longer like 10 and 15 minutes but, each time, the tea become slightly bitter. Steeping for 5 minutes gives the tea a perfectly pleasant taste.

Remove the peels. Sweeten if desired and serve warm or cold. Both taste really good.

Benefits of orange peel tea

There aren’t any clinical studies exploring the benefits of orange peel tea but, based on this 2009 study, it is possible the tea may have some antioxidant potential due to the flavonoids and other compounds in the peel.

Orange peel tea recipe