Name: Russian Tea
Ingredients: 5 teaspoons tea; 8 cups boiling water; Peel of 3 oranges; Peel of 1 lemon; 2 cups sugar; 5 whole cloves; Juice of 8 oranges; Juice of 2 lemons

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Russian Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tea

Steep the tea in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Make the spiced syrup

In a separate pot, combine the water, orange peel, lemon peel, sugar, and cloves.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

Cool the mixture and add the orange and lemon juice.
Serve the tea ice-cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together610 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tea + orangetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together333 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tea: Provides the main black tea flavour and tannin bitterness that balances the sweetness.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the drink its body.
Orange juice: Adds fruity acidity and citrus aroma.
Lemon juice: Adds sharpness that brightens the sweetness and balances the flavour.