Wondering what to do with all those leftover cranberries in your fridge from the holidays? You can make the most of your extra holiday ingredients and support your mood with this cranberry holiday hot toddy recipe.
It’s great for all occasions, just like your favorite day-to-night outfit. You can brew it for a quiet evening at home or serve it as a festive hot toddy (sans alcohol) for a Thanksgiving or Christmastime gathering.
Do These Autumn Spice Tea Ingredients Still Give You That Classic Toddy Coziness?
100% yes. Fresh cranberries, sweet apples, warm cinnamon, uplifting tea, and a hint of citrus from lemon and orange… We’re thinking Mmmmmm but you may still be thinking, Those aren’t the normal toddy ingredients….
It’s true. A traditional hot toddy contains whiskey (or another liquor), honey, lemon, and spices like cinnamon. But some traditions were made to be broken, right?
What Do You Use In Place of Whiskey?
In place of the liquor, we use kratom tea as the base for our festive cranberry tea hot toddy. Kratom contains active compounds that can have an mood-lifting effect. That’s why it’s a great alternative to alcohol (but if you are strictly sober, you may want to avoid it).
We also swap out the honey for agave, which pairs incredibly well with the cranberry and apple. You can use stevia instead if you prefer a calorie-free sweetener option.
Check out the recipe notes for a few suggestions on ingredient adjustments. You can change up the kratom tea variety or the ratio of the fruit and spices. You can also add in extra spices, like anise or ginger.
Booze-Free Holiday Hot Toddy How-To
Since the cranberry tea requires a few more steps (and a bit more time) to make than your average cuppa, we recommend batch brewing.
Related: Guide to Making Large Batches of Kratom Tea
The recipe below makes four servings, but you could easily halve it if you want to brew just enough for yourself for one day—or double it or even triple it if you want to make enough for the whole gang at your next holiday party. (Just make sure your guests know it’s not recommended to combine kratom with alcohol.)
Start by adding the tea bags, water, cranberries, thinly sliced apples, and lemon juice to a small pot. Bring the water to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to a low simmer.
After about 15 minutes of brewing, your tea will be well-steeped, your apple slices will have softened, and the cranberries will start to burst.
At this point, you’ll want to add in your cinnamon and orange juice. Allow the cranberry tea to steep for 5-7 more minutes. If you like a lighter cinnamon flavor, you can add in the cinnamon a bit later, towards the end of your steeping time.
All you need to do now is strain your tea with a fine mesh strainer and divide it into mugs. Don’t forget to add extra apple slices, orange slices, and cinnamon sticks to your mugs.
The garnish makes the holiday hot toddy recipe taste even better. It’s a feast for your eyes, not just your taste buds.
Here’s the full recipe:
Spiced Cranberry Kratom Tea/Holiday Hot Toddy Recipe
Prep time: 7 minutes
Steep time: 20-25 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 Uplift kratom tea bags (or any variety of plain kratom tea bags)
- 5 cups filtered water
- 1 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed
- ½ red apple, thinly sliced, divided
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 orange, ½ for juice and ½ sliced
- Optional: 2-3 tbsp agave, stevia, or other sweetener of choice (more or less to taste)
Directions
- Add tea bags, water, cranberries, ½ of the apple slices, and lemon juice to a small pot.
- Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a low simmer. Brew for 10-15 mins. Cranberries should split and soften.
- Add orange juice and cinnamon sticks. Continue to heat on low for 5-7 more minutes.
- Strain tea with a fine mesh strainer, then add sweetener and garnish with extra slices of fruit and cinnamon sticks.
Recipe Notes
- Super-Spiced Tea: If you’re an autumn spice fanatic, add an anise star or a few slices of ginger root to your brew when you add in the cinnamon and orange juice.
- Kratom Variety: Feel free to swap out the white vein tea for any other plain kratom tea option. You could even use peach mango or chai tea bags for some added flavor and flair.
- Alternative Fruits: You can switch out some of the fruits in this recipe to make really interesting variations. Try pear slices instead of apples or raspberries in place of the cranberries.
Cranberry Spice Holiday Hot Toddy Nutrition Information
Approximate nutrition information for one serving with 2 tsp stevia:
Calories: 25 cal | Total Fat: 0.0 g | Saturated Fat: 0.0 g | Trans Fat: 0.0 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.0 grams | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.0 grams | Cholesterol: 0.0 mg | Sodium: 0.1 mg | Total Carbohydrates: 4 g | Dietary Fiber: 0.5 g | Sugar: 3 g | Protein: 0 g | Potassium: 75 mg | Calcium: 22 mg
Approximate nutrition information for one serving with 2 tsp brown sugar:
Calories: 55 cal | Total Fat: 0.0 g | Saturated Fat: 0.0 g | Trans Fat: 0.0 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.0 grams | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.0 grams | Cholesterol: 0.0 mg | Sodium: 0.1 mg | Total Carbohydrates: 12 g | Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g | Sugar: 11 g | Protein: 0.1 g | Potassium: 80 mg | Calcium: 24 mg
Try These Other Holiday and Autumn Tea Recipes
We’re all about recipe repeating for the holidays—when you have a slam dunk, you might as well do it over and over again. Still, if you want to switch things up from the holiday hot toddy/cranberry tea recipe, give one of these other holiday tea recipes a try.
Some of these recipes, like the maple chai, are beyond easy to make. So if your holiday season is insanely busy (like ours always is), you’ll still be able to throw something delicious together.
