Holiday Tea

This is my favorite holiday tea.  It reminds me of a warm sangria with the dark rum and burgundy wine mingling with the heady spices and citrus juices.  And its a great way to use Two Buck Chuck from TJ's. 

I start serving this at Halloween for our open house, where it is known as "The Weather Outside is Frightful Tea".  As Thanksgiving comes along, I serve it after dinner and call it "Thankfully its Nap Time Tea".  And over Christmas, it becomes quite refined as a "Dickens English Tea".

After you make it and serve it to your guests, you'll see why it is such a favorite with all my friends.  Just be sure to follow the directions before you make it.

Start to finish time:  less than 45 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups strong tea
2 - 750 ml dry red wine
1 - 750 ml dark rum
1 lb. superfine sugar
1 juice orange
1 juice lemon

• Heat wine, tea and fruit juices (NOT the rum or sugar) in a chafing dish or saucepan, but do not boil.
• Transfer to a chafing dish, a crockpot or a heatproof punch bowl.
• Here's where it gets fun: Put sugar into a large ladle and saturate with rum. If ladle is not large enough for all the sugar, put remainder of sugar in serving bowl.
• Ignite rum in ladle and pour blazing into punch. Yep, get a match and gather the kids around to watch this amazing recipe. Stir well, extinguish flames, and then pour remainder of rum into punch.
• Stir again and serve. I keep it warm in the crockpot. Not very fancy, but keeps it warm.