Fresh tea adds colour, flavour and a caffeine twist to a cocktail, without overpowering the other ingredients present in the drink.

The most widely-consumed beverage in the world after water, tea usually has a cooling, slightly bitter flavour that mixes well with a variety of other ingredients, particularly spirits.

Tea is produced by combining the leaves and leaf buds of the Camellia sinensis plant with hot or boiling water. It is often also consumed with milk – although rarely for the purpose of mixing cocktails.

The 4 most commonly-used varieties of tea include black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea, all of which are processed in a different way from the same bush.

For the purpose of mixing cocktails, whilst there are a large variety of teas available, good quality Earl Grey tea will usually provide a consistently good flavour which suits most other cocktail ingredients.

It is a common misconception that the classic cocktail Long Island Iced Tea is made from tea, however the name is derived strictly from the appearance of the drink rather than from its ingredients.