Last holiday season, hot chocolate bombs were all the rage because they are fun and easy to make, are great gifts, and are extremely easy to prepare and enjoy! When the tea version of these fun bombs popped up, I knew I had to give them a try! For these tea bombs, I decided to try out a summer fruit tea set I found while browsing Amazon and some lovely colors and edible glitter to go along with it! I am actually not a tea lover, and I usually prefer just water or maybe coffee. However, these teas are awesome and work so well in these tea bombs!
I also made a video tutorial for this recipe! Make sure to check it out here:
Disclosure: There are Amazon affiliate links provided in the post below. If you click on any of the Amazon links and make a purchase, I do get a small percentage of the sale which helps me pay for my ingredients and my website. I genuinely use anything that I link, and I want to make it easy for you to find these ingredients and kitchen tools, too, if you want to utilize them!
What are Tea Bombs?
If you do not know yet, tea bombs are simply a type of hollow sugar, isomalt, or honey sphere with tea inside! They are basically the tea version of hot chocolate bombs! If you are also interested in making hot chocolate bombs, then make sure to check out my simple tutorial and some fun holiday flavor ideas here: How to Make Hot Chocolate Bombs: All the Basics You Need to Know + 7 Flavor Ideas!
5 Tips When Making Tea Bombs:
- The Tea: You can use either loose tea leaf tea or a tea bag. While I think the loose leaf tea bombs are a little prettier, you will have to strain the tea pieces. This is why I personally love the convenience of using tea bags instead, but it is up to your personal preference!
- Tea Bomb Shells: I personally prefer and recommend using isomalt. If you are wondering, isomalt is a sugar substitute made from beet sugar and it either does not negatively affect or has little affect your blood sugar levels. Also, regular sugar caramelizes, while isomalt will not caramelize, which makes it perfect for adding fun, beautiful colors to it. It also will not get sticky as quickly as regular sugar, so that’s another benefit!
- Isomalt & Humidity: The humidity in the air will certainly affect the isomalt. A higher humidity means more moisture in the air, so things like isomalt absorb some of that moisture which makes them sticky. My best advice to avoid this if you want to make tea bombs even during a high humidity time in your area is to store them in an airtight container, make sure that they are not touching because they will stick together, and use them within a few days or so of making them. Aside from that, making them during the lowest humidity period in your area is going to probably be the best time to make them.
- Decorations: When making the shells for your bombs, you can add some really fun stuff to make them absolutely gorgeous! Add a small amount of food color gel and then mix in more as needed. You can also add some edible glitter to your tea bombs, or even edible gold leaf if you’re feeling extra fancy!
- Tea bombs can be enjoyed at any time during the year: If you only prefer cold beverages like I do during the summer, you can still enjoy the tea bombs! Simply prepare your tea bomb as usual, but with the extra step of adding some ice cubes to cool it down for a nice iced tea!
If you want to check out my Baking Tip Tuesday video featuring these 5 tips, click here!
How to Make Tea Bombs:
Equipment:
- Saucepan
- Rubber spatula
- Small, microwave-safe bowls
- Spoons
- Small sphere silicone mold
- Measuring cups or scale
- Skewers or toothpicks
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cups (100 grams) isomalt crystals
- 4 tea bags
- Food gel colors
- Edible glitter
Directions:
- Add the isomalt crystals in a small or medium-size sauce pan. Heat the isomalt on a medium or medium-high heat on the stove until completely melted.*
- Add some optional food gel colors, a little bit at a time, and/or edible gold glitter. Spoon a little bit of the mixture into the one or two wells of the mold at a time. Use the back of the spoon to brush the isomalt up the sides. The hotter the isomalt, the thinner the shells will be. The isomalt can set rather quickly when brushing it up the sides, so work quickly, but also carefully because isomalt can burn you!** Once all the wells are fully coated, let this sit on the counter for about 5 minutes, or until the isomalt shells have completely hardened.
- Remove the shells from the silicone molds by carefully separating the sides from the mold and then gently pressing on the bottom to pop them out of the mold.
- Take a tea bag and hold it flat. Shake it a little to make the tea go into a somewhat thin, even layer. Next, fold the tea bag in half and then fold it in half again. Immediately use the string of the tea bag to wrap it and keep it in a little bundle.***
- Place the tea bag inside of an isomalt shell. Next, add some melted isomalt to a small, microwave-safe plate, and then gently dip the open rim of the empty shell into the isomalt. You do not need a lot, just enough to fuse the two shells together. Carefully line the shells up, put them together, and then set it aside to finish the rest of the tea bombs.
Notes:
- *You can melt the isomalt in the microwave, but I personally preferred initially heating the isomalt on the stove and then transferring it to microwave safe bowls to add different colors and be able to easily reheat it.
- **If you prefer, you can tilt your mold around to get the isomalt to coat the sides, I simply prefer to use the spoon method.
- On a side note, you not only want the outside of the shell to be nice and smooth, but you also want the inside to be smooth as well. Because you can slightly see through these, if there are any imperfections inside, you will be able to kind of see it. But, what’s great is that if you’re not happy with how the shells turned out, they’re super easy to remelt and try again.
- ***This will make it easier to place inside the shell and seal the tea bomb. Of course, if you don’t have a string on your tea bag, you will need to play around with how to best fit the tea bag in the tea bomb.
How to Prepare and Enjoy Tea Bombs:
- To enjoy a basic tea bomb: Place it in your cup, add hot water, let the isomalt melt and steep the tea for as long as desired or according to the box’s instructions!
- For an iced tea bomb: Prepare your tea bomb the same way as just described and then add ice cubes to the tea glass.
How to Make Tea Bombs!
Course: BeverageDifficulty: Easy4
servingsIngredients
1/2 cups (100 grams) isomalt crystals
4 tea bags
Food gel colors
Edible glitter
Directions
- Add the isomalt crystals in a small or medium-size sauce pan. Heat the isomalt on a medium or medium-high heat on the stove until completely melted.*
- Add some optional food gel colors, a little bit at a time, and/or edible gold glitter. Spoon a little bit of the mixture into the one or two wells of the mold at a time. Use the back of the spoon to brush the isomalt up the sides. The hotter the isomalt, the thinner the shells will be. The isomalt can set rather quickly when brushing it up the sides, so work quickly, but also carefully because isomalt can burn you!** Once all the wells are fully coated, let this sit on the counter for about 5 minutes, or until the isomalt shells have completely hardened.
- Remove the shells from the silicone molds by carefully separating the sides from the mold and then gently pressing on the bottom to pop them out of the mold.
- Take a tea bag and hold it flat. Shake it a little to make the tea go into a somewhat thin, even layer. Next, fold the tea bag in half and then fold it in half again. Immediately use the string of the tea bag to wrap it and keep it in a little bundle.***
- Place the tea bag inside of an isomalt shell. Next, add some melted isomalt to a small, microwave-safe plate, and then gently dip the open rim of the empty shell into the isomalt. You do not need a lot, just enough to fuse the two shells together. Carefully line the shells up, put them together, and then set it aside to finish the rest of the tea bombs.
Notes
- *You can melt the isomalt in the microwave, but I personally preferred initially heating the isomalt on the stove and then transferring it to microwave safe bowls to add different colors and be able to easily reheat it.
- **If you prefer, you can tilt your mold around to get the isomalt to coat the sides, I simply prefer to use the spoon method.
- On a side note, you not only want the outside of the shell to be nice and smooth, but you also want the inside to be smooth as well. Because you can slightly see through these, if there are any imperfections inside, you will be able to kind of see it. But, what’s great is that if you’re not happy with how the shells turned out, they’re super easy to remelt and try again.
- ***This will make it easier to place inside the shell and seal the tea bomb. Of course, if you don’t have a string on your tea bag, you will need to play around with how to best fit the tea bag in the tea bomb.
Thank you so much for checking out this post! Let me know if you have made tea bombs, what kind of tea bombs you made, and how did they turn out?