Howqua’s-Tea Ice Cream (1844)
Reader ratingsHowqua’s-tea ice cream from Thomas Masters’s Ice Book of 1844: cream and sugar mixed with a cup of strong black tea and frozen. Howqua was the Western name of a great Canton tea merchant.
- Recipe makes
- About 1 quart, 10 small servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Brewing the tea, dissolving the sugar and cooling take about 40 minutes. The mixture chills for at least 2 hours, churns for 20 to 25 minutes and firms in the freezer for about 2 hours.
Tea ice cream beside a dish of loose black tea.
The story behind the recipe
One of the shortest recipes in Thomas Masters’s Ice Book of 1844 carries its most curious name. Howqua’s-tea ice cream is a pint of cream, half a pound of sugar and “one ounce of tea, or a sufficient quantity to make one cup,” mixed and frozen.
Who Howqua was
Howqua was the name Western traders used for Wu Bingjian, the senior hong merchant at Canton, head of one of the licensed firms through which foreign ships did their business in China, and perhaps the richest man in China. He died in September 1843, the year before the book. Masters doesn’t say why the ice cream bears his name or which tea he meant.
Read more about this recipe
A cup of tea in the cream
The method is the same as Masters’s other cold-mixed cream ices: everything goes into the freezer together. Read one way, his ounce of tea is the amount to brew; read the other, it is whatever makes one cup. Either way, the tea goes in as a brewed cup, mixed into the cream. His coffee ice cream on the same page takes more trouble: six ounces of roasted beans steeped in scalding cream and milk, then thickened with arrowroot.
Making it today
We brew one strong cup from a third of an ounce of loose black tea, about three heaped teaspoons, steeped for 5 minutes and pressed through a strainer. Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea and let it cool before the cream goes in. The book names no blend, so any plain black tea will do. How Did a Cook Make Ice Cream in Four Minutes in 1844? describes the machine Masters built for ices like this. For a sharper ice from the same book, try the Strawberry Water Ice (1844).
HOWQUA’S-TEA ICE CREAM.
One pint of cream, half a pound of sugar, one ounce of tea, or a sufficient quantity to make one cup. Mix with the cream; freeze. One quart.
Recipe makes: About 1 quart, 10 small servings
Ingredients
For about 1 quart, 10 small servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 1 quart, 10 small servings.
- Loose black tea0.33 oz
- Boiling water7 fl oz
- Caster sugar8 oz
- Whipping cream20 fl oz
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- ⅓ oz loose black tea
- 7 fl oz boiling water
- 8 oz caster sugar
- 20 fl oz whipping cream
Equipment
Kettle
Teapot or heatproof jug- Fine tea strainer
- Mixing bowl
- Ice-cream machine
- Freezer container with a lid
Instructions
If your machine has a bowl that must be frozen, freeze it overnight.
Put the loose black tea in the teapot and pour on the boiling water. Let it brew for 5 minutes.
Pour the tea through the strainer into the mixing bowl, pressing the leaves with a spoon to get all the liquid. Discard the leaves.
Stir the caster sugar into the hot tea until it dissolves. Let it cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Stir in the whipping cream. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until very cold.
Churn until the ice cream holds a soft swirl; most machines take 20 to 25 minutes.
Eat it straight from the churn, or pack it into the freezer container, cover it and give it about 2 hours in the freezer to set firm.
Nutrition
290calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 1 quart, 10 small servings
- Servings
- 10
Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for heavy whipping cream and sugar; the tea adds almost nothing.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Masters’s own quantities, which he says make one quart. The tea is one strong cup; scale it with the cream.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Caster sugar is superfine sugar. For a milder ice cream, brew the tea for 3 minutes. The ice cream contains caffeine from the tea. Once frozen solid, leave it at room temperature for about 10 minutes before you scoop it. Contains milk.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Thomas Masters, The Ice Book (London, 1844), Howqua’s-Tea Ice Cream
Recipe details
- Course
- Dessert
- Dish family
- Desserts & Sweets
- Region
- British
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1840s
- Main ingredient
- Milk & cream
- Difficulty
- Easy