Subscribe
Previous Post
It’s low in calories, high in flavor, and dirt cheap to make. When’s the last time you had homemade iced tea?
When I was growing up, my mom had this big glass jar with a screw-on top that she would fill with cold water, mint leaves, and 10 teabags and leave in the sun all day. Sometimes she’d toss in half a lemon or mix in some flavored teabags with the regular black tea, but it was always delicious.
If you don’t have the tools to make sun tea, don’t despair. Here’s how I make my tea now:
- Boil a kettle-full of water (about 2.5 liters or just under 3 quarts).
- Pour the hot water into a gallon pitcher (mine’s a Rubbermaid).
- Add 4 teabags(I use Lipton decaf black tea) with the paper tags pulled off.
- Let steep 30 minutes.
- Remove the teabags and fill the pitcher the rest of the way with cold water.
- Pour over ice, and enjoy!
If you like to sweeten your tea a little, I recommend adding 4 teaspoons of sugar to the pitcher while the tea is steeping. I usually add lemon and mint before topping off with the cold water.
When you’re all done, you’ll have a delicious, refreshing, all natural beverage to enjoy with no worry about what’s in it or how many calories it has, or whether you could have gotten it cheaper somewhere else — a nice change from store-bought tea beverages, no?
Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King
Hi,
thanks for the tip.Where i came from,in Tanzania we drink tea all day long,but we drink it hot,despite the fact that we’re in a hot region.we even have a say that…”all the time is tea time….”,what we do is we boil water in a pan then add tea leaves,together with some herbs special for tea, or fresh ginger (my favorite), leave to brew a little,add some sugar,sieve it with a sifter (strainer) to get rid of the tea leaves,and then put it in a thermos to keep it hot ready for serving. (i should remind you that since we grow a lot of tea in Tanzania,we dont use tea bags,we rather use tea leaves as they are much fresher)
But since i came to Europe i started liking iced tea a lot,but i never like the flavors.so what i did,is used the same method to prepare hot tea,but instead of putting it in a thermos,i let it cool down,then add some ice,and it is the best iced tea i ever test(i always my tea leaves shifted to me from Tanzania).
No opinion… just trying to find a recipe fro making my own dried fruit tea…neeed a recipe for the right combin. ,like w/ dried orange, rosehips, berries etc. Thnx, MM.
1686 days ago
[...] That’s Fit just posted Top 5 Alternatives to Soda. (I love #1, here’s my recipe for #4, and check #5 here) Calories, diet soda, juice, metabolic disease, Obesity, risk factors, soda, [...]
Two jars? That’s a great idea, Katharine. You know, I’ve never used whole teal leaves but I’ve always wanted to. I’ll have to add that to my tea repertoire.
kk
Oh, I love sun tea!
In my house, we always have two glass gallon jars ready at any time, one with black tea and the other with green tea. In the housewares section of some discount stores, you can find glass gallon jars with plastic lids and plastic spigots for easy dispensing, like the one shown here.
You can even experiment with using whole tea leaves; just use a strainer to remove them once the tea is ready.