April’s Home and Garden

There are so many flavors and varieties of tea today, that it’s really hard for a tea drinker to get bored. While I drink many different kinds of tea–both for refreshment and for medicinal purposes; I mostly drink good old-fashioned iced tea. Today I would just like to share some of my iced tea ideas with you.

There are at least two good things about making your own iced tea. You can buy decaffeinated tea or regular tea and you can control the type and amount of sweetener.

Basic iced tea: 4 family sized or 10 regular  black tea bags per gallon of water, sweetened with a half cup of sugar. If you have a sweet tooth you will probably want more sugar. When I buy bottled tea I usually dilute it with water because it is too sweet for me.

Citrus tea: Add lemon, lime, orange or a combination to the above basic tea recipe. You can just add the juice or throw in the fruit slices after you squeeze them a little. It all depends on if you mind pulp and seeds in your tea. I like to squeeze the juice through a little strainer.

Fruit Tea: When I’m feeling funky I make fruit tea using oranges, strawberries, kiwi, and lemons. I just cut up the fruit and toss it in. You can use as much as you like. Experiment with different flavors such as all berries, etc.

Tea and Lemonade: Do not sweeten the tea. Add one can frozen lemonade concentrate.

Mint Tea: You can either add a handful of fresh bruised mint leaves, or substitute one or two peppermint tea bags for the black tea.

It’s easy to see how you could also mix and match these ideas for other variations, as well as substituting green tea or herb teas for other flavors. Drink Up!