Ice Tea – The Lemon and the Strawberry way

by Trisha Vaz
UPDATE: If you don’t have loose tea leaves in your pantry, you don’t need to buy some just to make this. Simply use tea bags to make the tea and then proceed as mentioned below. Enjoy!

In my part of the world, summer is upon us in all its glory. Sometimes I think that besides a couple of weeks that we can call the monsoon and an even shorter time span that we call winter, what we experience is varying degrees of summer. How I long for colder weather. Anyway, to help deal with the heat levels around here, we make a good pitcher of Ice Tea. We’ve tried a couple of flavors and I think they’re simply lovely. We’ve also sampled the ready powdered stuff that you get, brands like Lipton and Nestea and stuff, but let me tell you, there’s nothing better than the real deal. It takes a few minutes more to make, but its so worth it.

Lemon Ice Tea

3 cups water
1/2 tsp tea leaves
2 lemons / limes
Sugar, to taste
Sprigs of mint, to garnish
Ice cubes, as required
Bring the water to a boil. 
Tip in the tea leaves and let it simmer for about 30 seconds to a minute. If you like a stronger tea flavor, let it simmer longer. If you prefer it mild, you should take it off the stove sooner.
Strain the tea to get rid of the tea leaves. Add sugar to taste. (You can substitute with a sweetener of your choice.)
Let the tea cool down.
Add the juice of about 2 limes. Again, taste and see how much citrus you’d like.
Give it a good stir.
Decant in glasses with lots of ice. 
Garnish with a sprig of mint or a wedge of lime.
Strawberry Ice Tea

For this variant, make the tea just like you would for the lemon ice tea.
Add the sweetener of your choice. 
We like to add some lime juice to this as well. It adds a nice touch. Of course, quantity needs to be adjusted to suit your preference.
Lastly, add some strawberry puree or crush to this and stir well. Don’t forget to top the glass with some ice. What you see at the bottom of the glass is a whole strawberry to munch on after you’re done with the drink.
Make your own ice tea. You will get hooked, and yeah, in the bargain you’ll beat the heat as well.
This recipe is linked to – 

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Beverages, Recipes

15 thoughts on “Ice Tea – The Lemon and the Strawberry way”

  5. The packet stuffs can NEVER compare to the real thing! these look so refreshing for a hot hot summer day!

    Reply

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