Sun Tea Recipe

I don't remember my mom ever buying us iced tea from the store. She would always make it from scratch. The first day of spring that the sun was warm enough, she would fill up a big pickle jar with water, add some tea bags and sit it out on our deck to steep. At the end of the day, she would bring it inside, work her magic with a few ingredients and voila, iced tea! It always tasted better than what you could buy anywhere.

When we got old enough, she started letting us help her make it. We knew that we had to put exactly 11 capfuls of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of sugar for it to taste just right.

Now that I have my own house, I still make my own iced tea. On days like today where the sun is shining, I get out my pitcher and fill it with water and tea bags. I've made a few changes to the recipe, but the premise is the same.

To make your own "sun tea", fill a pitcher with drinking water. Add two or three tea bags. You can even used flavoured teas. Today, I'm making chamomile honey. Place some plastic wrap over the mouth of your pitcher. This is important so that bugs don't climb in. Set it out in a warm spot in the sun until the tea is fully steeped to your liking. In the hot summer, it only takes a few hours. Once it's ready, bring it inside. This part is completely up to you. I like my tea quite lemony (is that a word?) so I put quite a bit of lemon juice into it. I also put honey or maple syrup into it as a sweetener but you can use sugar if that's all you have. Add some to taste and stir quite a bit! You don't want any sugar granules floating around, you want it all to dissolve. Then put the pitcher in the fridge until it's nice and cold. Enjoy!

I love drinking this tea to cool me down after I've mowed the lawn. That's on my list of "things to do" today since the grass is so long it's just embarrassing. Unfortunately, it looks even worse since our neighbour's lawn is always perfectly manicured. You can tell they don't have kids! Anyone else have that problem?

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

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