Orange Mango Iced Tea

Hello all–  Are you enjoying the last warm days of summer?  I’m hoping for a few more quiet hours before we’re back to school — sitting with a glass of tea and a stack of books.  That would be about perfect.  (in reality I think most my hours are committed to house cleaning and getting ready for school projects/meetings.  oh well…)

And here’s my favorite tea at the moment.  Not too sweet, nice and fruity.  I think you’d like it a lot…

ORANGE MANDO ICED TEA
4 cups cold water
4 regular tea bags
1/4 cup sugar*
11.5 ounce can mango nectar (I used Kern’s brand)
1 large orange – cut in half, sliced
mint sprigs for garnish

In a pot with a lid bring water to a boil over high heat. remove from heat and add the 4 tea bags & sugar and let it steep 3 minutes.  Squeeze and remove tea bags. Stir sugar until dissolved. Let it cool.

In a large pitcher, mix together the tea and mango nectar and add in the cut oranges.  Refrigerate the tea until it’s chilled and then pour it over glasses of ice.  Add a sprig of mint, if you like,  and take a sip (preferably under a tree with a book)!

*Skip the sugar if you like,  or the recipe I worked from called for 1/2 cup if you like sweet tea!

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Blackberry Iced Tea

Hello there–  Looking for a summery drink for our bridal shower last week and wandered across this fruity iced tea.  After a little smashing, steeping and blending, we ended up with pitchers full of slightly sweet, summer fresh tea.  We set out sugar and sweetener for those who wanted it, but I liked it just as it was–with lots of ice and a few berries and a sprig of mint to top it off.

BLACKBERRY ICED TEA
3  black tea bags
4 cups water
2 cups blackberries*
1/4 cup sugar
1 tab. mint leaves, chopped
2 cups cold water
more berries & mint leaves for garnish

In a large heat proof bowl, put in the blackberries, sugar and mint leaves.  Blend them with a stick blender (or in a regular blender–or smash them to bits with a lot of pounding with a wooden spoon!  — and then pour them in the bowl).

Then bring the 4 cups of water to a boil.  Add the tea bags to the heated water and let them steep for 5 minutes.  Then remove the tea bags and pour the tea over the berries.

Let the tea-berry mixture sit for 1 hour.  Then pour it through a strainer to strain out the uncrushed berry bits/seeds.

Add 2 more cups of cold water, cover the bowl and set the whole thing in the fridge to chill.  Serve the berry tea over lots of ice and garnish with each cup with a couple berries and a sprig of mint.

Makes about 8 glasses of very tea.  Hope you like it!

*2 cups of berries is about 12 oz. (2 6 oz. packs)

Summer Tea

Hey friends–  Well, we finally hit the hot spot of our summer here.– been in the high 90’s all week.  So I pulled out an old cookbook, all tattered and stained from the first years we were married and lived in Dallas– plenty of summer heat there!  Found this simple iced tea recipe, that hits the spot.

SUMMER TEA
4 tea bags (I just used Lipton black)
1 can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate
1 orange

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a pan, turn off the heat and drop in the 4 tea bags.  Let them steep for 30 minutes with the lid on.  Then mix in the orange juice concentrate and the lemonade concentrate and add water to make 1 gallon.  Fill glasses with ice and orange slices and pour in the tea!  Refreshing!

Here’s a joke from when my kids were small–
Why did the man lose his job at the orange juice factory?
Because he couldn’t concentrate!!