Mint and Lime Iced Tea
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 15 mins, plus refrigeration time
Active: 5 mins
Makes: 4 to 6 servings (about 8 cups)
By Aida Mollenkamp
Our sweet Southern-style iced tea gives lemonade a run for its money as the official hot-weather drink.
This recipe was featured as part of our Mother’s Day Picnic.
INGREDIENTS
For the tea:
- 8 cups (2 quarts) water
- 8 green tea bags
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- 1 1/2 cups superfine or granulated sugar
To serve:
INSTRUCTIONS
For the tea:
To serve:
- Place water in a medium pot and bring to a simmer over high heat. When water simmers, remove from heat, add tea bags and mint, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes.
- Once tea has steeped, discard tea bags, add sugar, and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Let tea cool to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator to cool completely, about 2 hours.
To serve:
- Once tea is cold, remove mint and stir in lime juice. Taste and adjust with more lime juice or sugar as desired. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint and a wedge of lime (if using).
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
Really, so amazing.
Wow, that's a lot of sugar! Even assuming 6 servings, that's a quarter cup of sugar per serving. Yikes! Looks great otherwise.
Yup. Southern style sweet tea is very very sweet! But delicious, and meant to be served over a big cup of ice.
This is really soooooooooo fabulous! I used key lime and replaced most of the sugar with Splenda using only 1/2 cup of real sugar. It's one of the best tasting drinks I've had this summer. The mint and lime taste so good together. Just made it and have already almost finished the whole pitcher myself. And I'm not a "mint person." Almost passed on it because of that. Glad I tried it. A Lovely drink!
When a tea recipe like this calls for mint, does it mean spearmint or peppermint?
Add bourbon and you are set. I concocted a drink called the Southern Picnic using this recipe - http://www.chow.com/recipes/11826
I love this it is so simple to make and its not something you neeed to keep going to the recipe to go check aha
really great for family parties that have kids who arent allowed to drink hehe
I made this last weekend and really liked it, though I think I will reduce the amount of sugar next time.
Spearmint is better, in answer to majorette.
I have some mint growing on a windowsill right now so I have to try this. I think I have green tea somewhere - I hope you don't have to use decaffeinated tea because one of the perks of tea is "the perk" of caffeine. I guess this recipe will work in the sun-tea recipe (brewing it outside in sun, adding the rest of the stuff when it's brewed). Gotta try it now - will post back & let y'all know!
It's time to toss those industrial bags of tea away and use the real thing. Tea is made from the leaves of a plant-- It's really not that difficult to strain the leaves from the water and the rewards are flavour, increased health benefits and less waste. (Good quality leaves can be steeped 5 or 6 times with each steeping revealing different qualities in the tea. I used them as mulch for potted plants after.) Be warned: Some green teas can get bitter if steeped too long.
I think this recipe would be great with an oolong tea as well. And surely any sort of mint would do.
It would be extra cool to make tea ice cubes to float in the drinks.
Substitute agave nectar (Whole Foods & Trader Joe's have it) for the sugar. It's low glycemic and natural. Who wants to put chemicals in it (Splenda) or all that sugar? By the way, the green tea should only steep for 2-3 minutes. 10 minutes will make it bitter.
Honey makes coffee and hot tea delicious. It might be a good substitute for sugar in this iced mint tea as well...what say you?
I thought 10 minutes would make it very bitter too. I steep mine for what, 3 minutes? Sometimes less.
And I have to say, although it's good you know what you put in, that's a lot of sugar. I think if I try this, I'll try it a cup at a time.