Looking for a new iced tea recipe to try this summer? Look no further, this is it! Honey Iced Tea will quench your thirst on any sunny day.
We can all agree that honey and lemon is the ultimate combination for cough drop relief but that’s not all. As it turns out, it is also the perfect combination for iced tea. The sweetness of the honey and the tartness of the lemon slices makes for a refreshing iced tea. I read somewhere once that iced tea will satisfy your thirst even better than water? I’m not sure if that is actually true, but as a faithful iced tea drinker I’ll believe it.
Honey v. Sugar
I like to use honey. Honey provides a softer and a delightfully smoother sweetness compared to sugar. Local honey may even help relieve seasonal allergies symptoms, win-win. That is how this recipe came about, I was looking for something to help get me through the flower-blooming-season so I decided to add local honey to my iced tea, I don’t know if it’s science but it seems to give me some relief. You should be able to find local honey at the grocery store or the farmer’s markets.
Sugar will add a bam (!) of sweetness to your tea. The good thing is you can control how sweet – I usually use 1/4 cup for a pitcher of tea (6 servings), which gives the iced tea a little hint of sweet without losing the tea flavor. To add sugar, it’s important to do it when your tea bags are steeping in hot water, that way the sugar can fully dissolve so that you don’t have that sugar-crunch.
RECIPE UPDATED:
Ingredients
- 6 cups Water, divided
- 7 Black or Green Iced Tea Bags
- ¼ cup Honey or Sugar
- 3-4 Lemon Slices
Instructions
- Bring 1 cup of water to a boil.
- In a mug, add your ice tea bags and honey (or sugar). Pour your boiling water into the mug and gently stir to help loosen up the honey making it easier for it to dissolve.
- Let your iced tea bags steep on the counter for about 30 minutes.
- Pour your tea mixture into your pitcher and add 5 cups of cold water. I keep my tea bags in my pitcher and continue to let them steep. Place it in the refrigerator to let it cool completely, about 30 more minutes.
- Once cool, serve over ice with a couple lemon slices.
Arnold Palmer, ever heard of him?
Arnold Palmer was an American professional golfer who came up with this drink while at a golf course in Palm Springs, CA. He would order 3 parts unsweetened iced tea and 1 part lemonade and then other people would start ordering the “Mr. Palmer”.
Today, it’s a wildly popular drink, and one of my favorites. To make my recipe: combine 2 parts of my honey lemon iced tea and 1 part of my simple lemonade.
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