The Aromatic & Cheery Orange Iced-Tea!

So, eventhough I have returned to the land of no sun- Ireland from my month long vacation to homeland, mentally my mind refuses to leave India. In my head, I am still at my mum’s house in Central India, enjoying the delicious mangoes daily by a dozen and squinting at scorching 40 degrees Celcius outside of the house.

During my holiday, I enjoyed all variety of chilled drinks straight from the refrigerator, after a long time. This is something that the weather of Dublin, just doesn’t permit. Too cold for storing even water-bottles in the fridge! Thus, as we visited India in the very peak of summer this time, I had my fill of chilled milk-shakes, sodas and juices to my heart’s content.

Iced tea has always been one of my favorite summer drinks of all times, and nothing combines better with the chilled black tea than the beautiful citrusey flavors of the season!

Orange Iced-tea is so incredibly refreshing and a glassful of this amazing beverage is just what you need to beat the summer vibes away. It is super easy to make and looks beautiful to serve too!

Give it a go and enjoy the summer!

Ingredients:

– 6-7 cups Water

– 3-4 tea bags of your favorite brand of tea

– 2 cups of freshly squeezed Orange juice

– 3/4th cup sugar

– Some Ice cubes

– Orange slices to garnish

– Coarsely crushed Mint leaves to garnish

Method:

– In a large saucepan, bring half of your water to a boil.

– Add the tea-bags, stir and gently boil for around a minute.

– Remove from heat. Cover and steep for 5 minutes.

– Strain with a sieve and cool this black tea to room temperature.

– Combine the black tea with the rest of the water in a large pitcher and keep in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours.

– In the meanwhile, take another sauce-pan and bring your fresh orange juice and sugar to a simmer. Continue boiling gently for 4-5 minutes till sugar dissolves and syrup thickens slightly.

– Remove from heat and bring to room temperature. Store the orange syrup in a glass jar and keep to chill in the refrigerator, along with your tea.

– To serve your iced tea, fill 1/3rd of the pitcher with ice cubes. Add chilled black tea, orange syrup, orange slices and lots of crushed mint leaves. Stir and enjoy!

Notes-

– Adjust the quantity of tea to be used according to your personal preferance.

– You can substitute the orange with lemon or lime!

– Instead of mint leaves, you can also use the incredibly fragrant Rosemary or Basil to add aroma to your Iced-teas.

If the resulting Iced-tea seems to strong for your taste, just add chilled water to it to dilute the flavor of the tea.