I remember feeling really overwhelmed by how to make sun tea. My Mom used to make it all of the time, and it always tasted so good. I figured that if something tasted that good, it must be complicated. And my younger self wasn’t interested in complicated!
And then I found out there are three (3!) ingredients. And one of them is the sun :). What a good lesson for 25 year old Sara – sometimes the tastiest things in life are the simplest to make. And, when you use good quality ingredients, food/drinks don’t have to be complicated.
Special drinks are one of the simple pleasures I love so much in this life. Not the ones containing alcohol, but a mocktail of a spindrift and a few berries, hot coffee turned iced coffee in the afternoon….or a refreshing glass of iced sun tea.
I worked for over 8 years at a natural healing center in my hometown. The doctor I worked for and I would make sun tea by the literal gallon. We had the perfect sunny perch outside of the office, and we always had a batch brewing. We liked to drink it on ice, but often would just enjoy it chilled in a mason jar (I swear it tastes best in a mason jar!).
Our favorite iced tea is straight up hibiscus. Nothing more, nothing less. During my natural healing center days we used to do half green tea, half hibiscus…which was also really good! I like to give the tea to Finn (he thinks it’s really special, and sorta tastes like juice), so we keep it straight up. But, you can make sun tea out of any darn tea you like! And get creative, mix and match and make your own combinations.
Why steep it in the sun? You don’t have the added step of boiling water (I’m all about as few steps as possible these days!) and I swear it tastes better – the sun is doing all the work and you get to drink that goodness right up!
Here goes…
Sunny Sun Tea
Sunny Sun Tea
Ingredients
- 5 tea bags
- 1/2 gallon filtered water
- 1/2 gallon mason jar - or any glass vessel you want to use
- S U N!
Instructions
- Pour your filtered water into your glass vessel.
- Unwrap tea bags and place them in the water. Dip the bags a few times until they are submerged in the water and will no longer float.
- Place a rubber band around the tea bag strings so they stay put.
- Find a sunny place outside (one that will remain sunny ideally for a few hours).
- Cover with a lid or a cloth so little (or big!) bugs stay out.
- Leave in the sun for at least 3 hours, but up to 6. The longer the tea steeps in the sun, the more concentrated it will be!
Notes
- You can also use loose leaf tea for this recipe! Place 2 TBSP of loose tea into a mesh tea bag or a stainless steel vessel, and follow the same recipe
