How to: Sun Tea

The sun being out always makes me want copious amounts of iced tea. When I worked at the mall, I loved getting those Venti Iced Green teas from Starbucks...YUM! That is an expensive habit when you drink as much tea as I do, especially since you can brew a large amount of tea without boiling any water!

My mom always made sun tea in the summer using tea bags, which is fine if that is the type of tea you like. I prefer loose leaf tea, so I'm going to make mine using a tea ball. I got mine at Teavana for $13 but it does not matter which type you use as long as it can hold a good amount of tea.

Start off by spooning in your tea! I am using a Teavana Perfect Teaspoon (Can you tell I like Teavana? It is tea heaven!). Fill your tea ball up to almost to the top. The tea leaves will expand when steeping so they need room to!

This is Hibiscus Ginger herbal tea from Chuck's Produce.

Fill up your pitcher with water. Water: it must be city water (preferably filtered) or bottled purified water. There is a risk of bacteria growing in the water since it is not being boiled if you use well water or water from another source. (If you have questionable water, play it safe and just boil it, fill your pitcher with tea ball inside, brew for the specified time for your type of tea, and toss it in the fridge) Your pitcher needs to be a substantially sized CLEAR pitcher. I'm using my Takeya pitcher, which is 66 oz. Those large jars you can get at department stores with the spout on the bottom do nicely as well. Preferably your container has a lid since you will be putting it outside.

Put the tea ball in the tea! Mine is a little tricky because I have to maneuver the chain into a screw on lid. This tea has a high pigment, so you can see it start brewing right away:

Pretty!

Now put the tea outside somewhere sunny. I put mine on our patio ledge.

Even though it looks like it is brewing on its own, you need to let the sun do its magic! After the tea has been sunbathing for 3 - 4 hours, it will look like this:

You can add sweetener now if you like, but I prefer to add it to the glass. Shake up and it is ready to chill in the fridge or serve over ice. I took a picture of the finished result in my kitchen window so it would be back lit so you can see the tea better:

I really wanted to be able to have some variety so I brewed up some green tea as well. Here are the results:

Moroccan mint green tea from Chuck's Produce

I love flavoring mine with organic sugar or honey. A trick you can do if you are wanting to serve your tea over ice is to pour some of your tea in an ice tray and freeze it, that way your tea does not get diluted as your ice melts.

What is your favorite iced tea?