Karkadeh كركديه عناب

Egyptian Red Tea also known as Roselle Ennab

1 cup hibiscus flowers

1/2 cup sugar (more or less to taste)

1 gallon of water.

Bring 2 quarts (8 cups) of water to a boil.

Add the sugar. Stir to dissolve.

Add the 1 cup of hibiscus flowers and steep for 5-7 minutes.

(Authentically, the flowers would steep overnight in all the water brought to a boil)

Add the other 2 quarts of water.

Serve over ice. Garnish with thin lime slices if desired.

Precaution!!! Drinking hibiscus can reduce your blood pressure. If you have low blood pressure, please drink with caution and in moderation.

Blackberry Lavender Iced Tea

Blackberry Lavender Iced Tea

8 cups water

1 ½ cups sugar (more or less, depending on desired sweetness)
1 cup fresh blackberries

1 Tbsp. fresh or dried French lavender

8 TBSP Earl Grey Organic or English Breakfast

Bring 4 cups of water to just below a boil. In 2 cups of the water steep the tea and the lavender for 3-4 minutes. Strain the tea.

In the other 2 cups of water, dissolve the sugar (to create a really cool spice note, add a couple black peppercorns to the sugar).

Add the berries to the sugar syrup. Crush with the back of a wooden spoon. Simmer for 3 minutes, turn off heat. Do not leave unattended! Let stand covered for 10 minutes. Strain through a cheesecloth liner or very fine sieve pressing with the back of a spoon.

In a large pitcher, put the other 4 cups of water, the tea and the berry mixture. Stir well. Chill for 2 hours. Serve over ice.

For special ice cubes: Put one blackberry or pansy in your ice cube tray. Fill halfway with water, freeze. Once frozen, fill the tray to the top with water, leaving you with the fruit or flowers in the middle of the cube.

Garnish with blackberries and lemons if desired.

Blueberry Lemon Iced Tea

Blueberry Lemon Iced Tea

4 pints of fresh blueberries or 2 (16 ounce) packages of frozen blueberries

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6-8 lemon)

8 cups water

6 TBSP Black tea (we recommend Java Kertasarie)

1 ½ cups sugar

Bring package of blueberries and lemon juice to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, and pour through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a bowl, using the back of a spoon to press out juice. Discard solids.

Heat 4 cups of water to just below boiling. In 2 cups of the hot water, steep the 6 TSBP of the Java Kertasarie for 3-4 minutes. Strain tea leaves from the tea. In the other two cups of hot water, dissolve the 1 ½ cups of sugar. Remove and discard teabags.

Add the blueberry juice mixture. Into pitcher pour the other 8 cups of water and add the tea/blueberry mixture. Cover and chill 1 hour. Serve over ice.

Garnish with lemons and blueberries if desired.

Strawberry Rosemary Iced Tea

Ingredients

8 TBSP Strawberry Moon black tea (or your favorite black tea)

3 quarts spring water (I always use spring water)

1 cup brown sugar
2lbs fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
4 TBSP snipped fresh rosemary
2 lemons

1. Heat four cups of water to 175°F. (Steam should be slow and lazy. Do not allow water to boil. Steep tea in the water (alone, in a tea bag, or in a tea ball or other infuser) for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Remove tea from water (strain if necessary)

2. In a large saucepan combine fresh or frozen strawberries, brown sugar, and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
3. Using a vegetable peeler, peel of rind from lemons; juice the lemons (should have 1/2 cup). Add strips of lemon peel, lemon juice, and rosemary to mixture in saucepan. Bring mixture just to boiling, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add this mixture to the strawberries
4. Press strawberry mixture through a fine mesh sieve; discard solids (you should have about 1 quart).

4. Place the remaining water in a gallon pitcher. Combine the tea concentrate from the strawberry mixture.

5. Stir and serve over ice. Garnish with strawberries.

Iced mango green tea

Ingredients

6 cups of water

4 TBSP Mango Green Tea

2 cups mango nectar

Fresh mint leaves for garnish

1. Heat two cups of water to 175°F. (Steam should be slow and lazy. Do not allow water to boil. Steep tea in the water (alone, in a tea bag, or in a tea ball or other infuser) for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Remove tea from water (strain if necessary)

2. Place the remaining water and mango nectar in a 1/2 gallon pitcher. Add the tea concentrate from step one and stir.

3. Serve over ice. Garnish with mint and mango slices as desired. Okay ... stick an umbrella in it if you wish!

(if sweeter tea is desired, heat 3 cups of water instead of 2 and dissolve 1/2-1 cup of sugar in 1 cup of the hot water between steps one and two.)

Iced Apricot Tea

Ingredients

8 TBSP Apricot Allure black tea (or your favorite black tea)

9 cups water (I always use spring water)
2 sprigs of rosemary
6 fresh apricots, halved, pitted and sliced
2 1/2 cups apricot nectar

1. Heat four cups of water to 175°F. (Steam should be slow and lazy. Do not allow water to boil. Steep tea and rosemary in the water (alone, in a tea bag, or in a tea ball or other infuser) for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Remove tea from water (strain if necessary)

2. Add tea to the remaining water.

3. Stir in the apricot nectar.

4. Serve over ice. Garnish with the sliced apricots.
(If desired top off with a splash of sparkling water for a surprising fresh spritzer)

Strawberry Iced Tea

What a great combination! Freshly ripe strawberries and loose leaf tea! Yum!

Strawberry Iced Tea
2 cups whole strawberries (cleaned, hulled and frozen)
4 cups of fresh water
2 Tbsp loose black tea (in a large tea ball, TSac, or cheesecloth)
¼ - ½ cup of white sugar (to taste)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 ½ lemons)

1. Heat two cups of the water to just below boiling.
2. Dissolve the sugar in one cup of the hot water
3. Place the tea leaves in the other cup of hot water and steep for 3-4 minutes
4. Remove the tea leaves and discard (great mulch for roses, azaleas and rhododendrons). In a heat-proof pitcher, add the hot tea to the remaining 2 cups of water.
5. Set aside 4 strawberries.
6. Place remaining strawberries in a blender or food processor and purée until smooth.
7. Strain the puréed berries and discard the seeds
8. Mix together the puréed berries, tea and lemon juice.
9. Chill until ready to serve. Serve over ice, using reserved strawberries as garnish.

Our favorite teas for this recipe are Darjeeling Gopaldhara or Ceylon Labookellie as the black teas for this recipe, although Longjing green tea and Ti Kuan Yin Royal oolong also result in a lovely strawberry iced tea.

Graduation Tea Punch

Hosting a graduation party? Here's a punch that's healthier than most!

Graduation Tea Punch

Ingredients
3 cups near boiling water
8 Tbsp loose leaf black tea in tea ball, TSac or cheesecloth
3 cups sugar
6 cups cold water
3 cups orange juice
1½ cups lemon juice
3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1½ quarts ginger ale (48 oz.)

Directions

1. Pour hot water over tea leaves.
2. Steep for 4 minutes. Strain and cool.
3. Pour hot tea over sugar. Stir until dissolved.
4. Add cold water, orange and lemon juices, half of the strawberries, and the ginger ale.
5. Chill.
6. Garnish with thin slices of fresh strawberries and oranges.

Makes 35 cups.

Enjoy! And congratulations to the graduate!

Peachy Iced Tea

A southern classic. Iced peach tea with a sprig of mint.
Though no sugar is added to the recipe, this tea is plenty sweet due to the addition of peach nectar. A best bet for the peach tea lover in your family!

Ingredients
8 Tbsp loose leaf black tea
1 tsp hibiscus
8 cups water
1 16oz bag frozen peach slices, thawed or 3-4 medium size peaches, sliced
1 11.5oz-12oz can peach nectar
1/4 cup of peach liquor (optional)
Fresh Mint

Directions
1. Bring 4 cups of water to just below a boil.
2. Steep tea for 3-4 minutes in the hot water
3. Add 12 oz. of the peaches (or 3 peaches, sliced) to a blender and puree until it reaches a smooth consistency.
4. Combine the tea, peach puree, peach nectar, peach liquor (optional) and remaining slices of peaches to a 3-qt glass pitcher.
5. Serve over ice in tall glasses. Garnish with a spring of mint.

(Our tea recommendations are Ceylon Labookellie, Assam 1947, Alishan Oolong or Darjeeling Gopaldhara Summer)

Sweet Lime Iced Tea

Ingredients

4 TBSP Lime black tea (or your favorite black tea)

4 TBSP Lime Green Rooibos

1 gallon spring water (I always use spring water)

1 1/2 cup white sugar

4 limes, juice from

1. Heat four cups of water to 175°F. (Steam should be slow and lazy. Do not allow water to boil. Steep tea in the water (alone, in a tea bag, or in a tea ball or other infuser) for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Remove tea from water (strain if necessary)

2. Heat 1 1/2 cups of water to boiling. Dissolve the sugar in the cup of boiling water.

3. Place the remaining water in a gallon pitcher. Add the tea concentrate from step one, the simple syrup from step two and the lime juice.

4. Stir and serve over ice. Garnish with lime, lemons and/or oranges.

Wild Berry Iced Tea

So ... I just came from Wendy's curious to try their new Wild Berry Tea. I watched the employee dispense the tea and squirt some thick berry-colored syrup into the cup and stir with a long iced tea spoon. The taste is predictably sweet, but I don't care much for the seeds in it.

So, I thought, how can I make that tea at home -- without the seeds and maybe a little less sweet...

Ingredients

2 TBSP Pu Erh tea

1 Gallon of Spring Water

6 oz., or so (to taste) Northland Raspberry Pomegranate Goji Juice (or any raspberry blend juice that pleases you -- this is about equivalent to one juice box.)

Yes, this recipe is a little light on the tea, but really so is the Wendy's version I think ...

1. Heat one cups of water to 175°F. (Steam should be slow and lazy. Do not allow water to boil. Steep tea in the water (alone, in a tea bag, or in a tea ball or other infuser) for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Remove tea from water (strain if necessary)

2. Place the remaining water in a gallon pitcher. Add the tea concentrate from step one and the juice. Stir.

3. Serve over ice.

Wendy's Wild Berry Tea (Medium 17oz size) has 100 calories, 15mg sodium, 14g sugar.

Wendy's ingredient list: Water, Tea, Wild Berry Puree (blackberries, sugar, corn syrup, strawberries, water, raspberry, natural flavoring, potassium sorbate, xanthan gum).

SensibiliTeas version (17 oz.) has 13 calories, 2mg sodium and 2.5 g of sugar.

SensibiliTeas ingredient list: water, tea, juice (apple, pomegranate, goji, raspberry, grape and pear juice, natural flavors, vegetable color, citric acid, fruit extracts, vitamin c, vitamin A and vitamin E.)

Boston Iced Tea

Boston Iced Tea

What's that iced tea I had a Red Lobster? It's sooo good...

Boston Iced tea is really just slightly sweet iced tea with cranberry juice added.

Ingredients

8 TBSP Ceylon Labookellie black tea (or your favorite black tea)

1 gallon spring water (I always use spring water)

1 cup white sugar

1 12oz. can frozen cranberry juice concentrate

1. Heat four cups of water to 175°F. (Steam should be slow and lazy. Do not allow water to boil. Steep tea in the water (alone, in a tea bag, or in a tea ball or other infuser) for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Remove tea from water (strain if necessary)

2. Heat 1 cup of water to boiling. Dissolve the one cup of sugar in the cup of boiling water.

3. Place the remaining water in a gallon pitcher. Add the tea concentrate from step one, the simple syrup from step two and the cranberry juice concentrate.

4. Stir and serve over ice. Garnish with oranges, lemon, limes and/or cranberries.

June is National Iced Tea Month!!

In 1904, a tea vendor by the name of Richard Blechynden was trying to sell his hot tea at the World's Fair in St. Louis. At the time, there was a sweltering heat wave, and sales were bleak. Since no one was buying any, and figuring he had nothing to lose, he added some ice and iced tea instantly became an classic summer beverage! And so ...

On this sweltering day, when sales were bleak at the tea shop, I decided I will provide a daily iced tea recipe through the blog to try and give you as many options as possible for not only staying cool yourself, but for dazzling your weekend barbecue guests as well.

So get ready ... tea, water, ice ... refreshment! It only takes 3-4 minutes!