Weather: 70 degrees, mosquitoes buzzing
What I’m listening to: Gold, Kiiara
Memorial Day weekend is the perfect time to drench yourself in all beverages tall, icy-cold, and effervescent. Freshly-squeezed lemonade stained bright red with summer rhubarb, a sparkling fruit spritzer, a tropical smoothie that transports you to a far off island, or a deep amber-colored glass of strong home brewed iced tea.
Iced tea represents golden summers, lingering long over conversations on the porch in the shade, barbecues and cook-outs and running through the sprinklers. As the temperature warms up, the condensation forms on the outside of the cold iced tea glass and begins to drip, sliding down, and pooling around, tempting you to bring it to your brow in an effort to cool off.
Iced tea takes well to countless variations – spicy, fruity, or herbal notes all play well. In this version, I touched on all three by pairing a bold, caffeinated black tea with the heat of fresh ginger, the acidity of lemon, lime, and orange, and the earthiness of fresh thyme.
This recipe has also been featured in Alaska Dispatch News.
Ginger Iced Tea with Citrus & Thyme
Home-brewed iced tea with acidic notes of lemon, lime, and orange, earthy hints of thyme, and finished with the heat of fresh ginger.
- For the tea:
- 8 cups water
- 2-3 cold brew iced tea bags (depending on how strong you like your tea)
- 4 cups ice cubes
- 1 half an orange, thinly sliced
- 1 half a lemon, thinly sliced
- 1 lime, thinly sliced
- thyme sprigs
- For the ginger thyme simple syrup:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 1/4 inch slices of fresh ginger
- 2 thyme sprigs
Steep the tea bags in the 8 cups of water in a tall pitcher for 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the simple syrup. Remove the tea bags and add the ice to the tea. Stir in the orange, lemon, lime slices,thyme sprigs, and simple syrup until combined. Serve over ice with additional citrus slices and thyme.
To make the simple syrup: In a small saucepan over high heat, stir together the sugar, water, ginger, and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Remove the syrup from the heat and strain.
*Note: this recipe can also be made with regular black tea bags. Follow the package directions for brewing iced tea, cool, then add the ice, citrus slices, thyme sprigs, and simple syrup as written.