If you’ve got a lot of mint in your garden, like I do, you’ll love this recipe for citrus mint iced tea! It’s cool, refreshing, and tastes delicious. So very simple to make, and can be tweaked to really suit your taste. Now that Summer is officially here, the long, hot days have me making up a new batch of this iced tea almost everyday – it’s that good!
I have an abundance of mint growing in the garden bed that we inherited when we moved into our new house earlier this year. No really, it’s ridiculous…If you’re in Toronto and need some mint, just come on over! 🙂 But seriously, a word to the wise: don’t plant mint directly into the ground. Just don’t do it. Mint is crazy; it will literally take over your garden. You can’t kill it, and you can’t use it up fast enough. So if you want to grow mint, grow it in pots and containers, and save your sanity. 🙂
Anyways, I’ve been looking for any good reason to use up all this mint. Our background is Middle Eastern, and mint is one of the most popular herbs used in Middle Eastern food (hello, tabouleh!), but I wanted to find new ways to use mint. For as long as I can remember, our family has always had a jar of dried mint leaves in the cupboard to use in hot teas (mint is an excellent digestive aid!), so I thought why not try to infuse it into an iced tea? And let’s add some citrus fruit while we’re at it!
Ingredients
- 6 cups water
- 6 bags of black or green tea (or 6 teaspoons of loose tea)
- 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves (about 3 sprigs, plus more for garnish)
- 6-8 slices of citrus fruit (any combination of lemon, lime, orange, plus more for garnish)
- 1/4-1/3 cup sugar or honey (or sweetener of choice)
- ice (for serving)
Instructions
- Add water to kettle or pot and bring to a boil.
- Add tea, mint leaves, and citrus slices to a large teapot or measuring cup, and cover with boiling water.
- Let tea steep for 10 minutes (less if using green tea).
- Strain into a large pitcher, and add sugar or honey. Stir to dissolve.
- Serve over ice, and garnish with mint and citrus slices.
Notes
After sweetening the tea, you can add the citrus slices right back into the pitcher - it's pretty and the slices continue to infuse into the tea as it cools.
For an even more intense flavor boost, you can also add some fresh-squeezed citrus juice to the strained tea!
I’ve tried every combination of the three citrus fruits for this tea, and my favorite is about 3 slices of lemon + 5-6 slices of orange. After you’ve strained your tea, your could also try squeezing some citrus juice right into the pitcher for an even more intense flavor boost!
I’ve been adding mint to everything I can think of; salads, yogurt dip, hot tea, etc. I’m going to try making some pesto and maybe a chutney too. Any excess at the end of the season is going into my dehydrator (affiliate link) to be used for hot tea, or will be frozen to have on hand for the rest of the year. You can even use mint in tons of body care recipes as well! Check out more ideas for using fresh mint below:
More Ways to Use Mint:
Paleo Mint Avocado Ice Cream – Empowered Sustenance
Chocolate Mint Smoothie – Good Girl Gone Green
Mint Simple Syrup – Five Little Homesteaders
Mint Pineapple Smoothie – Green Thickies
Real Mint Tea – Amazing Graze Farm
Iced Peppermint Mocha – Natural Living Mamma
So, what are your favorite ways to use fresh mint? I need all the help I can get!
looks good i´m gonna have to try that sometime!
I have always love mint – all varieties – regular – spearmint – pineapple mint – rose mint – chocolate mint (fantastic for flavoring ice cream) and so on – there are soooo many – with a bit o’ butter on baby potatoes – ooo yummy! mint sauce (water, chopped mint – vinegar, and a bi of sugar) on lamb, and mixed in with peas – died and gone to heaven! forget all the bother of boiling the kettle – in this weather – just set out a pitcher (tightly closed (wasps) and make sun tea – EZPZ!!! mint oil is wonderful with lavender in coconut oil as a cooling sunburn relief – works very well – oh, and throw some leaves right in a foot soak and relax!! maybe with a mint julep… For some reason, the garden I have now, just doesn’t like to grow it what’s up with that??? I’ve been able to grow mint EVERYWHERE!!! my chives jump their beds and grow in the gravel – but the mint — no go.. 🙁 just can’t understand it – I’m in Vermont – I’m from England – I’m a gardener – I should have mint coming out of my ears!!! crazy.. Enjoy your mint – if you have that much – ever thought of making your own essential oil of mint? I’m sure you can find instructions on the net.
Well, you’re just a wealth of information, Susie! Thanks for all the tips!
Looks to me like you have the same garden mint that I have. I planted mine between my air conditioner and the crawlspace entrance. It trails back behind the intake from the machine and I get a sweet minty smelling aroma every time that beast clicks on :o) However, speaking of tea… skip the teabags all-together! I just rinse and boil a large bunch of the mint adding about 1/2 cup of evap. cane juice. Plenty sweet and minty. Wonderfully refreshing almost any day of the week. Just thought I would share.