If life gives you sunshine..make sun tea!

We're scheduled to have four 90 degree days in a row here in Western New York. Though I'll be working through most of it, I still need to take advantage of at least a little bit of the sunshine. Sun tea is one of those things that really screams of summer and tends to bring about warm summer evenings of sitting, sipping and chatting on the back porch. This is such a staple in my household that I've often amazed by how many of my friends have never heard of, much less made sun tea. It doesn't get much easier than this!

This method makes one of my husband's favorite beverages. He loves it so much that even though he's usually not a big kitchen helper, he is always offering to help with this one.

Though you can certainly make the tea in just about any clear container, I've found the best method for us is to use Quart sized mason jars. They're easy to prep and store. 

Start with a few clean jars or a large pictcher. I typically make 6 mason jars at a time. Add tea bags of your choice to the jars. I use 2 bags per quart jar of tea. 

As you may know, I recently started my own mint garden and am growing 5 different varieties of mint.

Chocolate mint and sweet mint seem to go the best with my sun tea. A friend recommended Lemon Balm as well which I hadn't though of previously. I have such an abundance of this in my garden this year, I'll have to try it in another batch.

If you happen to have fresh mint or another herb you'd like to try, add a few sprigs to each jar prior to setting them out to "brew".

Add enough water to fill each jar. Place the lids on the tops of the jars and tighten to close.

Once you have filled and covered each jar (or your pitcher), move outside to a sunny spot. I like to use the railing of the upper section of our back porch as it gets sunlight nearly all day.

At this point, the sun will do all the work. The length of time it will take to "brew" your tea, will depend on your personal preference of how strong you like it. I've found however, that 6-8 hours on a sunny day is usually sufficient.

Once the desired strengthened is reached, remove the tea bags and mint. At this point, I usually add about a 1/4 cup of sugar per jar to sweeten as well. Refrigerate to chill until ready to serve.