Peach Iced Tea

Peaches are an amazing summer fruit. I love eating it raw, in my jams, and even as pies and drinks. One such amazing drink infusing the delicate flavors of Peaches is Peach Iced Tea. It combines the beautiful tangy, sweet, and slightly bitter flavors of the gorgeous peaches with a deep earthy flavor of chilled tea. I add mint and basil leaves to enhance the flavors of the ice tea but you can either use both or any of them or omit them altogether. But I would reckon to add them and see the difference they make.

Summers are all about refreshing and cool drinks. The best drinks are using seasonal fruits and veggies to create these drinks. I love mixing different ingredients and creating these drinks. Here are  a few favorites that I would love you to try too:

1. Moscow Mule
2. Tender Coconut Water Mojito
3. Frozen Mango Margaritas

There are two components to this Ice Tea – one sweet peach concentrate/syrup and ice tea water. You need to chill them both before serving and mixing them up. I like a strong tea flavor in my ice tea hence I have taken 1.5 tablespoons, you can alter the amount according to your preference.

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15 minutes
SERVINGS: 4
DIFFICULTY SCALE: Low

INGREDIENTS: 

For the peach syrup –  

1. Peaches – 4, medium
2. Sugar – 1 cup
3. Water – 1 cup

For the Tea concentrate –

4. Tea leaves – 1.5 tablespoons
5. Water – 6 cups

For the final assembly-

6. Ice cubes – 1 cup
7. Basil leaves – a handful
8. Mint leaves – a handful

UTENSILS/EQUIPMENT:

1. Pan
2. Muddler
3. Glasses for serving

RECIPE:

For the peach syrup –

1. Wash the peaches thoroughly.
2. Take a cup of sugar and a cup of water in a pan and keep it on medium flame. Keep stirring.
3. Add roughly chopped pieces of peaches into the pan and keep cooking for 10-12 minutes until they get tender.

4. Keep mushing them up with a wooden spoon while they turn tender.
5. Allow it to cool down completely for an hour or so to allow the maximum flavor to infuse into the syrup.
6. Now take a fork or masher and crush all the bigger peach chunks into a pulp.

7. Now pass this through a sieve and the peach syrup is ready.  Cool it down completely before use.

You can easily store this in the refrigerator for a few days. I usually don’t throw away the pulp of the peaches that don’t pass the peach, I use it as a rough chunky peach jam on my bread slices. J

For the Tea Syrup –

8. Add 6 cups of water in a pan with 1.5 tablespoons of it.
9. Bring this to a boil and then place on low heat for 1-2 minutes. You can skip this if you do not want the tea flavor to be very strong or you can steep a little longer if you want a deeper flavor.

10. Let this cooldown and then pass it through a sieve as well.
11. Refrigerate for an hour or so before use.

For the assembly –

12. Take a few clean basil and mint leaves. Add them to your serving glass jar and muddle them with a little water.
13. Now add in the ice cubes, the chilled peach syrup, and tea water according to your preference.

Enjoy the refreshing Peach Iced Tea!