Iced tea has always been one of my favorite drinks. Even as a kid, I would choose iced tea over soda or juice. Maybe it was because it’s what my Dad ordered all the time and what we always had available in the fridge, but it holds such positive memories for me from my childhood. And even today, I’ll brew up a quick batch every week, as my go-to drink.
As a kid, I loved all the different flavors of iced teas, though I can bet you I probably added way too much sugar into my iced tea recipes back then.
As an adult — especially one who follows a clean lifestyle as much as possible, I try to avoid adding extra sweeteners to my food, choosing instead to add fresh fruit or herbs.
So, today, I wanted to share four brand new ways to enjoy iced tea without all the refined sugars or artificial ingredients that come in pre-made, bottled iced teas.
One of the best ways to keep healthy and help your body run efficiently is to make sure you’re drinking enough water during the day. I recommend drinking half your weight, in ounces, of water each day. That means, if you weigh 140 pounds, you should aim to drink 70 ounces of water each day. This number goes up if you’re exercising, but it’s a good way to have a baseline.
I hear from many of my clients that they struggle with drinking plain ol’ water each day so they wind up not meeting their daily water requirements. One tasty way to increase the amount of water you’re drinking is to make healthy iced tea recipes — this allows you some more flavor, but also keeps you hydrated. You can also choose if you want the added caffeine, or not. But remember, limiting your caffeine intake daily is beneficial so using herbal or non-caffeinated tea bags in the following recipes is a great substitute and delicious!
Here are four of my homemade tea recipes:
Lemon Basil Iced Tea
I’ve found a new flavor combination I absolutely LOVE and it’s lemon basil. The combination of the tart lemon and sweet basil is so yummy and goes great in this iced tea. This is my favorite iced tea recipe right now and is perfect for summer.
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
6 fresh basil leaves
2 green tea bags
3 cups hot water
Raw honey, optional
Blackberry Mint Iced Tea
It’s hard to go wrong with fresh summer blackberries and mint leaves, especially when they’re combined with green tea and enjoyed on a hot summer day.
1/2 cup fresh blackberries
6 leaves fresh mint
2 bags green tea
3 cups hot water
Raw honey, optional
Coconut Lime Iced Tea
Have you ever tried making your own iced tea with coconut water? Since coconut water is naturally sweet, adding some fresh lime slices is the perfect addition to balance out the flavor.
2 black tea bags
1/2 lime, thinly sliced
3 cups coconut water, heated
Raw honey, optional
Iced Peach Ginger Tea
Peach and ginger go very well together and create a tart, spicy iced tea recipe that’s a great change to your typical iced tea. This is also a great use of those fresh summer peaches you have on hand.
1 peach, pitted and sliced
2 green tea bags
4 ginger coins
3 cups hot water
Raw honey, optional
Directions for all 4 iced teas:
- Add the suggested fruit, herbs and tea bags to a 1-quart mason jar or pitcher.
- Pour the hot water into the mason jar and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Then, remove the tea bags.
- Place into the fridge to completely chill for 3-4 hours for the flavors to release.
NOTES:
- Depending upon how flavorful you like your tea, you should only leave the fruits and herbs in the tea for a few hours and then remove.
- For storage, you can keep tea in the fridge up to 1 week.
- Sugar dilemma – If you’re used to drinking iced tea with artificial or real sugar, having it without sugar can come as a bit of a shock to your tastebuds. The fresh fruits and herbs in these four healthy iced teas definitely help naturally sweeten the iced teas, which is awesome. However, if you want to add a little sweetener to your iced tea, try using raw honey (or pure maple syrup for a vegan option) right before you place it in the fridge to chill. Try to keep the sweetness level just under what tastes perfectly sweet to you so that, next time, you can add a little less honey and then even less the next time. Over time, you’ll train your tastebuds to like the natural flavors and sweetness of the iced tea, rather than the honey.
I hope you enjoy these four different ways to stay hydrated this summer. Which one will you choose first?