Sweet Peach Sun Tea

I had a craving to make sun tea the other day. Why, honestly I couldn't tell you... it just sounded good. I remember making sun tea with my Mom and having it sitting out back on the cover to the hot tub. Watching it slowly get darker and darker as it sat out in the heat. However my Mom likes straight tea and I have always been a fan of the sweet tea... the taste for unsweet tea has just never worked for me. So I've never taken the time to make sun tea. And so when I got the craving to try to make some, I decided I would make sun sweet tea :)

If you don't like sweet tea you can certainly decrease or completely omit the sugar... and if you like the true, syrupy type sweet tea you'll want to add more. This is certainly sweet, don't get me wrong, but I have certainly had sweeter :)

The wonderful thing about this is that you can really infuse your tea with any fruit, just like you infuse your water. And honestly, I think the fresh fruit adds a much better flavor than the juices or nectars you can buy... but again, I suppose that's really just a matter of preference.

This tea was super easy - the hardest part was waiting for it :) However, if it gives you an idea of how good it was, as soon as we brought it in we drank almost half (I hadn't even removed the tea bags or peach slices yet - though thankfully I did stop to take some photos). All the tea was completely gone in less than 48 hours!


Sweet Peach Sun Tea

8       Cups    Cold Water
3/4    Cups    Sugar
2                   Peaches (sliced)
8                   Black Tea Bags

Place all ingredients in a clear pitcher with a lid and sit outside for 2 - 4 hours in the sun. Once done, remove the peach slices and tea bags and you're ready to go. Serve over ice or store in fridge to enjoy later.

When you first put it out you'll see the water starting to change...

And slowly you'll see it get darker...

 And darker...


You can garnish with extra peach slices if desired, or just enjoy it as is.


Simple right? I honestly don't know if it could get much easier :)

Obviously you don't NEED to make it in the sun. I have heard concerns about the bacteria growth that can result from doing that. If you use a clean glass pitcher, don't leave it out more than 4 hours, and use distilled water you decrease the odds of anything funky happening. It's also recommended to drink it within a day or two... which for us, was no problem with this tea!

Personally I've never had any issues with sun tea so I don't really worry about it too much. However, I have heard that if you see white strandy stuff that bacteria has started to grow and you should discard it. So if you don't want to chance making sun tea - you can make the tea the normal way with boiling water OR you can make refrigerator tea by leaving your mixture in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight so that it has enough time to cold brew. Regardless of how you make it - it's sure to be yummy :)

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