SUN TEA
Yesterday Echo and I went for one of our walks along the narrow lakeshore road, which took us eventually to our secret wild mint patch, where from the tall plants we picked a whole bag full of the young tip leaf clusters, the most flavorsome part (then the plants grow two new tips in replacement, like basil does).When we got home I took about five of the clusters, rolled them each between my palms to bruise them lightly, put them in a quart container that I then filled with water from the mountain spring, covered the jar loosely and set it out on the deck railing in the morning sun. I had to move the jar a couple of times before dusk to keep it in the light, 'cause the chestnut tree plays games with its shadow all day long.
Anyway, the increasingly sun-warmed water in the jar grew more and more golden till by the end of day it had compounded into a darkish amber, and the fragrance was metamint. I put the jar in the fridge and had cool mint sun tea with dinner. If in addition to mint you've got any sunshine around, this is the best way to make mint tea. And for free.
9 comments:
Absolutely gorgeous plant! I LOVE mint.
As a huge tea drinker myself.... it sounds delightful Bob.
Am off to try it NOW - we have mint in the garden and sunshine galore here in southern Turkey.
Pat Temiz
I have basic mint--which I have controlled--in a pot on the deck. My next goal is to try various mint types...but now I need to also try various sun-mint-teas next year!
Tabor
Lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon grass also work well. In fact I think this is the best way to make any herb tea, since there's no heat shock. I'm just beginning to experiment myself,adding cinnamon, clove, lemon peel, licorice etc.
Those mint leaves look so tasty. Have made sun tea with ordinary tea but never thought about trying mint. Will have to plant some more mint in a patio pot.
I sure wish I knew where to get that mint (though it's a secret). Can you tell me what kind of places I might find it in? And do you know the scientific name?
I have oodles of apple mint and some peppermint in my garden. So far I've only tried making hot tea, which is very good, but this sounds intriguing.
Have you thought of making mint liqueur? Should be easy with mint, plain alcohol and simple syrup. Mix and wait about a month. It's divine over ice cream.
Sorry; I just read the linked post and see that it's escaped mint. It sure is beautiful, though.:)
No mint and no sunshine. Life is quite sad...
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