Tea can be made in two different forms. One, you can add a base of green, black, etc. tea and the add other ingredients into the mix to make a complex tea blend. Two, you can just use straight herbs and make multiple different combos. Both options are wonderful but it is one of those things I absolutely love asking people about when they say they want to grow a tea garden. I love finding out if they use a base tea or just go straight for the herbs. I personally love a base to my teas but I also do enjoy just straight herbs. For example, I love giving peppermint tea to my kids when they feel nauseated. To which I use just straight peppermint leaf. So below is a recipe that I personally am using but with my personal love of a base tea as well!!!
Lemon Balm Leaves - we did about 1/3 cup
6 Green tea bags (Recommend trying Green tea but we actually used some loose leaf golden black tea)
6 cups of water
- Rinse your lemon balm
2) Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add lemon balm leaves and green tea.
3) Allow green tea to steep for 5 minutes, then remove!
4) For another 30 minutes, let the lemon balm steep.
5) strain the tea and top with ice!
6) optional, you can add sweetener of choice to the mix whenever you please. I recommend after the green tea has steeped! I also recommend honey but I know my kids love cane sugar with their tea!
Oh my word! I just tried it y’all!!! Ok, let me explain. I made this all and then put it into a half gallon jar and put it in the fridge. From there, I went on with my night because I wanted it cold. I really want a nice cold tea to have in the fridge for everyone to drink and to enjoy. So I wasn’t touching it until it cooled down and was an iced tea level! I just tried it and I am hooked!!!! I used the Golden Black Tea and did a little bit of cane sugar, Im talking 1/4 cup at most. Mixed that in when I took the lemon balm out and stirred it into the mix. Then put it into a jar and placed in the fridge. Im honestly curious how honey would have done with this recipe instead. I think that would be a nice option as well!
This will be our go to iced tea for the fridge as long as the lemon balm continues to grow!!! I think we will try with a few different alternate herbs as well! Y’all I honestly recommend that you at least double batch this recipe so you can have a lot on hand when the summer heat starts. I will absolutely love having this on hand after a hard working day outside!