Refreshing Strawberry Iced Tea

Name: Refreshing Strawberry Iced Tea
Prep time: 15 min
Ingredients: 1 large lemon; 16 ounces fresh strawberries, leafy stems removed; 1 cup sugar; 5 cups cold water, divided; 2 Luzianne® Family Size Iced Tea bags*; 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; Sliced strawberries for garnish, optional

Prep Time:

15 minutes

Brew Time:

20 minutes

Yield:

2 quarts

Is it strawberry season yet? Fresh, sweet strawberries are a tasty addition to strong, lemony sweet iced tea. Nothing better on a hot day.

Luzianne_® Iced Tea

There’s nothing as refreshing and invigorating as a glass of home-brewed Luzianne_® Iced Tea. Steeped in over a century of tradition, our Iced Tea is a smooth blend of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black teas, carefully selected and specially blended for iced tea.

Got Luzianne_® Iced Tea bags of a different size?

Our handy Luzianne_® Iced Tea Bag Conversion Chart will tell you how many to use for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 large lemon
16 ounces fresh strawberries, leafy stems removed
1 cup sugar
5 cups cold water, divided
2 Luzianne_® Family Size Iced Tea bags*
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sliced strawberries for garnish, optional

Directions

Using a vegetable peeler remove the zest from one lemon. Set aside. Reserve the lemon for another use.
Prepare strawberry syrup: Puree the strawberries, sugar, and 1 cup water in a blender. Add the puree to a small saucepot. Add the reserved lemon zest, bring to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, about 90 seconds. Set aside to steep for 20 minutes. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the solids from the liquid, pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids. Place syrup in refrigerator to cool.
While the syrup is cooling make a strong tea. In a pitcher, steep 2 tea bags in 2 cups boiling water for 10 minutes.* Remove and discard tea bags. Add the 2 remaining cups of water, the lemon juice, and the chilled strawberry puree.
Serve over ice and garnish with sliced strawberries, if desired.

Try other in-season berries such as blackberries, blueberries or raspberries in place of the strawberries. To make a festive cocktail punch, replace the 2 cups of cold water at the end of the recipe with 2 cups of spiced rum.

*Alternatively, steep 2 bags of Luzianne_® Cold Brew Iced Tea in 2 cups cold water for 10 minutes.