Making Sun Tea

It is so hot outside. WOW.

I'm spending a lot of time trying to find ways to stay cool which means avoiding going outside as much as possible lately. Fall can't come soon enough for so many reasons right now.

I decided to try and make use of this CRAZY heat and make up a batch of sun tea. Gotta put that blistering hot ol' sun to work you know.

A couple weeks ago when my sister came to visit we all took a trip out to the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. This tea plantation is the only working tea plantation in the United States. It was really cool to check it out and sample some of their yummy tea.






I learned a few things on our tour about tea.

1. Ice tea was invented at the Worlds Fair in St. Louis. (The guide put me on the spot with this question and I didn't know the answer).

2. Tea is the second most popular beverage in the US, second to water.

3. Most tea (can't remember the percentage) consumed in the US is iced, that number (yup, sorry couldn't remember what number that was) jumps up to 95% when you get to the South where we make it sweet tea and you find it in every home around these parts. House wine of the South :)

It was a neat little tour and in a neat and isolated area that made for a nice trip.

Fast forward to present day now and my desire to fix up some sun tea. Sun tea is basically water in a glass container with tea bags that you place in the sun and the sun and heat does the work for you. Cause you know sticking a cup of water into a microwave is just so darn hard ;)

I used some of the tea plantation's Plantation Peach tea.



Tea doesn't get much more Southern then that.




And out in the sun it sits. I did have a small plate over the top to keep any crazy bugs from dive bombing into my tea. Plate was removed to make for a prettier picture and no bugs were harmed in the making of this sun tea. Just add some ice and enjoy!

Have you ever made sun tea before? Got any tips or secrets that you swear by?