Another summer season is knocking on the door and for many people in the US it’s going to be the most popular time to make Sun Tea at home.
No, while you might think sun tea is a thing of the past, many still make and enjoy this tasty cold drink in the blazing summer days.
What Is Sun Tea?
Sun tea is a cold tea brewed under the sun. It was pretty self-explanatory, wasn’t it?
You can actually brew your tea outside without having to use your stovetop.
Not only that, slowly brewed tea will taste different too, something a lot of us don’t experience often.
Let’s see how you can easily make sun tea at home!
How To Make Sun Tea
Take a glass container with a volume of a gallon (more or less depending on your choice). Make sure the container is clean.
As you won’t boil the water to get rid of the bacteria, you will want to clean it as well as you can.
Fill the container with water, put tea bags, close the container and let it sit under the sun for 2 to 4 hours.
Refrigerate it right after the tea is ready and serve with ice. Look below for the details!
What You’ll Need
- A glass container
- 5 to 12 tea bags
- Filtered water
- Sugar or honey (optional)
- Lemons (optional)
- Sunshine
- Refrigerator
Making of Sun Tea
- Fill your glass container with filtered water.
- Add tea bags. Rule of thumb is using 8 tea bags for each gallon, and around 5 for half a gallon of water. You can use any kind of tea, but it’s better to use black tea as caffeine will show resistance against any bacteria.
- Close the container and put it under direct sunlight for 2 to 4 hours. The duration depends on how hot it is outside, and how quickly your tea bags get brewed. You can take a look after 2-3 hours, if the color is satisfactory your tea is brewed; if not, you can wait another hour.
- Add sweetener. You can add some sugar, mix it and taste. Or you can use honey which works even better! Add in small portions, mix and taste to avoid overdoing it.
- Add lemons. You can add lemon slices to your drink if you’re into its flavour. It also works great at killing bacteria, if you’re worried about that.
- Put your tea in the refrigerator until serving. It’s better to let it chill in the refrigerator for 5 to 6 hours.
Is Sun Tea Safe?
The short answer is, not quite. While the real danger of sun tea is minimal, you should take some precautions during the making of this drink.
As you’ll see in the recipe below, we recommend you to make your container extra clean, use caffeinated teas such as black tea and add lemons which will not only taste great but resist bacteria.
Can I Use a Plastic Container Instead?
As there isn’t an immediate danger of using plastic containers to brew tea, it is still not recommended as there is a possibility of health implications in the long term. Use your own judgement!
Is There A Safer Alternative to Sun Tea?
Sure! Instead of brewing tea under the Sun, you can brew it in the refrigerator!
It might not taste all the same, but refrigerator-brewed tea (I just came up with that) is a much safer options as it doesn’t allow bacteria to grow inside.
