It is the time of year when blackberries are ripening. You can buy fresh picked gallons at your local farmer’s market or, if you don’t have a bush of your own, you can find wild blackberries in the fields. It just takes some gusto to go get them yourself. If braving the fields, heat, bugs and critters isn’t your thing you will pay the slightly hefty price for the work to be done for you at the farmer’s market. Either way, they are delicious. A nice summer treat is this freshly brewed blackberry sweet iced tea to cool off those warm summer days. Add a dash of half & half for an iced latte. You can use your tea of choice, but some nice ones are Earl Grey, black, green and white teas.
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- 1/2 cup sugar or honey
- 8 bags Earl Grey tea (or tea of preference) or 4 tbsp loose leaf tea
- half & half to taste, optional
- 5 cups filtered water
- 5 cups filtered ice
Directions
- Place berries and sugar in a bowl or blender and smash together. Run through a sieve to remove seeds.
- Bring 5 cups water to a boil. Remove from heat.
- Add tea and berries. Steep for 5 minutes.
- Place 5 cups ice in a large pitcher.
- Strain tea mixture while pouring over the ice.
- Store in the fridge up to 7 days.
- Pour into a glass and add half & half to taste, if you choose.
- Enjoy!
NOTE: Frozen berries may be substituted. If using frozen, defrost berries and reserve the liquid. Decrease the water for boiling by the amount of reserved liquid you collect.
