Last summer, I was slightly addicted to iced tea.
Since I had a lot of tea on hand, I was looking for more ways to use it and, in a moment of brilliance, I decided to use one of my gallon jars for making sun tea (sometimes it take me a while to come up with simple ideas). It was cheap, easy and my end product was delicious and refreshing.
Normally, I drink tea unsweetened, but my sweet tooth was raging, so I decided to sweeten it with honey.
The only problem was, my honey didn’t dissolve like I wanted it to, so I had to think of something else. The answer: simple syrup.
Simple syrup is pretty easy to make – heat up equal parts water and sugar. However, I prefer to use honey, so I figured honey simple syrup would be just as simple. Right?
It was! But why stop at plain old simple syrup?
I was in an experimental mood and decided that while my iced tea sweetened with honey simple syrup was pretty good, it could be better. What if I added lemon to it? And what if I infused the simple syrup with mint? Oh snap!
(Ok, ok, we were also drinking a lot of mojitos last summer – it inspired me).
So I tried it. And oh. my. goodness! It’s good. It’s really, really good!
And because I picked up some potted mint last week, it made me want to make some more honey mint simple syrup. And iced tea. And mojitos …
Since I have everything I need on hand for the iced tea (granted, the sun needs to come out so I can make sun tea), all I need to do is make some honey mint simple syrup.
All that’s needed is:
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup honey
- 5 fresh mint leaves
1. Add 1/2 cup water to a sauce pan and turn on medium heat.
2. Add 1/2 cup honey to the pan. Let it warm up until the honey dissolves, about 5 minutes. (My brother-in-law, the chef, told me I have to tell you to not let it boil).
3. Now, rough up your mint leaves a little by rolling them around in your hands, then put them in the pan. Stir it all up, then turn off the heat and let it steep for the next ten minutes. (Also, you may want to cup your hands over your nose and inhale deeply because they’ll smell awesome).
4. You can either remove the leaves or leave them in the syrup. Pour the syrup into a pretty bottle, label and refrigerate.
Add liberally to lemon iced tea … and mojitos.
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