Our Honey Iced Teas

For many people there's nothing better than a good traditional cup of tea with a splash of milk. We have to admit we would find it difficult to get started in the morning without one! However as summer comes around and we get some nice warm sunny days, it's the perfect time to explore some other ways to enjoy our national beverage! Iced Tea is very common in other parts of the world and is a fantastic alternative to your usual hot cuppa. We've made these easy recipes using standard tea bags that you'll have in your cupboard already, so you don't have to go out and buy anything special. In fact you won't even have to put the kettle on!

The following recipes will make around 1 litre of iced tea in a jug or pitcher. We recommend a jug or pitcher of at least 1.5 litres so you have room for plenty of ice! Because of the way we've created these recipes there's no need for it to be heat proof, so you can use anything from an inexpensive plastic jug or container to an expensive glass pitcher without having to worry!

Honey, Lime & Mint Iced Tea

A simple but very refreshing tea with plenty of zing from the fresh limes and a lovely minty aftertaste.

For this honey, lime and mint iced tea, you will need:

• 1x Litre of water
• 4x Tea bags
• 2x Tablespoons of Just Bee Original Raw Vitamin Honey
• 2x Limes
• 1x Small Bunch of Fresh Mint
• Extra honey for sweetening to taste

Method:

• Add 500ml of water to a medium sized saucepan and bring to the boil on the hob.
• Once the water is boiling turn off the heat and add the tea bags and 3-4 mint leaves.
• Leave the tea bags and mint to steep for 2-3 minutes.
• Remove the bags and mint leaves using some tongs.
• Leave to cool for 10 minutes before stirring in the raw honey.
• Add the other 500ml of cold water to your jug or pitcher.
• Transfer the tea to your jug or pitcher and chill in the fridge.

To Serve:

• When your tea is nice and cool, remove from the fridge.
• Stir in the juice from one lime, cut the other into chunky slices and add those too.
• Add 4-5 of the remaining mint leaves.
• Add a good handful of crushed ice or ice cubes.
• Pour over more ice in a tall glass and enjoy!

Honey, Lemon & Ginger Iced Tea

You will need:

• 1x Litre of water
• 4x Tea bags
• 2x Tablespoons of Just Bee Lemon & Ginger Raw Vitamin Honey
• 1x lemon
• Extra honey for sweetening to taste

Method:

• Add 500ml of water to a medium sized saucepan and heat on the hob until boiling.
• Turn off the heat and add the tea bags.
• Leave the bags to steep for 2-3 minutes then remove them using some tongs.
• Leave to cool to for another 10 minutes before stirring in the honey.
• Add the other 500ml of cold water to your jug or pitcher.
• Transfer the tea to your jug or pitcher and chill in the fridge.

To Serve:

• When your tea is nice and cool, remove from the fridge.
• Cut the lemon into chunky slices and add to the jug.
• Add a good handful of crushed ice or ice cubes
• Pour over more ice in a tall glass and enjoy!

Notes for both recipes

Some people enjoy their tea sweeter than others, so it's a good idea to serve some extra honey on the side for people to add if they wish. Remember back in this blog when we advised against storing honey in that cute little beehive honey pot? Well, now is the perfect time to use that to offer some extra honey to your friends or family members with an extra sweet tooth! Our metal honey dipper is also a great tool for stirring honey into your ice tea.

If you would like the tea stronger it's a simply a matter of adding an extra tea bag or two at the first stage; if you prefer a weaker brew, you can dilute it further with some cool water. This can either be added to the pitcher or to individual glasses to taste before adding the tea.

As with most of our recipes, we've avoided using any refined sugars, using only honey to sweeten the tea. This does give these teas quite a strong honey taste, which personally we really enjoy. If you'd prefer a sweet tea with a less forward honey taste then you can substitute one tablespoon of honey with a tablespoon of sugar at the same stage of the recipe.