A new twist on iced tea from an Australian food website called FoodDownUnder.com, this recipe combines passion fruit, mint, and a little bit of sugar. Passion fruit juice settles easily, so shake well before using and stir tea vigorously before serving (I like to keep a stir-stick in my glass). The recipe didn’t specify the type of tea to use, so I used Orange Pekoe.

6 tea bags
4 cups water
1 cup fresh mint, lightly crushed
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup passion fruit juice
sprigs of mint, for garnish

Bring water to a boil and pour over tea and mint. Steep 10 minutes. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add juice and stir well to combine. Strain tea into a pitcher.

Chill tea 1-2 hours. Stir well before serving. Pour over ice and garnish with sprigs of mint.

This recipe is great if you want to try something new, like passion fruit. I would discourage using fresh passion fruit because it’s a little pricey and you don’t get much juice from each fruit (you’d probably need 10-12 passion fruit to complete this recipe).

Another DIY Herbal Tea, from the website Recipe Goldmine. In this recipe, tea is made by water steeped in anise seed, which is similar to fennel seed but with a stronger licorice flavor. Can be served hot or chilled. I liked the flavor of honey with this tea better than sugar.

5 cups water
2 1/2 tsp anise seed
sugar, to taste

Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add anise seed and remove from heat. Cover and steep 20 minutes. Strain out seeds and add sugar (or honey).

Serve immediately hot or chill 1-2 hours and serve over ice.

Anise Tea for One

Here is another version of Anise Tea, this one from About.com. Great on a chilly night or a day when the AC has been turned on for too long. A quick and easy treat to serve one.

1 cup boiling water
1 tsp anise seed
1 tsp honey or to taste

Pour boiling water over anise seed a small heat-resistant bowl or saucepan. Steep for 5-6 minutes.

Strain tea into a mug and sweeten to taste with honey.

To serve iced, chill for 20-30 minutes and serve over ice as shown below. Again, this herbal tea will not be as dark as regular tea.

Here is the first in a short series of DIY Herbal Teas (do-it-yourself). No tea bags required! From the website www.about.com.

1 1/2 cups loosely packed sage leaves
1 large lemon
2 tbsp sugar
4 cups boiling water
sage sprigs or lemon wedge, for garnish

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and maintain a slight simmer (not a full, rolling boil). Separate sage leaves from stems and discard stems. Using a vegetable peeler, remove rind from lemon in 3-inch long strips.

Add sage, lemon strips, juice from lemon, and sugar to simmering water. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Maintain simmer for 30 minutes, covering saucepan with lid.

Strain tea into a heat-resistant pitcher. Can be served hot. For sipper, chill tea for 1-2 hours. Serve over ice with garnish, if desired.

This herbal tea will not be as dark as regular tea.

Garnished with sage leaves:

I was skeptical of this combination given that the orange-mint tea didn’t turn out as good as I hoped, but I tried the Lime & Mint Iced Tea and it was quite good. Given this, I decided I would give mint another try (you may have already noticed that I favor basil as a garnish for my fruity-tea recipes). The combination worked, though it probably isn’t a recipe I would do again unless I had leftover ingredients to use up, which was actually why I made it in the first place. The recipe did not specify a type of tea to use, so I used Orange Pekoe (also known as Lipton Original, as I’ve recently realized).

10 tea bags
4 cups cold water
4 cans (12 oz size) apricot nectar
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, slightly crushed
1/4 cup sugar
mint sprigs, for garnish

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Steep 5 minutes. Discard bags. Stir in nectar, mint and sugar. Cover and chill 3-4 hours.

Pour tea through a strainer into a serving pitcher or punch bowl before serving. Add ice and garnish with mint sprigs as desired.

To make a single serving:
2 tea bags
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups apricot nectar (or 1 can)
2 tbsp crushed mint leaves
1 tbsp sugar
mint sprig, for garnish

This is actually what I made instead of the full recipe. Follow the above directions, though you can reduce chill time to about 1 hour. Pour tea into a tall, ice-filled glass instead of a pitcher. Garnish as desired. This makes a large serving (2 1/2 cups), so there would be plenty to share with two!

The website www.thesimpleleaf.com calls this recipe ”a rejuvenating drink for your mind, body, and soul.” The recipe calls for “bold black tea,” such as Assam, Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast or strong Orange Pekoe. Fresh lime and mint flavors add both a crisp and cool flavor to the tea.

4 tea bags of bold black tea
4 cups water
2 cups loosely packed mint leaves
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup lime juice
mint sprigs and/or lime wedges, optional

Bring water almost to a boil. Mix tea bags, mint and sugar in hot water. Let steep for 15 minutes. Remove tea bags and strain out mint leaves. Chill for 1-2 hours.

Add lime juice just before serving. Garnish with mint sprigs or lime wedges as desired.

If tea is too tart, add a bit more sugar.

Steeping tea and mint:

Garnished with mint spring and a lime wedge: