From Self magazine, this iced tea combines peach, lemon, ginger, and mint with black tea. The recipe calls for Earl Gray or Darjeeling tea, but I used English Breakfast. Assam, Ceylon, Irish Breakfast or plain Lipton would work just fine. This recipe is great for peaches that are slightly over-ripe, as they will be pureed and will taste just fine (but might not look so appealing).
8 tea bags
1 lemon, sliced (ends discarded)
1 piece of ginger, 2 inches, cut into chunks
4 large, ripe peaches
1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
mint sprigs, for garnish
Boil 8 cups of water over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add tea bags, sliced lemon, and ginger pieces. Remove pan from heat and steep 10 minutes. Pour into a heat-resistant pitcher through a strainer. Discard tea bags, lemon, and ginger.
Peel, pit, and dice 2 of the peaches. Place in a blender with 1/2 cup sugar and blend until smooth (add a bit of the tea if needed to get the blender going). Pour peach puree into tea and stir well, dissolving sugar.
Pit and cut remaining peaches into slices. Stir into tea. Chill tea for 1-2 hours. To serve, pour over ice and garnish with mint sprigs.
Makes 8 servings. Each serving is approx 70 calories.
Brewing the tea:
Adding slices to the pitcher:
Garnishing my tea with basil (peach and basil go well together):
