Blueberry Sun Tea

Do you do sun tea? I do! Pretty much all summer long, I’m constantly making and drinking sun tea. Today, I’m featuring one of my favorites: Blueberry Sun Tea.

I’ve been making sun tea for over twenty years, and I love it because (1) it’s super easy to make (2) it’s inexpensive (3) it stays clear and won’t cloud when chilled in the fridge (3) if you use the right brand of tea bags, it tastes fabulous (4) after the tea is chilled, it won’t be diluted by quickly melting ice cubes and (5) it’s eco-friendly, since you’re not wasting energy boiling water and unnecessarily heating up your air-conditioned kitchen in the summer. What’s not to love about sun tea?!

I used to have a single glass gallon jar for making sun tea, but I’m much happier now with two jars, and keeping them in rotation. To make Blueberry Sun Tea, I filled the gallon glass jar shown on the left with cold tap water and then added four family-sized Luzianne tea bags and two Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry tea bags. The tea bags will then steep in the sun for one long summer afternoon. The glass jar shown on the right, cold and covered in condensation, has regular non-blueberry tea made the prior day and then refrigerated.

After being in the sun for about five hours, my Blueberry Sun Tea has steeped and the tea bags are ready to be removed. I always let the warm sun tea come to room temperature on the kitchen counter before placing it in the fridge.

I mentioned above the importance of brands when making sun tea. First of all, Luzianne Iced Tea tea bags make way better tea than Lipton Iced Tea tea bags or Walmart’s Great Value Iced Tea tea bags. To me, Lipton’s tea has a rather bitter taste and Great Value’s tea is too weak and bland. So please just ignore the yellow Lipton writing on my glass tea jar photographed above…yes, it’s a wonderfully useful 20-year-old jar, but no, I don’t really care for the Lipton brand of tea. If I’m making non-blueberry sun tea, then I will brew five of the Luzianne family-size tea bags in one gallon of cool tap water.

If I’m making Blueberry Sun Tea, then I’ll use four Luzianne bags plus two Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry tea bags in one gallon of water. It might not seem like much, but just those two little bags of blueberry tea add a huge amount of blueberry flavor to a gallon container. When I finally remove the tea bags, with clean hands I will gingerly squeeze out the liquid from the brewed bags to get whatever extra flavor might be left.

I’ve also substituted peach tea and orange-flavored tea for the blueberry tea bags…it’s really fun to experiment with switching up the fruit flavors!

And here’s a little trick to garnish a glass of Blueberry Sun Tea: skewer some fresh blueberries on a cocktail pick, and then insert the cocktail pick into a regular straw that is simply cut off and shortened with scissors.

The shortened straw effectively extends your skewer for a taller glass of iced tea. Of course, a garnish isn’t necessary, but sometimes it can make a refreshing glass of sun tea seem a bit more special.

You can find Luzianne family-sized Ice Tea bags and Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry tea bags at pretty much any grocery. I prefer decaffeinated iced tea, but Luzianne also sells the regular caffeinated version. For glass jars in which to make your sun tea, you can easily find gallon-sized jars in groceries like here at Walmart and online like here at Amazon.

All of my opinions are my own, independent and unbiased, and I received no samples, payments, or financial incentives from Luzianne, Celestial Seasonings, Amazon, Walmart, or Anchor Hocking, or any other company for comments or links in this article.

–G

This week I am linking up with Dream Create Inspire Link @Simple Nature Decor Thriving on Thursdays Linky Party @Domesblissity Linky Party Palooza @I Heart Nap Time DIY and Recipes Party @The 36th Avenue Clever Chicks Blog Hop @The Chicken Chick Worthwhile Wednesday @Crafty Allie Friday Favorites @ Life in Leggings What’s Cookin’ Wednesday @Buns in my Oven Tipsy Tuesday @Grey is the New Black MMM @Healthy Diva Life Totally Terrific Tuesday @ Live Randomly Simple The Wednesday Round Up @ Love, Pasta and a Toolbelt Create & Share DIY and Recipe Party @ Designs by Miss Mandee Fabulous Party @Lou Lou Girls Sunday Linky @The Lazy Gastronome Over the Moon Link Party @Marilyn’s Treats Foodie FriDIY@A Dish of Daily Life Funtastic Friday @Olives & Okra Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop @Katherines Corner Party Time! @ Live Laugh Rowe Mingle Monday Blog Link-Up @ Life of Meg