Lemongrass Iced Tea

What is refreshing, delicious, and guaranteed to make you feel like you’re at Nazek’s* house? Lemongrass tea, of course! Enjoy this refreshing family favorite. HERE WE GO!

INGREDIENTS and SUPPLIES:

2 bags of Lipton family sized iced tea bags [OR 6-8 bags of PG Tips black tea bags]
6-7 dried cuttings of lemongrass [each cutting is around 6 inches]
2 quarts of water
1/2 of sugar [I used Rock Sugar from Teavana]
1 cup of ice
2 quart pitcher
3+ quart pot
Measuring cup
Slotted Spoon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Boil your water with your lemongrass cuttings.
Just toss them right in!
The dials of my burners go up to 9 then “Hi.” I set mine to 6 to get a slight rolling boil, which happens a minute or two after this picture. I let the leaves boil for an average of 6 minutes.
Two factors determine if I leave them for longer:
1) How dry the blades/cuttings were to start – I find the drier the blade the more attentive I am to the water. But like I mentioned, this tea goes fast so sometimes I’m using half dried blades, which means I rip, drop, and walk away. 10 minutes max before the next step.
2) If I start doing something else. – Let’s be real… If I’m in the kitchen I’m probably doing at least 3 other things at the same time. Again, 10 minutes is a good max time.

2. Lower the temperature and add the tea!
Turn the burner off, but leave the pot on the burner.
The water as you can see is still a slight rolling boil. Add the tea and let it steep in the water for 6-7 minutes. I like my tea strong if I’m going to ice it later. Go on, give it a little stir!

3. Remove the tea bags and sweeten*
Use your spoon to remove the tea bags. Now it’s time to add your sweetener.
I use half a cup of rock sugar, but I’m pretty sure I saw DJ add a quarter cup when I went to put my measuring cup in the dishwasher. Hmmm…
The hubs and I differ on our choices of sweet. He likes sugar, I like honey, but the honey can mask the lemongrass flavor so truly, you want to use a good sugar. Either a raw organic sugar [Trader Joes has a great option] or rock sugar since it blends well. If you are using good ol’ bleached white sugar, then half a cup is plenty.