Take a jar – any jar- that is clean and has a lid. Fill it with water, add black tea bags, top with the lid and leave it in full sun for at least six hours. (I usually put it out in the morning and leave until mid-afternoon) The sun will steep the tea for you and give it a unique and delightful taste.

For a mayonnaise sized jar, one tea bag will do. For one of those gigantic jars you get bulk ketchup or pickles in, try four tea bags. While there are fewer jars to clean with one big jar, I’ve often found the 5-gallon jars difficult to fit inside the refrigerator as well as tricky to pour from. Having just come into a small inheritance of 1-L canning jars via Freecycle, I’m giving them a try.

Bring your jars inside to chill in the refrigerator. Once that’s done, you need to add sugar obviously and probably lemon juice too. Fresh lemons sliced and placed in the jar while the tea is cooling is my favorite, but failing that a few drops of concentrate will do. As for an amount of sugar, start at a 1/4 cup and add until it’s at your sweetness level.

There’s even room for experiments! For instance, to enjoy mint from the garden, I clip a fresh sprig and add it with the tea bags at the beginning. The same can be done with any lemon flavored herbs – lemon grass/lemon balm – instead of adding the lemon juice.

You’re so lucky. I learned this precious method after years of back-breaking and arduous study at the right hand of my father in the backyard vegetable garden.

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