Easy basil mint tea in a pickle jar
We love jars.
Pickle jars, mason jars, jelly jars, olive jars, old Kombucha bottles. If it’s glass and it has a screw-top lid, the Wayward House is loathe to let it go – even to the recycle bin.
The bigger jars are really fun. I like to use the biggest mason and pickle jars for making slow brew, cold brew or sun tea. It’s still hot enough in Kansas City for the latter, and because volunteer basil is among the things thriving in my shabby garden, I have been getting creative with my jar-brewed tea.
A fresh take on sun tea.
For this batch, I used all three of the basils we have growing this year: Genovese basil, lemon basil and, the one we have the most of, Thai basil. I also used some of the wild peppermint growing in our backyard (being careful to pick the freshest sprigs that seemed untouched by dogs).
I picked an amount of herbs I thought would fill up the jar, about equally split between the basil mix and peppermint.
After rinsing the sprigs under water, I broke them up a bit and stuffed them in the jar along with two bags of green tea and poured filter water over the top. Then, I set the concoction on our porch for about eight hours.
Just brewed basil mint tea.
When I brought the jar inside and removed the lid, a lemon-y, minty, basil-y fragrance emerged.
The next step involved separating the tea and the herbs. For this, I placed a funnel into the mouth of a juice pitcher and covered the top of the funnel with one layer of cheesecloth.
Cheesecloth + funnel = no-strain straining.
Lucky for me, I picked the right juice pitcher. It held almost exactly the same quantity of liquid as the pickle jar.
Perfect!
After taking this picture, I chucked the used herbs into the yard to decompose.
The tea stays good refrigerated in the pitcher for about three days – if you don’t drink it all in one day!
I like to separate my batch into single servings that I take with me to work. Of course, I reuse screw-top glass bottles for that!
Reused kombucha bottle.
This recipe is adapted from one I received from a Sierra Club mailing list. View the original here.
Do you ever make your own tea? Share your suggestions and ideas in the comments!
Posted on August 22, 2012, in Food, Gardening, Projects and tagged basil mint tea, cold brew tea, green tea, herbal tea, making tea in a pickle jar, slow brew tea, sun tea, thai basil, wild basil, wild mint. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
Of course I make my own tea. I take the bag, put it into the cup and poor boiling water over it. Very easy
I often make tea that way, too!
I can tell you I smelled the tea, if I only had the patience to wait for it I would try it. That’s like baking, I lose my temper because of the waiting.
Fabulous idea! But what’s with the cocktail shaker guy at the bottom of your blog? He seems to be turning up everywhere these days – spam?
I dunno. I let WordPress put a few targeted ads on my site. Maybe that’s what you’re seeing? Sorry it is annoying.
That explains it – you have a phenomenal number of followers (congrats!), which would be why they find your site attractive. It doesn’t annoy me, I was just curious, as this guy has been turning up on LOTS of sites
He must be following you!
Thanks for stopping by my site. I hope you come back often. I enjoyed your post today about magnesium.
I’m trying this!
Let me know how it turns out! I think next time I’m gonna add another tea bag or two for a stronger tea.
Wow!
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