Insanely Delicious Strawberry Iced Tea

Strawberry iced tea with freshly juiced strawberries blended in for a special treat. This post shows you how to quickly make an insanely delicious strawberry iced tea! 

Happy spring everyone. This was my first post over a year ago and is still one of my most popular. If you just came on board – welcome. If you’ve been with me for the past year – thank you so much. My insanely delicious strawberry iced tea is one of my favorite fruit-flavored iced teas.

It’s perfect for a spring or summer get together. And spring always reminds me of gatherings, brunches, and mimosas.  If you’re hosting a brunch you might want to read on to find out how you can make a fabulous mimosa with this recipe. Blend ½ strawberry iced tea with ½ sparkling wine. Prosecco is my favorite.

This Strawberry Iced Tea Sums Up My Life

Well, sort of.

The recipe came to me after I was thinking about my mother. I was trying to remember all of the things she taught us in childhood while comparing what positive impact I may be having on my own children.

My mother passed away years ago and it reminds me that many of us have departed loved ones we miss with memories that fondly remind us of them. E.E. Cummings said it best with his poem:

“I Carry Your Heart With Me”

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling) “

Because it’s so true that even after our loved ones have passed, the love they gave us remains in our own hearts forever. If you are not familiar with the poem, I urge you to read the entire poem here.

It was written as a love poem, but I believe it emotes the theme of love within our hearts for anyone we have loved. We always carry that love in our hearts long after they are gone.

For me, the best way to fill the void of missing a loved one is to carry out the very things they loved in their lives, within our own lives.

Strawberry Fields Forever

As a young girl, my family rented a home on a produce farm in Marlboro, New Jersey. Even though we weren’t farmers, we were allowed to go into the fields to pick produce.

One of my favorite memories is the strawberry fields. They were dusty and hot but full of aromatic juicy strawberries just waiting to be picked. I love the scent of freshly picked strawberries to this day.

My mother used to make strawberry jams and preserves from our pickings, packing the preserves in mason jars with a paraffin wax seal. You may remember these.

My mother was also always making iced tea, the southern sweet kind. She got the recipe from her neighbor and friend Melba. Melba came from Mississippi, home to southern sweet tea and believe me, she knew how to make iced tea!

It was my mothers’ love of all things tea, hot or cold, that got me hooked on tea from childhood. So in honor of my mother, I have created a strawberry iced tea recipe that was never one of her creations but melds childhood memories of iced tea and strawberries into a delicious and refreshing beverage.

Related: 10 Best Online Tea Shops

Strawberry Iced Tea Recipe

Insanely Delicious Strawberry Iced Tea

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Strawberry Iced Tea

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 92 kcal

Author: Mary Ann Rollano

Strawberry iced tea with freshly juiced strawberries blended in for a special treat.

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Ingredients

• 1 pound strawberries
• 7 cups filtered water
• 8 tsp black loose tea 17.5 grams
• 3/4 cup pure cane sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice fresh squeezed is best

Instructions

1. Clean and hull strawberries.

2. Put all the strawberries in a blender. Add 1 cup of water. Blend together until liquid smooth.

3. In a saucepan, bring the remaining 6 cups of water to a boil. 

4. Add black tea leaves and steep for 5-8 minutes. (You can place tea leaves in a French sieve or brewing bag for ease of removal or simply steep them loose and strain to remove).

5. Remove tea leaves.

6. Add the sugar to the tea while it’s still hot and stir to dissolve.

7. Add the lemon juice.

8. Stir all together and pour through a fine mesh strainer into serving pitcher. 

9. Serve over ice and garnish with strawberry, mint or lemon slice.

Recipe Notes

You can use any black tea to make iced tea but high grown teas like Nilgiri and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) teas work especially well with fruit infused iced tea.

 

Nutrition Facts

Insanely Delicious Strawberry Iced Tea

Amount Per Serving (8 ounces)

Calories 92 Calories from Fat 2

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 0.2g 0%

Sodium 8mg 0%

Total Carbohydrates 23.6g 8%

Dietary Fiber 1.2g 5%

Sugars 21.7g

Vitamin C 60%

Calcium 2%

Iron 1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Pro Tip No. 1: As always, you can substitute if you don’t have fresh ingredients, but using the freshest organic ingredients possible will result in something a little extra special.

Pro Tip No. 2: The riper the strawberries, the sweeter and more delicious they are in this recipe!

Pro Tip No. 3: A nut milk bag works very well as a strainer for the strawberry juice. It strains all the little seeds out and it’s easy to squeeze the strawberry juice through it.

Best Tea to Use for Brewing Iced Tea

When using partial or full leaf tea, allow tea leaves to steep freely in the water or in a french sieve or brewing bag.

You can use any black tea to make iced tea but high grown teas like Nilgiri and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) teas work especially well with fruit infused iced tea. The best places to buy quality loose leaf teas for brewing iced teas are Adagio and The Tea Spot. I buy from them all the time.

Medicinal Goodness

As with every recipe, I include the nutritional breakdown for you but I also like to expand on that a little bit more to explain exactly what these nutrients mean for your body. I have to do it – it’s the nurse in me.

Strawberries: They are an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese, and also contain decent amounts of folate (B9) and potassium.

Strawberries are very rich in antioxidants and plant compounds and may have benefits for heart health and blood sugar control.

Lemons: Another excellent source of vitamin C, soluble fibers, and plant compounds, all of which can provide health benefits.

Lemons may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, help protect against anemia and prevent the formation of kidney stones.

Unlike animals, humans do not produce their own vitamin C.  We need to take in a sufficient amount of vitamin C to keep our immune system running properly. The stress of illness requires an even higher amount of vitamin C intake to boost our immune system.

Black Tea: Tea is high in polyphenols, a potent antioxidant. Antioxidants have proven health benefits to cardiovascular health.

Black tea contains an amino acid called l-theanine, which is unique to tea and has some very interesting effects on the brain. L-theanine increases alpha brain waves inducing a calm and deeply relaxed state. Combined with the caffeine, which is about half the amount found in coffee, the overall effect is a focused calm.

You can read my post about the health benefits of tea, to learn more.

Pure Cane Sugar: What can I say here. It’s refined but at least it’s not genetically modified like high fructose corn syrup. And it tastes soooo good!

Refining sugar strips all of the nutrients so you are left with a simple carbohydrate. If you want to get some nutrient value from your sugar aside from carbohydrates (yes a carbohydrate is an essential nutrient), substitute with honey or raw sugar that doesn’t have its nutrients stripped.

Share Some Joy

Do you ever think back to a who influences your recipes? Do you find joy in creating and making recipes for others?

No matter what medium we choose to express our desire to connect, we all crave human connections. Some of us do that by sharing food or a cup of tea.

So brew a cup of tea and offer to share it with a friend. And have a cozy chat.