Summer is in full swing here in Alabama so I'm sipping Shortcut Peach Sweet Tea with Mint Ice Cubes on the back deck to cool off. This simple Southern drink is only 2 ingredients and the mint ice cubes add color and a bit of fun.
Only 2 Ingredients needed for Shortcut peach tea
There's really not a recipe to this simple concoction.
I just poured the glasses two-thirds full with sweet tea and the other on-third with peach-white grape juice.
Brew your own tea and add sugar or sweetener to your liking according to package directions or buy it by the gallon. Here in Alabama, there are no shortages of sweet tea! You can even buy single serve, presweetened tea bags!
To gild the lily, garnish with mint sprigs and fresh peach wedges and enjoy!
How do you make homemade sweet tea?
If you ask 5 Southerners how to make sweet tea, you will get 5 different answers. The main difference is the amount of sugar to add to the steeped tea. I will tell you how I make it which is a middle-of-the-road sweetness. It's somewhere between the Luzianne tea directions and the Milo's Hamburgers restaurant sweetness. To me it is "Goldilocks Just Right!"
- Heat 8 cups water to a boil in a pan.
- Place 4 family-size tea bags in the water and steep for 6 minutes.
- Remove the tea bags and add 2 cups sugar to the warm tea.
- Stir until the sugar dissolves. I usually turn the heat on low to help it dissolve but don't turn it up on high. Or, you can let it stand away from the heat 30 minutes and come back to it later.
- Pour the sweetened, concentrated tea mixture into a 1-gallon size pitcher; add another 8 cups of cold water.
- It's ready for pouring over ice at this point but I prefer to let it cool to room temperature because it melts the ice so quickly at this stage which waters down the tea flavor. Enjoy!
How to make your own mint round ice cubes
Place a large mint leaf or two in the bottom of round silicone molds. Cover with the top of the mold and pour water to the fill line and freeze at least 3 hours. (I also found round silicone ice cube molds at TJ Maxx.
I froze the night before I needed them.
How do you avoid cloudy ice cubes?
I used distilled water for the ice cubes to get the clearest cubes. The minerals in tap water tend to turn out cloudy.
If you make Shortcut Peach Sweet Tea with Mint Ice Cubes let me know by tagging me on social media or leave a comment below!
Other summer fruit recipes you will love
Peaches are on sale everywhere in the summer down South, so grab a whole basket so you have plenty to make my Blueberry Peach Cobbler.
Nectarine Cinnamon Sugar Cobbler
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