Keep Cool
Summer is officially here in Arizona, and as the temperature keeps rising we would like to showcase some of our favorite Tisane fruit teas to help you battle the oncoming heat. We offer eighteen different options ranging from Apricot to Very Berry, all of which can be served cold over ice for an amazing refreshment during the afternoon heat. In this post we will focus on cold brewing tea and how to make some of our favorite fruit tea mixed drinks.
Fruit teas make up a sub-category of tisane teas, aka herbal or botanical drinks, that use fruit pieces and sometimes herbal leaves and flowers to create a flavored infusion without any tea leaves. Since no actual tea leaves from the Camellia Sinensis plant are used, the resulting drink is actually a botanical infusion that mimics tea and is called a tisane. This also means our fruit tisanes are 100% caffeine free and you can enjoy them well into the evening. We import, blend and naturally flavor all of our teas made-to-order by hand in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Cold Brewing Tea
Cold brewing tea is an easy way to create great tasting tea that can be refrigerated without changing flavor or appearance and served over ice without melting and diluting your drink. Hot tea will become cloudy when cooled and contains more tannins, a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds, which leave a more astringent or dry puckering mouthfeel in the tea. It also quickly becomes diluted and weak if directly poured over ice. Cold brewing makes a clear and cleaner tasting tea that requires much less effort and is more versatile when it comes to crafting cold tea drinks.
What you need:
1. High quality tisane fruit tea (loose leaf or tea sachets)
2. Fresh filtered water
3. Tea strainer
4. Large pitcher with a lid
How to make it:
1. Measure out 2 tbsp of tea for every quart of water
2. Steep the tea for 24-36 hrs in a refrigerator
3. Strain the tea out using a very fine mesh or paper coffee filter to collect all the fine residual sediment.
Serve your freshly made cold brew tea over ice for a classic refreshment or experiment by adding your favorite sweetener, freshly sliced fruit and cucumber or seltzer water. We collected some of our staff’s favorite tea based drink recipes below for you to impress your guests with on a warm summer evening.
Red Mangorita
- 2 oz grapefruit juice juice
- 3 oz Red Mango Fruit Tea
- tbsp lime juice
- 2 oz of soda water
- agave
- ice
- Garnish: lime
Combine and stir.
Frosted Lemonade
- 1 ½ cups of ice
- 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 5 oz Lemonade
- 3 oz Lemon Mint Tisane
- Garnish: lemon slices
Add to a blender and blend until smooth
Apricot Breeze
- 2 oz Apricot nectar juice
- 2 oz Orange juice
- 3 oz Apricot Fruit Tea
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh)
- Ice
- Garnish: orange slices
Combine and stir.
Lemon Mango Spritz
- 2 oz mango juice
- 3 oz Lemon Fruit tea
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 oz soda water
- Ice
- Garnish: Mint
Combine and stir.
Cactus Blossom Mule
- 4-5 slices of cucumber
- 2 oz mango puree
- 3 oz Cactus Blossom Fruit
- 1 tsp honey
- 4 oz ginger beer
- Ice
Instructions
Muddle cucumber and honey syrup in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add the mango puree, tea and lime juice and shake with ice vigorously. Strain into a copper mug. Top with ginger beer and stir.
Berry Delicious
- 1 tbl lime juice
- 1 tsp honey syrup
- 4 mint leaves
- 3 oz Very Berry Fruit Tea
- 3 oz Ginger Beer
Combine and shake all ingredients except ginger beer in a shaker tin with ice, and then strain over fresh ice. Top with ginger beer.
Mountain Mojito Mocktail
- 1 tbl lime juice
- 1 tsp agave
- 2 orange juice
- 3 oz Mountain Berry Fruit
- 4 fresh mint leaves
- 2 oz soda water
Muddle the mint along with the lime juice and agave in a Collins glass, add ice and the rest of the ingredients, top with soda water. Garnish with fresh mint.
Summer Cooler
- 5 oz of coconut water
- 4-6 sliced very thinly
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- agave optional
- 3 oz Wellness Blend Tisane
- 4 mint leaves
- ice
Combine stir and serve
Açai Mojito
- 4 mint leaves
- 10 fresh blueberries
- 4 oz Red Mango Açai Fruit Tea
- 1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2oz club soda
Muddle the mint and blueberries together in a cocktail shaker. Add the lime juice and Red Mango Acai and shake with ice. Pour into a tall glass over ice and top with club soda and fresh mint sprig garnish.
Enjoy!
Check Out Our Recent Posts: