Iced to a T

Refreshing drinks straight from the garden

As most of you have noticed I’m Canadian and have that very Canadian obsession with the weather.  Canadians never run out of things to talk about because, when all else fails, we can discuss, complain, speculate, or reminisce about our favourite topic.

And, contrary to the stereotypes of polar bears and igloos, we get some damned hot summer weather and the plants (including the weeds!) squeeze a year’s worth of growing into a just a few weeks.  And believe me, we are having some of those weeks right now.

My lemon verbena plant was already threatening a takeover of my little kitchen garden, but when I left it unsupervised for a few days to go out of town it went crazy.  It got both bushier and shot up stems all over the place.  It needed a major haircut, stat!

Lemon verbena is one of my favourite herbs in the garden.  It’s relatively easy to grow (or in my case, to not kill), has a delicious herbal and floral citrusy flavour, and is rarely found among the herbs at my local grocery store or even at the farmer’s market. Given my limited gardening skills and space I often choose to grow what I consider “high value” things that would otherwise be hard to find. My success is mixed, but lemon verbena works out more often than not. I mean, look at this magnificent monster.

One of the best (and most common) ways to use this fabulous herb is to make tea. It’s not technically tea at all though - real tea is made from the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant with the distinctions like green, oolong, and black referring to how it’s processed. “Teas” made from other stuff like rosehips, rooibos, and various herbs, spices, and plant bits are more properly referred to as tisanes. And just like real tea, tisanes are great hot, but equally delicious iced.

The advantages of tisanes over their camellia sinensis cousins? They don’t contain caffeine so you can drink them all day without giving yourself a headache or the shakes, and they don’t get bitter like green and black tea do if steeped for a long time. Depending on the herb you’re using you might even gain some magical powers or cure terminal disease find a new flavour you enjoy. What’s not to like?

Iced tea at your local coffee shop is an excellent way to empty your wallet. There are always trendy new flavours and styles to try, but they all amount to a whole lot of water with a bit of plant flavouring, making their $3+ price tags bit rich for my pocket.

Thankfully, you can turn a few handfuls of your favourite herb into something just as refreshing, hefty price tag not included.

This method, incidentally, works great with other herbs like mint and lemon balm or pretty much anything you would brew as an herbal tea. If you want to use tea bags I would suggest using about twice as much as you would for a hot tea - you can always dilute it a bit if it is too strong.

And I’ll also show you how to make an herbal simple syrup to sweeten your tea (same as we did for cold brew coffee). Granulated sugar dissolves poorly in cold liquid but if you make a quick simple syrup that’s infused with your herb or a complementary one you can sweeten your whole batch of tea, or let everyone sweeten their glass to taste. You can mix, match, and customize your icy drinks just like the local ‘bucks.

Thirsty yet?

The Gear:

• Cutting board

• Knife

• Small pot

• Measuring cups

• Kettle or medium pot

• 2 heat-safe jars or pitchers

• Fine mesh strainer

The Ingredients:

• About 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh herbs (for tea) - about 2 large handfuls

• 2 litres water (for tea)

• 1/2 cup white sugar (for syrup)

• 1/2 cup water (for syrup)

• 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh herb (either same or complementary to your tea) - about 1 handful.

• 1 lemon, cut into wedges and/or sliced

The Technique:

• Rinse herbs if needed.

• Boil 2 litres water in either your kettle or pot.

• Pour over your herbs (the 1/2 cup amount) in your heat-proof jar or pitcher and allow to cool/steep for at least 1 hour. If you’d like your tea stronger in flavour you can steep as long as overnight, but do refrigerate it once it reaches room temperature.

  

• Strain into a clean container and chill until ready to use.

  

• While your tea is steeping, combine the 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar in pot and bring to a boil (no stirring necessary).

  

• Once your syrup has reached a boil turn off the heat and add your herbs (the 1/4 cup amount). Allow herbs to steep until syrup is cool.

  

• Strain syrup and chill until needed.

  

• When ready to serve combine tea and syrup (to taste) in a large glass. Add ice and a big squeeze of fresh lemon. Garnish with a lemon slice and another sprig of herb, if you’d like (do it, it’s pretty!)

  

The squeeze of citrus adds a bright flavour to your drink and lemon is only the beginning. Lemon, of course, is a nice match for lemon verbena and lemon balm, but why not with an iced chamomile drink? Or lime with mint? You can mix and match the syrups and herbs and add dashes of juice or pieces of chopped fruit just like your favourite coffee shop. And the quantities or herbs are by no means exact - a handful of this or a few sprigs of that is the best way to think about it.

And leftover syrup (if any!) is a treat in cocktails, over ice cream, in lemonade, or tossed in fruit salad. Try lemon verbena syrup with fresh sliced strawberries and you can thank me later. If you’ve got bushels of herbs and no time to dry them make a big batch of syrup and stash it in the freezer to enjoy all year long.

As my small herb garden continues it’s jungle-like growth I’ll certainly be making more iced tisanes this summer. It’s a great way to keep up with the summer extravagance of fresh herbs that’s hard to imagine in the coldest days of winter. Enjoy them on ice and beat the heat!