Dog Days of Summer

© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

It happens not too often this year here in Germany where I live, but we were having some damn hot days. Days, when you don't even can think of cooking without sweating, although the oven might be cooler than temepratures outside. These dog days of summer are meant for having a long Siesta in the shadows with something cold: ice tea.

My recipe for Lemon-Mint Ice tea is just one variation. It is more like a blueprint for me, sometimes I make it sweeter, other times I use more lemon juice or lime juice. Sometimes I omit the mint leaves, other times it is more like mint ice tea. Just play around with the ingredients. The only thing I would suggest, use a tea of good quality. I always use loose tea leaves, never tea bags. If you drink a lot of tea like I do you will come sooner or later to tea leaves.


Lemon-Mint Ice Tea
(hope no one else is requesting a glass)


750 mL ice cold water
1.5 Tablespoons lemon juice
some fresh mint leaves

250 mL boiling water
Tea Leaves to make 1 litre black tea
1.5 Tablespoons sugar

Combine the first three ingredients and set aside.

In a suited pot pour boiling hot water over the tea leaves and let brew for two minutes. Then pour the black tea through a sieve directly into the ice cold water mixture.

Serve the ice tea with some extra wedges of lemon or lime. If you like you can garnish the ice tea with some additional mint leaves. If you like it ice cold add some ice cubes to your tea.

Use your favorite black tea for this recipe. I prefer a strong black tea variety. But if you like you can use tea bags too. The amount of mint leaves needed depends on the mint variety and how strong the flavor is. I would suggest to start with not too many. Dog days of summer will last mid of August. So there is some time left to get the right mixture.