Recipe: Strawberry Iced Tea Syrup

It's been a while since my last post! The reason why is because of finals last week, and AP exams this week. I'll post more when I get a chance, but it looks like I'll be busy for just a bit longer. Anyway, this recipe is one I adapted from Foodwishes– it's a strawberry-tea syrup you can use in drinks, since Summer is on its way. I tried it yesterday, and it actually tastes pretty good as a soda or juice.

Ingredients:

Ripe strawberries, 3 lb

Honey, 1/2 cup – you want a light tasting honey for this; I've made it with stronger tasting honey and it overpowers the strawberry flavor a little bit

Water, 3 cups

Tea, 5 grams – your call what kind of tea (I'd suggest green or black); experiment with the ratio of water to tea and brewing parameters to get the best flavor

Instructions:

1. Rinse your strawberries with cold water.

2. Hull and chop the strawberries into 1/4ths (depending on the size, you might want smaller pieces).

3. Heat the water, and brew the tea. Remove the leaves by straining and let cool.

4. Once the liquid is cooled, add the strawberries. Bring the water to a boil.

5. Stir once, and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

6. Strain out the strawberry pulp (you can do this by pouring the liquid into a strainer with a new pot underneath). 

7. Add the honey to the liquid. There are two ways to do this: either pour the honey straight into the pot (might need to microwave it to make it easier) or add some liquid to the honey, stir it together, and pour it into the main pot.

8. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and heat for 5 minutes.

9. Take it off of the heat and let sit for 15-30 minutes (or until cold).

10. Pour the liquid into a container/bottle (optional: strain again to get rid of any other material).

11. Serve by mixing together with water and ice in a 1:3 ratio. To make fizzy, just add sparkling water or club soda.