Peach and Raspberry Iced Tea

As long as I can remember my family has been quenching their thirst after a long day of work in the orchard with iced tea made by grandma. With access to an abundance of fruit that would go perfectly with iced tea, I decided to make something delicious to cool us off during this heat wave. Two of my favorite flavored iced teas are raspberry and peach, but I also adore the combination of these two fruits. Another wonderful thing about using both raspberries and peaches in this recipe is that you can certainly use fruit that is less than beautiful, or even over ripe. Raspberries and peaches are not known for their shelf life, so if you have some fruit that has become a little too ripe for your taste and a bit mushy, why not use it to make a refreshing treat?


Peach and Raspberry Iced Tea
1 quart raspberries
3 ripe peaches
1/2 cup sugar
8 cups of water
8 leaves of lemon balm

Wash fruit and slice peaches. Combine fruit and sugar in a medium saucepan and put on high heat until the fruit comes to a boil. Reduce heat and mash fruit (with a potato masher) so that all the juices are released. Bring the mixture in the saucepan back to a boil for about 3 minutes. Place the fruit "sauce" in a cheese cloth hung over a bowl to catch the juice (allow the fruit to hang there for about an hour, so that all juice can be collected, a gentle squeeze at the end might also help to release juice). Place the tea bags in the 8 cups of water and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add the lemon balm. Combine the juice and tea then chill and enjoy!


This recipe would also be great with other teas, such as green or rooibos.