Substituting Cupcakes for... Iced Tea?

Honey Green Tea

The weather in NYC this summer can be best described as menopausal... We have been getting these sudden hot flashes these past weeks that makes it very difficult to do a lot of my cupcake experimenting... When the oven is on I have to crank the air conditioner up so high that the combination of heat and cold seems almost lethal... So to keep cool during these periods of sudden unbearable heat I've been making lots of iced tea!

I know many folks use the ice tea powders on the market these days, but after being spoiled by my loving grandmother, as a child, with freshly made natural iced tea, I can't bring myself to drink the powdered kind. Not to mention it is so easy to make that for me, the powder is not even worth it! I'm a big tea drinker anyway, as hot tea and a sweet cupcake are a magnificent combo, but with all of this heat my tea bag stash had been well under used... Until I started to use them for iced tea of course...



Tea has a long history dating before the 17th century.  Tea, especially green tea, has been reported to have tremendous health benefits including fighting cancer, lowering cholesterol, preventing cavities, speeding up the metabolism, preventing diabetes and other diseases as described by WebMD. (See how tea is produced here).  While the history and process of making tea is quite long... As long as you have some tea, you only need 3 other ingredients(including water) and 2 minutes (not including refrigeration time) to make some delicious iced tea!

Here's how:
Honey Green Tea - Iced

Materials:

Peppermint Strawberry

2tbs Honey (Can be substituted with sugar, agave syrup or a natural fruit juice)
1tbs Lime and or Lemon juice
1 Green Tea bag
12oz Hot water.

Method: In hot water, draw the tea bag to desired strength and add honey to taste. Refrigerate and add lime/ lemon juice before serving on ice. (Makes 1 serving) Fresh fruit can be added, when the tea is chilled, for additional flavor with any type of tea bag. Here are some combos you may also want to try:

Strawberry/ Black Cherry Green Tea - Green Tea and fresh strawberry slices or black cherries (use tooth picks to puncture the cherries before dropping them into your chilled tea.) Maraschino cherries are a good alternative as well, see how you can make some here.
Peppermint Strawberry/ Peach - Peppermint Tea with chopped strawberries or peaches, or both. Add fresh mint leaves to make it even more refreshing!

 By the way, it's raining in the city today...Go figure! Cheers!