No matter how much you know and love tea (or even if you don’t), chances are you know about sweet tea. Sweet tea is an American tradition, particularly in the south. It’s sweet, chilled, and the perfect refreshing drink on a hot summer day. We love sweet tea, and wanted to find a tea we could use to put our twist on sweet tea, perfecting an already perfect recipe. So we made Kumaon black sweet tea!
We turned to Kumaon Black, a wonderful and versatile black tea. Kumaon is a rare black tea, grown in the mountainous Himalayan regions of India. Tea was planted in these regions in the 1850s, but the terrain was too treacherous to transport the leaves to port for exportation. Tea flourished in the wild until the 1990’s, when the Indian government established programs to revive the Kumaon tea industry to provide rural opportunities. Kumaon Black has a light body, similar to darjeeling, with a strong floral aroma and an earthy finish.
Kumaon Black makes a wonderfully refreshing, easy drink for a warm day.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Kumaon Black
¾ to 1 cup sweetener, to taste (traditionally white sugar, but we love our monkfruit sweetener for a healthier alternative!)
8 cups water
Optional: baking soda (hear us out), mint, lemon, etc.
Step 1. Boil 2 cups of water and pour into a heatproof pitcher, tea pot or tea steeper. We suggest adding a pinch of baking powder to make your sweet tea super smooth. Then add your Kumaon Black (in a tea bag or tea ball if using a pitcher) and let steep for 5 minutes.
Step 2. Pull out the tea, add your sweetener and stir until dissolved. In your pitcher, pour in the remaining 6 cups of water and refrigerate to chill.
Step 3. Pour into a tall glass of ice, add lemon or mint if desired, and you’re ready to relax with your glass of Kumaon Black sweet tea!
Pro tip:
– That pinch of baking soda really makes a difference!
- Add fresh fruit or herbs as desired! Mint and lemon are traditional, but you do you!
– You can grab everything you need to make this from one place with our sweet tea bundle!
