Fruit Flavored Tea

If you find yourself drinking the same cup of green, oolong or black tea simply because you can never decide which new flavor to try, a really easy way to get out of your rut is to simply brew it with a little fruit. You can begin with any flavor of tea and add fruit peels or dried fruit pieces for an extra fruity infusion. You can enjoy your flavored tea either hot or cold.

A great iced tea flavor combination is white grape and lemon. You can make a pitcher of this tea as quickly as you can simmer water. Heat a gallon of water and brew six bags of black tea. After you're done steeping, add one cup of sugar and three quarters of a cup of white grape juice. Stir in one envelope of unsweetened lemon KoolAid. Pour the mixture into a pitcher and chill, and you have a delicious and refreshing flavored tea.

While iced tea is refreshing for those of us in the warm, southern states, our northern tea drinkers are already settling in for the winter. For them a nice hot spiced orange brew would be a perfect way to usher in the cold weather. Start by heating two quarts of water and brew eight teabags, black, oolong or green for five minutes. Boil two cups each of water and sugar to make simple syrup and add it to the brewed tea. Then add one and a half cups of lemon juice and three cups of orange juice. Stir it together and add a cinnamon stick and a teaspoon of whole cloves tied in a cheesecloth. Bring everything to a simmer and let it cook for about twenty minutes. Remove the cinnamon and cloves, and you are ready for a delicious, fruit infused cup of tea.

So when you are standing in the store, and you cannot decide if you should get lemon, mango, cinnamon, holiday spice or vanilla tea, take comfort in knowing that you can simply buy your favorite black, oolong, or green tea. Then add whatever flavor you fancy when you are ready to brew.