Summertime Drinks: Anise Hyssop Sun Tea & Lavender Lemonade
Who doesn’t love a cool drink on a hot summer day? This season, we’re super stoked to be amping up our edible herb and flower collection and-you guessed it!- we’re coming up with some tasty drink recipes to use them all in. Below you’ll find two of our farm favs. Both drinks are incredibly simple and create sweet herbal syrups that are easy to mix with a variety of different drinks. Edit them or keep them as is. Either way, your drinks will be the rave of every back yard summer party.
Lavender Lemonade
Ingredients [for the simple syrup]: 1 cup water, 2 cups sugar, 1/3 cup fresh lavender
ingredients [for the lemonade]: 8 cups water, 1 cup fresh lemon juice
Method:
1) In a sauce pan, combine all 3 ingredients for simple syrup. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring occasionally to help dissolve sugar.
2) Once it boils, turn off the heat and pour into a glass bowl to continue steeping on the counter top for another hour. Once it’s done steeping, strain liquid into a pitcher and dispose of lavender seeds.
3) In the pitcher containing the lavender simple syrup, add the lemonade ingredients (water and lemon). Stir thoroughly and pour over ice. Serve cool and enjoy!
Anise Hyssop Sun Tea
Ingredients [for the simple syrup]: 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup of densely packed fresh anise leaves
ingredients [for the sun tea]: 8 cups room temp water, 8 Lipton black tea bags
Method:
**Note- this makes a sweet tea. if you prefer your drink less sweet, cut the quantity of simple syrup in half.
1) In a large pitcher, combine both ingredients for the sun tea. Water should be room temperature (ideally filtered from sink). Place the pitcher in a sunny area outside on a warm day for 4-6 hours, depending on your taste preference. The longer it sits out, the stronger the tea flavor.
2) In a sauce pan, combine the 3 simple syrup ingredients. Bring to a boil on medium heat while occasionally stirring. Once it boils, remove mixture from heat, pour into glass bowl and allow it to continue steeping for another hour. Once it’s done steeping strain the anise leaves out and keep the syrup in a container until sun tea is done steeping.
3) Once the sun tea is done steeping, pour the simple syrup in and place the pitcher in the refrigerator overnight for a cold sweet iced tea the next day! If you want to drink it warm, don’t put it in the fridge and just serve the drink immediately after you retrieve the pitcher from it’s sunny spot.
**For more inspiration on how to use your anise hyssop, check out our info blog here