Sweet Blackberry Tea

Seems like we bypassed Spring here and went straight to summer.  Here's a sweet little drink that will cool things right down.  And, it's easy as, well, pie.

The secret to a sweet tea is a simple sugar syrup.  A simple syrup is just a mixture of sugar and water (here it's a 1:1 ratio), that's stirred until the sugar dissolves, then boiled to make a syrup.  They've been using this method to make tea in the south for years.  In this case, I infused the sugar syrup with some frozen blackberries.

Sweet Blackberry Tea What you'll need:

2 quarts prepared tea - black, or green if you prefer (I used black -  and I'm lazy so I use Lipton's cold brew tea)

2 cups sugar

2 cups filtered water

1 - 10 oz. package of frozen blackberries (you could use fresh too, frozen are generally cheaper and more uniform in terms of sweetness)

How To:


1)  Add frozen blackberries, sugar and water to a medium saucepan.

2)  Stir constantly over medium high heat until sugar dissolves.

3)  Bring to a boil and boil gently for 2 minutes, until syrup slightly thickens.

4)  Cool blackberry syrup.

  You can make the tea one of two ways:


-By the Glass:  Get a nice, tall glass and fill it half way with tea, then add about 1/2 cup blackberry syrup (make sure you scoop up some of those blackberries too - they look pretty in the glass).  Stir, add ice, and enjoy.  Delish!  If you like your tea a little sweeter, add more syrup to your taste.  Store extra syrup in the fridge for 1 week, covered.
   
-By the Pitcher (2 quarts) - Add the cooled blackberry syrup to the tea and stir well.  Get a nice, tall glass and fill it 2/3 full with the tea (don't forget to add some of the berries along with the syrup).  Add ice and give it a stir.  Store tea in a covered pitcher in the fridge for up to 3 days.
 
This tea is a real chameleon - you can sub frozen raspberries, blueberries or mango for the blackberries anytime you want a change of flavor.  The mango is awesome.  Cheers!