ICED TEA

John Egerton once said: "Iced tea is too pure and natural a creation not to have been invented as soon as tea, ice and hot weather crossed paths."
Today, we make "Sun Tea" by hanging tea bags in a lidded jar of water. We leave the jar to sit out in the sun a few hours. This is a more traditional recipe, but feel free to experiment with sun tea in your yard.

    4 cups water
    6 tea bags
    2/3 cup granulated sugar
    2 cups cold water
    Ice cubes
    Lemon slices
    Fresh mint leaves

1.  Bring the water to a boil in 3-quart saucepan. Remove from
     the heat. Tie all the tea bags together with their own strings.
     Submerge the tea bags in the hot water. Let the tea steep for
     15 minutes or longer if you prefer strong tea.

2.  Remove the tea bags and add the sugar while the tea is warm.

3.  Pour the cold water into a 2-quart plastic jug, add tea. Let     
     diluted tea come to room temperature to prevent cloudiness,
     then refrigerate until needed.

4.  Serve tea in a glass pitcher. Pour over ice cubes in tall   
     glasses. Decorate with thin lemon slices and mint leaves.

     Serves 4