Mango Iced Tea
Everyone likes their tea differently. I don’t drink tea on the daily and so when I brew this, I don’t leave it in for too long. If you do like the taste of tea, leave it in for up to 4 minutes (beyond that, black tea starts to taste bitter).
Ingredients:
Tea:
2 black tea bags
1 litre water
Mango purée:
1 ripe mango
175ml water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice (at least)
Recipe:
Boil the water. Take the peel from 1/2 a lemon and add to your steeping utensil of choice (jug, bowl, etc). Add the tea bags and steep the tea with the lemon peel for your desired time. Maximum: 4-5 minutes (for a really strong taste). I leave mine in for about 2.5 minutes. Remove the tea bags and set aside to cool. Keep the peel!
Peel and dice the mango. Blend along with the water and sugar.
Transfer to a pan and gently heat until it starts to bubble. Simmer until a thick, but not burnt, syrup remains. This should take about 15/20 minutes.
Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and pass the purée through a strainer to remove and fibrous pieces. Pour into a container and set aside to cool.
To make a glass of tea: add a handful of ice cubes to the bottom, add 2 tbsp mango puree and top up with black tea. Optional: add a sprig of fresh mint, a lemon slice or a small squeeze of ‘honey’ to sweeten/acidify as necessary.
Note: if your mango is really ripe (and therefore naturally sweeter, you may need to use less sugar that stated above). Also, personally, I think this tastes better after having steeped with the lemon peel overnight in the fridge.
