Honey Ginger Lemonade

Makes a little more than a quart. Feel free to double or divide if you're making more or less.

You will need:

2-4 lemons 

2-6 oz honey

1 inch or so of grated ginger

2-3 cups water

Ice

Pot

Seive (tea strainer works too if you're careful)

Pitcher

Water goes into the pot. (Fact: I often get lazy and just heat this up in a couple of big mugs in the microwave. It's all good.)

Wash your lemons, cut into quarters, squeeze as much juice and pulp as you can into the pot. Then throw the lemons themselves in there too. This is to taste; I like a not-crazy-tart lemonade so I usually go with 2 lemons, but if you MUST HAVE THAT CITRIC ACID PUCKER then go for more!

Grate your ginger right into the pot. Pro tip: most of the medicinal properties of ginger lie just beneath the skin so instead of using a peeler, gently rub the skin off with a knife.

Add your honey to taste. If you're not sure, start with a little--you can always add more later. Another pro tip: raw unfiltered honey has a LOT of health benefits that the generic bears you buy at the supermarket do not. It also tastes way better.

Heat long enough for everything to melt and combine. No need to bring to a boil. Just get it hot.

Taste (carefully, don't burn your tongue) and adjust honey/lemon ratio as needed. It should be stronger than you actually want it at this point because this is going over ice which will water it down. Add more lemons if it's too sweet or too watery; add more honey if it's too tart.

Half-fill your pitcher with ice and pour your lemonade through a seive into your pitcher. Done!

BONUS BOOZE OPTION: If you mix 1 part pinot grigio and 1 part honey ginger lemonade you will have a bangin' beach drink.

Accidental Necco Wafer Iced Tea

So my sister works for a tea importer and as a consequence, I end up taking home delicious and extremely fancy teas every time I visit.  Not coincidentally, I have developed a tradition of making a new fancy iced tea blend every weekend.

Today I sipped my new iced tea for the first time and was surprised to learn I had created something that had a flavor/scent somewhere between that of a Necco Wafer, and that of a Choward's Violet mint.

I'm not sure how I feel about this... uncanny... development.  My taste buds are still getting over the bizarre circumstances but I seem to be enjoying it.

Ingredients

-A bunch of ice

-Hot water

-1 bag Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Spice tea

-1/2 tsp loose Moroccan Mint

-1 tsp loose Buccaneer tea from Serendipitea

-1 tsp loose darjeeling tea

-like 1/4 tsp of Dark ChocolateTea also from Serendipitea (I was finishing off a container)

Put a bunch of ice (I usually use 2 regular ice trays' worth) into a large pitcher.

Steep tea in 4 cups hot water. (I usually just throw it all in loose, and then pour through a strainer once steeped.) Don't steep longer than 5 minutes - that will make it more bitter, not more flavorful.

Pour hot tea into the pitcher with ice and stick immediately in your fridge. It's usually cold enough to drink within a few hours.

This is unsweetened and I don't find it to need sweetener. But if are a sweet tea fan, dissolve sugar in the hot tea (before you pour it over the ice), to your taste. I find that the result is a little better if I steep tea first, and then add sugar.