Sweet Tea with Mint

If you live in the south and you don’t initally love sweet tea, believe me you will learn to love it.  We’ve lived here 5 years now and I swear, just last week was the first time I experienced my husband purchasing it from the grocery store!  I’ve loved it from the beginning, but for him, apparently, it was an acquired taste.  Anyway, I make a pretty darn good sweet tea so I’m so excited to have it around a lot more (so I don’t drink it all myself!).  And with an abundance of herbs in our backyard, I couldn’t help but add fresh mint to this tea!  It’s so incredibly refreshing.   

Makes 2 Quarts

6 tea bags (or 3 family size)

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

2 cups water

1 cup sugar

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, tea bags and mint.  Bring to a boil, remove from heat and cover.  Let steep for about 15 minutes.  Remove tag bags and mint and pour warm tea into a 2 quart pitcher.  Add sugar and stir.  Fill the rest of the pitcher with cold water (or water and ice).