Cold Brew Peach Iced Tea

Sweet and perfectly peachy, you’ll want to keep this refreshing cold-brewed peach iced tea stocked and steeped in your fridge all summer long!

Yield: 2 quarts (about 8 servings)

Prep Time: 10

Total Time: 12

▢ ½ cup / 100 g granulated sugar, I used organic unrefined cane sugar, raw or turbinado sugar would be great too!
▢ 1 large / 150 g ripe peach
▢ 8-10 bags black tea, more or less to taste
▢ 8 cups / 2 L filtered water

To make sugar syrup, combine sugar with ½ cup filtered water in a small saucepan. Cut peach in half, twisting to remove the pit. Coarsely chop. Place entire chopped peach, pit and all, into saucepan with sugar and water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Let simmer for 5 minutes, smashing the peaches a bit with the back of the spoon to extract more of the peach flavor. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for about 30 minutes (you can also chill the syrup with the peaches overnight for a stronger peach flavor). Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a glass jar or bottle, pressing out all the syrup from the remaining peach solids. You should have about 1 cup of syrup, which will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
For cold brew tea, fill a 2 quart (2 liter) glass pitcher or two 1-quart lidded glass bottles with filtered water. Submerge tea bags fully in pitcher. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours or overnight until desired flavor is achieved. If it will be refrigerated for longer than 12 hours, remove the tea bags after 12 hours or so to prevent the tea from getting bitter.
To serve, pour 1 cup (240mL) of cold brewed tea into an ice-filled glass. Stir in about 1 tablespoon of peach syrup (more or less to taste). You can also mix syrup into the full batch and serve it pre-sweetened if you prefer.