Mint Iced Tea

Author Notes

Over the Fourth of July weekend, my husband and I ventured to Los Angeles to visit family and friends. We arrived at my cousin Dan and his wife Monica's house one afternoon, and Dan excitedly offered us each a glass of what turned out to be his rendition of our grandmother's "famous" mint iced tea. We gleefully gulped the cool, sweet, aromatic tea, which I hadn't had in years. It's a taste memory that will always bring me back to sitting in my grandparents' large kitchen or under the umbrella by their pool on a summer day, sipping iced tea out of a tall, colored glass. My grandmother used Lipton iced tea mix, but she lifted it above the ordinary by infusing her tea with a generous amount of mint water, which she made by pouring boiling water over a huge handful of fresh mint that she'd just picked from the garden. Inspired by Dan's brilliant -- and timely -- recreation of my grandmother's tea, I decided to make some myself at home last week using tea bags instead of mix (you can use either -- I won't judge!). —Merrill Stubbs