By Lana Christian

Long before Ruth Bigelow added orange peel and spices to tea bags, our great-grandparents made sunny sippers with tea as their base. Our great-grandparents called it tea punch. Whether it’s tea or punch depends on your frame of mind—and what you pour it into. It’s absolutely refreshing on hot summer days. Even your kids will like it.

The recipe our family uses has been handed down for more than 80 years. My mother served this at my high school graduation party. A few variations of it exist on recipe web sites, but I’ve never found one exactly like ours. I’ll share it with you in a moment.

But here’s the general idea. Start with some fairly strong brewed tea. Pour it over sugar; then add cold water, at least two fruit juices, and some fruit slices. Some recipes also call for ginger ale; others don’t. Maybe the fizz distinguishes the drink as "punch" instead of "tea." Either way, it’s a treat for the taste buds.

A quick aside … Today’s teas give you many choices for your "base." What type of tea you choose is up to you. But know that different teas require different brewing times and temperatures. White tea and green teas should be steeped in 160oF to 180oF water for only a few minutes. (Don’t worry about exact temperature. The key is not to boil these teas. Boiling "burns" the tea and creates a bitter taste.) Oolong tea can be brewed up to eight minutes at a temperature just under boiling. Black tea should be brewed five minutes in water that’s just been brought to a rolling boil.

This recipe uses black tea. But feel free to experiment.

Graduation Tea Punch
3 cups boiling water
4 T. tea leaves (or equivalent amount of tea bags)
3 cups sugar
1½ quarts cold water (6 cups)
3 cups orange juice
1½ cups lemon juice
3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1½ quarts ginger ale (48 oz.)

Pour boiling water over tea leaves. Steep for 5 minutes. Strain and cool.
Pour hot tea over sugar. Stir until dissolved.
Add cold water.
Add orange and lemon juices, half of the strawberries, and the ginger ale. Chill.
Garnish with thin slices of fresh strawberries and oranges.
Makes 39 cups.

The end result will look like tea in color, but it won’t taste like tea. One recipe I saw called for cranberry juice, which would give this tea punch a nice color. You can substitute or adjust at will.

A cold-weather friend to this recipe is a hot spiced tea made with honey instead of sugar, apple juice instead of orange juice, and spices added. You can keep that heated in a crock pot just like you would mulled cider. (Note: A general rule for honey versus sugar is to use half as much honey as you would sugar.)

Now, you could pay designer prices to enjoy a small bottle of flavored tea. Instead, make it yourself for pennies to the cup. Tea punch. Cheers!