Chef and tea book author Robert Wemischner has created many wonderful tea recipes. Amongst them is this summery iced tea recipe, which combines fresh cantaloupe with Keemun black tea. He calls it a "Keemun-Kantaloupe Kooler."
Prep Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 peeled and seeded, large, ripe cantaloupe (about 2 lbs)
- Superfine sugar for coating the rims of glasses and to taste
- 2 tbsp Keemun black tealeaves or similar black tea
- 2 cups water
- Juice of 2 limes
- 12 ice cubes
- Garnishes: Wedges of cantaloupe, wedges of lime, sprigs of mint with stems intact
Preparation:
- Cut 4 crescent wedges of cantaloupe as garnish and reserve in the freezer.
- Dip 4 tall glasses in water, then dip rims in sugar to coat. Freeze glasses.
- Cut the remaining melon into 1-inch chunks.
- Brew the black tea in the water at 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees Celsius) for 3 minutes. After brewing, remove the leaves (with a sieve or an infuser basket) and reserve the liquid.
- Chill the tea until cold.
- Just before serving, place the melon, chilled tea and lime juice into a blender. Blend, adding ice cubes gradually and pureeing the mixture until smooth and frothy. Taste and add sugar as desired. Puree again.
- Remove the glasses from the freezer.
- Pour the "Keemun-Kantaloupe Kooler" into the frozen glasses and top each with a melon crescent, a wedge of lime and a sprig of mint.
- Serve immediately.
