The Iced Tea Everyone Asked About at Our Heat Wave Barbecue

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It's October in the Bay Area and somehow it's been barbecue weather all week. We had family over this weekend, and the drink everyone kept refilling was a big jug of blueberry lemon iced tea sweetened with our own raw honey.

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What you'll need

• 8 cups water
• 6–8 tea bags of The Republic of Tea Blueberry Lavender Beauty (my pick), or any blueberry tea
• Juice of 4 lemons (about ½ cup)
• ⅓ to ½ cup raw honey, to taste (we use our Beeholden Farms raw honey)
• Ice, lemon slices, and fresh blueberries to serve

How to make it

1. Pour 4 cups of boiling water over the tea bags and steep 5–7 minutes.
2. Remove the bags and let the tea cool a few minutes.
3. Stir in the honey while it's still warm, because honey won't dissolve in cold tea. (Making it ahead? A jar of honey simple syrup stirs right into cold drinks.)
4. Add 4 cups of cold water and the lemon juice, then chill. A handheld citrus squeezer makes quick work of four lemons.
5. Serve over ice with lemon slices and blueberries floating on top.

Party tips

• Make it the night before so it's fully chilled when guests arrive.
• Serve it in a glass drink dispenser so guests can help themselves.
• Set out a bottle of sparkling water so people can make it fizzy.
• Taste before adding all the honey. Ours changes with the seasons, so some batches are sweeter than others.

This tea is only as good as the honey in it. Grab a jar of our small-batch raw honey →