Clean Iced Tea

Nothing says summer like a tall, cool glass of sweet iced tea! Iced tea is my favourite (non-alcoholic) beverage. Unfortunately, most commercially produced iced tea brands contain MORE sugar per serving than a can of pop! I don't know about you, but I could do without all that added sugar... and water (even with a wedge of lemon or lime) just isn't quite refreshing enough on a hot summer day. Instead, I brew my own iced tea and sweeten it with natural, low GI agave syrup. I can adjust the sweetness and use different tea flavours to suit my tastes.

4 Individual Bags of your favourite Tea (I used plain old Lipton black tea today)
1 lemon, sliced thin
3 tbsp agave syrup
5 cups boiling water

1. Place tea bags and half the lemon slices in a large pitcher. If your tea bags have paper label tabs, remove them prior to adding the bags to the pitcher.

2. Add water to pitcher and stir. Measure in agave syrup and stir again. Steep tea for 10 minutes or longer if you like it strong.

3. Remove tea bags from pitcher and place pitcher in refrigerator to cool. Once cooled, add more agave if desired.

4. Serve over ice with a slice of lemon.

Variations: Experiment with different flavours of tea. Also try making tea blends, using a few bags of flavoured tea and a few bags of regular black tea. My favourite is using 3 bags of green tea with 1 bag of black tea. For added flavour, add a teaspoon or two of honey - just be sure to reduce the amount of agave!