I’ve started making sun tea each day so that we can have ice tea on these warm, summer evenings. But I end up making two separate batches because I only drink sweet tea, and Bernie only drinks unsweetened tea. As you know, cold tea does not melt sugar very well, so I sweeten the entire batch while it’s still warm. And this results in two containers of tea in the refrigerator – one with sugar, and one without.
To avoid this, I made some simple syrup that I can stir into warm or cold tea to sweeten it. This batch is Lemon Basil Simple Syrup, and it’s quite simple to make.
Lemon Basil Simple Syrup
1/2 cup loosely packed Lemon Basil leaves (washed)
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Water
1 Lemon
In a medium sized pot, mix together the sugar and water. Cut the lemon in half, and squeeze the juice of each into the sugar and water mixture. Add the two lemon halves and the lemon basil to the pot of sugar and water. Put the pot on the stove over medium heat and stir constantly as the sugar melts.
Bring the mixture to a full boil and then cut off the heat and leave it on the burner.
When it has completely cooled, squeeze both the juice of the lemon halves back into the pot, and discard the lemon halves. I use a slotted spoon to remove and discard the basil leaves, and then pour the simple syrup through a wire strainer into a pint mason jar.
Store in the refrigerator. This is a wonderful sweetener for ice tea, or even freshly squeezed lemonade. You can even use it to make cocktails. You can make plain simple syrup by leaving out the lemon and lemon basil, or make mint flavored simple syrup by using mint leaves. You are only limited by your personal tastes and imagination!
Simple, tasty, and very nice to have on hand.
