My mom drinks lots of unsweetened iced tea in the summer, and there was always a jug of it in the refrigerator as I was growing up. But as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, it took a piping-hot month in Morocco for me to discover that hot tea could be as refreshing.

A blend of green tea leaves and mint creates this effect. An amino acid in green tea and the menthol in mint cause relaxing, cooling sensations, regardless of the brew’s temperature. Morocco’s indigenous mint is a spearmint variety known as nana, but the tea plant doesn’t grow in its arid climate. So it’s less of a stretch than you might think to prepare Moroccan-Inspired Mint Tea from fresh Montana-grown mint leaves on a hot summer day.

Learn more about making tea with homegrown herbs and get the complete recipe for Moroccan-Inspired Mint Tea in my column.

Make it, share it.
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Twice as Tasty

In Morocco, serving and sipping this tea has cultural importance as a symbol of hospitality and friendship, as I learned by drinking glass after glass in shops and homes. The host usually prepares the tea, or at least pours it, in front of guests, so I scaled my recipe accordingly. I did cut back on the sugar, though. This makes the tea a little less foamy but doesn’t feel like it’s coating my teeth as heavily when I finish a glass or two.

Even though I learned to appreciate hot mint and green tea regardless of weather, I typically lean toward chilled summer beverages. I share my homemade favorites with the same sense of friendship, if a little less ceremony, than I received in Morocco. Here are just a few of my favorite summer beverage recipes on the blog. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub
• Watermelon–Basil Shrub
• Switchel
• Cocktails and mocktails made with Rhubarb–Vanilla Syrup
• Mega-Mint Mojito
• Grilled Tomato Bloody Mary Mix

You can also learn to make tepache, a lightly fermented pineapple beverage, in my pickling cookbook. Read more about some of my other encounters with tea on my travels, and learn more about brewing and using tea leaves, in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.