Strawberry Rhubarb Summer Sun-Tea

Summer time is the only times of year you get complete and total access to the sun. Especially if you live in places that have all four seasons throughout the year. Here in Utah the only way for us to beat the heat sometimes is to enjoy a cold and refreshing beverage. What better way to combine both sunshine and beverages, than to make sun tea? With the classic combination of strawberry and rhubarb along-side the earthy flavors of rose, rosemary, and freshly juiced lemon. Our Strawberry Rhubarb Summer Sun-Tea is sure to help keep you hydrated throughout these hot summer months. 

If you’ve never heard of sun tea, it’s a specific method of brewing tea that not only is derived from sunlight but also enriches the flavor of your tea. It’s quite the process, so if you’re not a very patient person, this may not be the recipe for you. However, if you want to spend the time this Strawberry Rhubarb Summer Sun-Tea is well worth the wait!  

The overall process if very simple. Ultimately, it’s just placing your choice of tea (we chose rose) and steeping device into water for about six to eight hours in the sunlight. Then waiting for the flavors of your tea to extract into the water. Basically, just a big waiting game.

Unless you’re like us and feel the need to create extra but just as leisurely steps like a strawberry rhubarb flavored honey syrup. Although it is much simpler to toss sugar or honey into your tea after steeping, we thought that creating something with additional flavor and no additional preservatives would be a great accompaniment to this recipe. Plus, it gives you something to do while you’re waiting. 

If you enjoy your tea unsweetened, feel free to skip over this part of the process. If not let us give you a little insight on how to create a simple and sweet honey strawberry rhubarb syrup. 

You’ll Need:

• Honey (preferably wildflower or clove, as well as local!)
• Strawberries
• Rhubarb
• Water
• Pure Cane Sugar

First things first, add all off your ingredients besides the strawberries into a medium sized pot and bring it to a boil. Then reduce to medium – low heat for about 20 minutes. Once the rhubarb has started to become somewhat translucent, remove from heat and let rest for about 10 minutes.

While your mixture rests, slice your strawberries into thin slices and using a mortar and pestle (or any kind of mashing device) lightly smash your strawberries. No need to completely obliterate, unless you prefer a less chunky jam. (yes, we said jam! just keep reading.) After the ten minutes have passed, stir the mashed strawberries into your syrup mixture and let rest until completely cooled.  

Once cooled, strain your mixture to separate the chunks from the liquid and place your syrup into its desired container for storage. Keep this syrup refrigerated until ready for use. Now we’ll move on to what we think is the most exciting part, which is where you use those discards to create a jam!

Jam Making + Important message:

This may not be as exciting for some people as it is for us but being able to create something from potential waste is something we always aim to do! Being as sustainable as you can be in this day and age is the only way for us to move forward on this beautiful planet. Using reusable and refurbished items is a ginormous step towards creating a better future. So, creating jam from syrup and storing them in thrift-ed glass containers is a step in the right direction in our books. Saying this, is by no means to offend, we just feel the need to speak on the matter to create awareness. Thank you for reading. <3  

Anyway, back to the fun, not so serious, stuff! Once you’re strained and stored your syrup using the discarded strawberries and rhubarb, you’ll start the process of mashing. Much like before feel free to use whatever mashing device you prefer (we used a metal spoon) and mash until your desired texture. 

If you prefer your jam to be much sweeter, adding either honey or pure cane sugar would suffice. However, in our case we didn’t think it needed any additional sweetness. Now place that mash into a storage jar or container and you’ve got yourself some homemade strawberry rhubarb flavored jam! This pairs easily with any tea time pastry. Giving you something to munch on while you sip your sun tea!

Now that you’ve waited long enough it’s time to enjoy what you’ve been patiently waiting for! Time for tea!

The Assembly:

Now that everything is ready, let’s make something delicious! Although this sun tea is perfect all on its own, to make it a bit more hydrating, we decided to steep the tea with half the amount of water and replace it with equal parts coconut water. Not only does this give the tea natural additional sweetness but it also gives you the added electrolytes and antioxidants that come with coconut water. 

If you feel like making it pretty as well as enhancing a few flavors you can add the following:

• Freshly sliced Strawberries
• Rhubarb
• Fresh Rosemary (muddled)
• Fresh sliced lemons/ lemon juice

Then most importantly, the honey strawberry rhubarb syrup!

We think that the most important part of making something that takes time is when you take that additional time and spend it doing sometime meaningful. Whether that’s reading a book, walking your dog, painting, taking a bubble bath, spending some quality time with the people you love, or even writing a blog. Slow down and enjoy the little things that life has to offer and remind yourself to take those things with you wherever you go. We hope you enjoy this Strawberry Rhubarb Summer Sun-Tea as much as we do! Peace and love to you all. <3