Thai Iced Tea

This is a cool, refreshing drink on a nice hot day :)

Serves 2

• 4 cups boiling water
• 4 tea bags (such as Assam, Orange Pekoe, Ceylon, etc...) OR 4 tsp. loose black tea (I used Ceylon Tea - pictured above)
• Juice of 1 fresh lime or lemon
• 1 inch piece galangal or ginger, grated
• 1/4-1/3 cup white sugar (taste for sweetness, adding more sugar as desired), or equivalent of syrup
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 drops of jasmine essence (optional)
• Ice cubes or crushed ice
• Garnish: slices of fresh lime or lemon and sprigs of fresh mint or basil

Boil the water and add to all the ingredients except Ice and Garnish and let seep for 5 minutes. Strain into a pitcher with ice and place in refrigerator until well chilled. Enjoy with garnish :)

I found this recipe at thaifood/about.com and enjoy it very much - and I'm not much of an iced tea drinker unless it's herbal. I haven't tried it with the jasmine essence yet (as I don't have any), but I will be on the look out for it the next time I go to my favorite indian market. That's also where I found the loose leaf Ceylon tea that I use.