When Life Hands You Lemons and Tea Leaves

I love coffee.
Having said that, I'll also tell you that coffee does bad things to your skin and teeth.

A much healthier option is tea, preferably without milk.
I can almost hear y'all say YUCK! but hear me out.
There is this thing you can do with tea which makes it amazingly delicious and healthy. So much so that it *helps* you with weight loss (anti-oxidants).


Without any further ado, I present to you,
LEMON TEA!!

You say "Bleh, what's new, we drink it all the time at CCD and Barista and wherever not"?
I say, you can make the best ever lemon tea at home WITHOUT using those Lipton readymade bags.

How?
That's what I'm here to tell you.
Pretty simple actually.

To make two cups:

1) Boil 2 cups of water. Do NOT put your finger in to test of the water's hot enough.
2) Add 1 and 1/2 level spoons of those tea leaves sitting on Mom's kitchen shelf.
3) Simmer for a few minutes. Just enough for the color to set it (when I say few, I mean few and not go-sit-in-front-of-the-tv-until-BigBoss-is-over few)
Note: If you're a regular tea-maker, then please note that the color should be lighter than it should be for normal tea.
4) Strain it into a glass/cup/mug.
5) Find a lemon, preferably the yellowest, most sexy looking lemon in the fridge and roll it around between you palms (with slight pressure). This helps loosen up the juice.
6) Cut it in half and keep one back in the fridge for later use. And to save it's pretty self from you.
7) Squeeze the half into your glass/cup/mug. A few drops should do. This is the tricky part for you'll have to add the exact amount of juice into your tea or it'll be either too bitter or too bland depending on what stunt you pull off.
8) Add honey or sugar to taste. Honey, if you're going the healthy road. Sugar, if you're an incorrigible ass like me.
9) Stir. (DUH!)
10) Now put it back on the stove and reheat it for it went cold while you were busy pottering around.

Sip away while you read that book/clean/chop/chat/shake that thing/whatever!

Now, there are a couple of options I will tell you of.

If you're as particular as me about food looking good, you might want to cut a sliver of the lemon and let it float in the tea. It'll add flavor as you drink (as long as it's a sliver and not a great, fat chunk that you cut out)
And maybe a sprig of mint as well, it won't bite.

Also, you can make a whole jar and put it in the fridge for when you come back exhausted in the evening. Iced lemon tea and you did not just pay 99 only for it.

Have fun making it, Darlings. And tell me how it was.

And watch The Whistleblower. It'll depress the shit out of you but it'll make you stronger for life.