A family recipe that teaches you how to create the best honey lemon tea. By marinating lemons in honey, it creates a drink that has a much richer and smoother body. It’s soothing, healing, and so comforting! There are many honey lemon tea recipes on the internet, but my family uses a very different approach. Instead of squeezing a few drops of lemon juice and adding honey to a glass of water, this recipe marinates lemon slices for a week. It yields a concentrated lemonade that is smooth and rich and has a great flavor. It seems like a lot of trouble to take such a detour, just to create a glass of lemonade. But if you try this recipe once, you’ll find it creates a far superior flavor. The marinating process will eliminate the bitterness and astringent mouthfeel of the lemon. The honey will cause the lemon to dehydrate, along with the rind. After a week, the honey in the jar will turn to a sweet, rich, and tangy liquid. You can use this liquid along with the lemon slices to create any drink you like.
There are a few ways to serve the lemon tea. To make a cold drink, you can blend the honey lemon liquid with cold water or soda. You can also blend the lemon and liquid with a small amount of hot water first, to let the lemon release more flavor, then add ice water later to make it a cold drink. I recommend the latter way if you have more time. My mom always makes hot tea with this recipe. Simply add a few spoons of the liquid and a couple lemon slices to a big cup, pour in some hot water and throw in a black tea bag. You will have a very rich lemon black tea in 3 minutes. After the move to Austin, I knew it would take me some time to overcome the jet lag, so I made a big jar of this soon after arrival. It’s such a soothing and healing drink and it makes me feel at home immediately, even with my luggage yet to be unpacked. 🙂
