Echinacea Cranberry Iced Tea

Immune Boosting & Healing

My first summer home from college, I came back about 20 pounds overweight. Earlier that year, I had gotten very sick, which made sense because I was living in a tiny dorm, lacking sleep, eating like crap, and surrounded by people at all hours of the day. Besides treating my body like garbage and forgetting to exercise, I came down with mono and a few yeast infections.

After feeling so ill, sluggish, and overweight, my dad wanted to help flush out the toxins in my body, so he created this healing and immune boosting iced tea, which I spent drinking all summer long. He created this wonderful, crisp and tangy combination by combining echinacea, peppermint, and cranberry.

Echinacea is one of my favorite natural immune boosters. It works almost instantly. I like to drink it when I’m feeling sluggish or if I feel an itch in the back of my throat coming along. No Nyquil or Vitamin C works like Echinacea, if you ask me.

The peppermint plays a beautiful part in calming and soothing the system, while helping heal the lining of the gut. And the cranberry, well it has more healing properties than most people would think! Cranberry is notorious for treating and healing urinary tract infections, but it also supports digestive health, and aids in preventing infections. That is, if you’re drinking the real thing of course. You’ll know your cranberry juice is the real deal if it has a thick sediment sitting at the bottom of it, about 3/4 of an inch high, and if the ingredients listed are water and cranberry concentrate. The fake stuff is pure corn syrup, flavoring, and food coloring, so stay away from that.

Recipe

Serves 2-4 people - Makes about 4 & 1/2 cups

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes

What you’ll need:

- one bag of Traditional Medicinals Organic Echinacea Tea (you can use their line of echinacea tea, or their echinacea plus line)

- one bag of Traditional Medicinals Organic Peppermint Tea

- 1/2c Lakewood Pure Organic Cranberry Juice

- filtered water

- organic stevia

- fresh mint

Bring four cups of filtered water to a boil. You can do this in a pot on the stove, or through an electric water boiler. After bringing the water to a boil, grab a bag of organic echinacea tea and organic peppermint tea, and place the bags in the boiled water. Allow the tea to steep for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how flavorful you prefer your tea. After you’ve steeped the tea, pour it into a large bowl that will fit in your refrigerator. Pour half a cup of organic pure cranberry juice into the tea, along with two - three drops of stevia or a sweetener of your choice. If you prefer your tea a little sweeter, feel free to play with how much sweetener you use. Cranberry is a tart, acidic fruit, so you may need more sweetener to cut the acidity. But, if you prefer a more natural flavor, with that fruity tartness, go slow with the sweetener, and taste as you go, until you get the tea to your liking!

Put the bowl of the combined teas and juice in the fridge, and let it sit for about 2 hours. Once the tea is chilled, serve over ice! Enjoy outside with friends, in the summer sun.