Passionate tea drinkers drink tea or infusions year-round, not only during the winter and colder months, but also in the summer. There's another important reason to enjoy a good cup of tea even when the temperatures are high: fruit teas . These teas, with their refreshing fruit flavor, are deliciously good in the summer and can also be drunk cold as iced tea . Learn how to make a fresh fruit infusion.

A wide variety of fruit infusions is available in supermarkets or specialty tea shops. They often offer common varieties like apple and berries , or they also offer more exotic teas with mango, passion fruit, or even chocolate and raspberry, or blueberry and vanilla flavors .

Homemade fruit infusions are a creative product that can be easily made and mixed at home, to your liking, combining your favorite fruits and knowing what you're consuming.

The following fruit infusion recipe serves as a small suggestion, so the ingredients can, of course, be modified according to individual taste.

Ingredients for Homemade Tétique Fruit Infusion

• 2 cups fresh strawberries
• 6 pears
• 6 peaches
• 6 apples
• 12 oranges
• 12 lemons
• 3 stalks of lemongrass
• a little cinnamon or vanilla

Preparation of fruit infusion

First, peel the citrus fruits, as we only need the rind, which can be removed with a sharp knife. The citrus peel gives the recipe a refreshing note to quench your thirst, and then the peeled citrus flesh makes perfect orange and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Apples, pears, strawberries, and peaches are quartered, cored, and pitted, then sliced thinly. This is important because they must be heat-treated evenly during the drying process.

Drying the fruit for infusions

The cut fruit and the peel of the oranges and lemons are spread out on baking paper over a radiator to dry evenly. In summer, it's also possible to dry the ingredients in direct sunlight. However, the drying process takes a relatively long time. The drying process is faster if you use the oven, and for this purpose, the ingredients are placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and slowly dried in the oven at about 70 degrees.

If you choose to oven-dry them, be careful and leave the oven door slightly open to allow moisture to escape. Those who don't want to wait weeks or use the oven and are willing to invest a little money can purchase a dehydrator that dries the fruit in six to ten hours for between €50 and €70.

Once the fruits, oranges, and lemons, are completely dry, they should be cut into uniform pieces using commercial scissors. The pieces should not be too large, so that the tea can be mixed better. Dried lemongrass is also cut into small pieces, and the ingredients are mixed thoroughly and stored in a dry, dark place in an airtight container.

Spices like cinnamon or vanilla can be added to taste for a special touch. And if you want an exotic touch to your tea, peaches or pears can be substituted with pineapple and mango.

How to prepare a fruit infusion

Preparation is easy: take about 1.5 grams of tea mix per cup, pour the fruit over with nearly boiling water, and let it steep for about ten minutes. You can choose whether to use a tea filter or not.

Generally, when it comes to fruit infusions, we at Tétique recommend that you also eat any leftover dried fruit (all of our fruit infusions are organic).

Steeping time depends on the strength of the infusion, so for a stronger flavor, steep it longer, and for a lighter flavor, steep it less. An advantage is that fruit infusions don't run the risk of becoming bitter like green or black tea, or bland like linden or bamboo tea.