Orange & Honey Spiced Iced Tea

I know, I know, orange and spice. It’s like I’m daring Fall to come early. I swear, I’m not.

While I do love Fall- all the scarves and warm drinks and colourful leaves- I’m not keen to race out of summertime just yet. I assure you, this drink is all SUMMER. Actually, it’s a perfect transition drink, for this late summer month. It would even be a perfect Indian Summer drink (is that still an idiom? I feel like maybe it toes the line of modern day acceptability), one to help ease yourself into the ubiquitous ‘pumpkin spice’ season.

This recipe is essentially a highly concentrated homemade chai, steeped overnight. The resulting brew is poured over a glass heaped with ice and then kissed with fresh orange.

The juiciness of the fresh orange and an underlying hum of ginger make this combination deeply and- perhaps surprisingly- refreshing. The dewdrops of condensation careening down your glass are no lie, this is a cooling, sunny day sipper through and through.

So, if you’re not quite ready to start ordering to hot drinks again- and I know I’m not- this is a good way to ease yourself into Fall mode… without having to change out of shorts.

It’s the Back to School shopping of drinks. We’re acknowledging the impending change of season, but we’re not there yet. We’ve bought our pencil case, but we’re still running through sprinklers.

(Do kids still run through sprinkers these days? Would anyone judge me if I ran through a sprinkler? Because that sounds awesome.)

I love the unique taste of honey in this recipe, since it pairs so well with cinnamon, ginger and orange, but if you want to make this vegan, simply substitute the honey with the same amount of simple syrup.