2024-08-24

Iced sumac tea

Tiny Life Journal - Treating myself to a cup of iced sumac tea! Though, really, it's very tart and tastes far closer to lemonade than tea.

Several bunches of tiny red berries drooping down from a branch with pointed green leaves

A fairly common small tree around rural Missouri and much of eastern North America, sumac produces large bunches of seedy red berries that hang from the branches by mid to late August. This particular species is Rhus copallinum commonly called winged sumac, shining sumac, dwarf sumac or flameleaf sumac.

A bright pink drink with ice in a mason jar

To make into tea just soak the berries in water overnight in a fridge. It's better and more flavorful to mush the berries a bit or run the mix of berries and water through a blender for a couple seconds to release the juices. Use a filter of some sort to separate out the berry bits which will contain seeds that can be planted if one is so inclined. I've also read that the berries can be dried for use in winter though I've not yet tried that. I added 4 teaspoons of sugar to that portion.