How to Make a Decaf Tea Fruit Punch Cooler

One of the things I love the most about summer is making Sun Tea. A fruity decaffeinated tea with slices of fresh fruit makes a naturally sweet and refreshing drink for anytime of the day or night. The fruit adds enough sweetness that no sugar is needed for this punch at all. This Decaf Tea Fruit Punch Cooler takes only a few minutes to prepare and is tons of fun to drink and to eat! This is perfect for children and adults of all ages.

You Will Need:

8 Fruity Decaf Tea Bags
Assorted Fruit
1 Apple
A few handfuls of Blueberries
A few handfuls of Grapes
1 Orange
Several Strawberries
A few handfuls of Raspberries, or
Black Berries, or
Black Raspberries, or
Any other fruit you like
Water
A Glass Gallon Jug
A Sunny Day
Ice

I like to mix two different types of decaffeinated tea. The mix that I used today is Wildberry Zinger and Country Peach. I use 4 tea bags of each flavor. I like to pick one tea that is more tart, like the Zinger or Lemon teas and one that is more sweet, like Peach, Blueberry or Strawberry.

The best time to make Sun Tea is first thing in the morning. This will give Tea plenty of time to steep, as well as cool down a bit before the day gets too hot.

Fill the Glass Gallon Jug 3/4 full with hot water and add your tea bags. You will be leaving about 1/4 of the jug empty to add the fruit later.

Set the gallon jug with water and the tea bags out in a nice sunny spot. It will need 2-3 hours to steep to get good flavor. If you want stronger tea, feel free to leave it out longer.

While the tea is steeping in the sun, you can prepare you fruit. I like to toss everything in a bowl to chill in the fridge while the tea is steeping. Fruit like Blueberries and Raspberries can be tossed into the fruit punch whole. Everything else that you add needs to be cut into bite sized pieces. Cut the Grapes in half. Slice the Oranges into round circles and then quarter them. I like to slice the apples into about 20 wedges and then cut them in half. I slice the strawberries lengthwise. These are just some examples of the way I slice everything up, feel free to slice it anyway you wish. These are also the fruits that I happened to get for this punch. We actually picked the Black Raspberries from our garden!

You could also add Lemons, Kiwi, Mango or any other fruit you have in your garden or choose to add.

When your tea is done steeping, bring it in the house to add the fruit chunks. Before adding your fruit, you will need remove all of the tea bags. Let them drip for a bit into the jug, but don't squeeze the tea bags as you may pop them open & drop loose tea into your gallon jug.

Add all the fruit to the gallon jug and chill in the fridge for several hours or over night. I like to let it sit in the fridge overnight to get the strongest fruit flavor, but 2-3 hours in the fridge will also give it a great fruit punch flavor.

Serve the Decaf Tea Fruit Punch Cooler over ice. With a slotted spoon, you can pull out some of the fruit and eat plain, with whipped cream, or over ice cream. Leave the rest of the fruit in the gallon jug and it will keep adding flavor to the punch.

Enjoy and have fun!