What you need:
2 Clementine Tangerines (or a medium orange)
1 Lime
microplaner for zesting
Loose tea for making iced tea
teaball
water
strainer
Boil about 1/2 gallon of water. Here's a tip/trick: Using filtered or bottled water for the brewing portion will yield much clearer tea. You tend to get cloudier tea if you use high mineral content tap water.
While the water is coming to a boil, fill the tea ball with your loose leaf tea. While you CAN use tea in bags, you will taste the paper and the tea loses flavor sitting in packages for months.
Zest the mandarins and the lime completely and put the zest in the bottom of a heat-safe bowl.
Pour boiling water into bowl and put teaball with tea into water.
Let the tea steep for at least 5 minutes (or per directions on tea).
Strain tea and chill. Serve over ice.
For a little fun, peel the tangerines and lime and freeze them solid, then cut them into wedges and serve them as ice cubes in the tea.
This turned out so well, I had to make another pitcher the same day.
