Sparkling Iced Tea Basil Limeade

The world drinks tea hot or at least I thought until I came to the United States. Hot tea was a mystery here up until a couple of years ago when Starbucks introduced the chai latte, which by-the-way is no where close to the hot steaming 'elaichi-adrak' desi chai that I knew growing up. I will be honest here, I have tried the iced tea several times, tried hard to build a liking for it, even tried to convince myself that it might be an acquired taste - did not work (hubs is sitting here nodding his head, he didn't care for it much either). Alright, so much about what I do not like. I sat back and in my head tried to extract the good from the iced tea and compensate for the part that was not so much. My conclusion was that iced tea needed some citrus and some fizz. So that is exactly what I did - some lime and sparkling water and voila it worked great - both as a refreshing crisp citrusy drink made exotic with the goodness of leaf tea and also to revive a tired hubs just back from work - an awake hubs is much more useful than a tired sleepy one *wink*.

Ingredients: Serves 4-6

Water		2 cups
Black tea bags		3 (English breakfast tea)
Lime juice		1/2 cup
Sparkling water		1-2 cups or as needed chilled
Ice		as needed
For the Syrup:
Splenda		17 - 20 pouches or 3/4-1 cup sugar
Basil leaves		1 cup
Water		1 cup

Method:
1. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add the tea bags. Stir and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
2. Remove the tea bags and discard. Add the  syrup, lime juice, and sparkling water. 

3. Put the ice in a large pitcher. Pour the iced tea mixture over the ice. Garnish with lemon slices and serve. ENJOY!

For syrup -

1. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine the sugar, water and basil. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool, about 20 minutes. Strain before using.

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