V's Refreshing Sweet Orange Peach Tea

Recipe Submitted by V

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbsp of loose leaf black tea, or 4-5 tea bags ("Blood Orange, There Will Be" is my go-to, but any black tea will be delicious.)
• 8 cups water 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 ripe peaches
• 1 ripe orange

Directions

1. Slice the peaches into thin slices and place into a bowl. Slice the orange into wedges and remove the edible fruit segments. You'll be left with slices of fragrant peel. Chop these into small pieces. No need to remove the pith.
2. Cover the peach slices and orange peel with sugar and mix well. Cover this with an airtight lid and let rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
3. Brew your tea and let cool. 
4. Mix the peaches and sugar once more. Then rest 1 more hour or so. This may vary based on how warm your house is. The goal is for the sugar to completely dissolve and for the fragrant fresh peach and orange flavors to be drawn out into the syrup. No cooking required!
5. Strain the syrup. This will keep covered in the fridge for 1 week and is also wonderful on top of vanilla ice cream.
6. Mix the sweet orange peach syrup into the cooled tea and serve over ice with a few sweet peach slices in each glass.