— Char Nolan

You know what, um, just, it's, I guess it's summer here in Madison now. We've been getting 80 degree, uh, temperatures and my girls lately have been loving mint tea. We grow mint in the garden in a pot because if I put it anywhere else, it'll just wreak havoc on the garden. But we have, um, a planter that has mint in it and they love to go out to pick leaves off of the plant and then we steep it in hot water. Um, and they will drink that tea as a tea party, which is wonderful. And we just drink it as is. We don't add anything else to it. You could add like a little bit of sugar if you wanted to. Um, in fact, my, uh, youngest daughter who's really into cooking now, it's four and a half. Um, just recently made a, a beverage using the mint leaves and watermelon and um, basically, you know, kind of mushed it all up into, uh, you know, a jar and then add a little bit of sugar to it. And she was making like a lemonade kind of mixture, but it was mint watermelon, just a hint of sugar and I think a little bit of lemon juice and then, um, pour it through a sieve to get rid of any of the seeds and stuff like that. Um, and that was a wonderful beverage. Put that over ice, it was great. Um, you know, any of those kinds of fruit concoctions, um, really big into it. I love having, uh, the kids, uh, participate in that as well too. So if you're looking for, uh, alcohol-free summertime beverage, look towards fruit to be able to really, uh, refresh you and get some of those nutrients out of it as well too.