by Andrea Afra

Ask any Texan and they will declare that there is nothing like big cold glass of sweet tea in the midst of our summers. I am in agreement as long as there is lime. What is the deal with restaurants serving lemon with their iced tea? Not only is it unsouthernly, but limes are 3x cheaper. I have always specified iced tea with lime, but 80% of the time, I am given a lemon. Note to servers: When a customer asks for lime, they don’t mean ‘lemon or lime, or your default citrus accoutrement’…it means the green one. Give me lime or give me lemonade!

On to the topic at hand, I mixed up these cocktails for a little backyard hang time with my friend Maria. They were really tasty and deceptively light. I had heard that you should mix the vodka with water or a mixer, but that sounded ridiculous to me. I used Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka, which is made in Austin and sweetened only with sugar and honey. The bottle of dark brew did seem like it could handle the addition of a bit of water so I kept that in mind.

I happen to be able to grow mint quite well (actually, it does all the work, I just stuck some in the ground) and it was growing like crazy and begging to be used. I grabbed two handfuls of leaves and washed them, before tearing them up a bit to release the oils. I took two big juicy limes and squeezed them into a shaker (actually, an old rice container that worked well until I melted it in the dishwasher) and added the mint and a handful of crushed ice. Sealing the top, I shook the hell out of it, then poured the contents into two frosty beer mugs. We would be sitting outside so we needed all the extra cool we could get. I filled the mugs with ice to the top and then added the vodka until just over halfway and tasted it. Unless we were planning on getting really sloshed, really fast, really early in the day…I added water to the top. Mix, garnish with a bit of mint and sip away like two Southern Belles without  a care in the world. Except for getting lime when you want lime!