Orange Peel Tea

I had a crazy idea yesterday. I was standing on the front porch eating an orange I had sliced up. I was about to go throw away the leftover peels when I glanced at our spice shelf and saw our box of mandarin orange tea. I thought, "what the heck, I got five minutes. Might as well try to make my own."

I put some water on to boil, threw in the orange peels, three hibiscus flowers (you can buy bags of them at hispanic markets--they're cheap), a clove, and some cinnamon. I let it boil for a minute and turned the heat off, letting it steep for about an hour. I strained out the orange peel and other stuff, and sweetened the tea with honey. It had a rich red color from the hibiscus and was much more flavorful than the store-bought tea I was used to drinking.

Alisha and I sat on the porch, watching the rain, drinking homemade orange tea sweetened with honey. It was a very nice moment.