sun tea
- noun
- /sʌn ti/
- US
- On a hot summer day, I left a jar of sun tea in the sun for a few hours to brew.
- make sun tea
Examples
-
Most of them would probably drink it whether it was freshly ground and brewed or composted by worms and then put into a great big glass jar to steep in the style of sun tea.
Blog text (10) -
Ric handed out glasses of iced sun tea and took the seat opposite mine.
Blog text (12) -
- Do you want some sun tea?
-
"We have some sun tea, some Coke, some water?"
Fiction book (1991) -
I made some sun tea and set the jar out in the backyard.
Fiction book (1992) -
He's making sun tea.
-
My jar of sun tea was on its side, and all the water had spilled out of the screw top and was evaporating in the sun.
Fiction book (1992) -
If you've got a porch, a window, a roof, a fire escape, a driveway, or anywhere that gets any amount of sun, it's time to revisit your Nana's tradition and drag out the sun tea pitcher.
Blog text (19) -
We enjoyed refreshing sun tea with ice as we relaxed on the porch.
-
After steeping the tea bags in the sun, the sun tea was ready to serve cold.
Synonyms
A hot or cold drink made by putting dried leaves in water
A cold drink of tea served with ice and sometimes sugar or lemon
A cold drink of tea poured over ice, often with lemon or sugar
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is compositionally built from 'sun' + 'tea' and directly signals tea prepared using sunlight (i.e., steeped/left in sun-heated water). This straightforward noun–noun compounding pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Sun tea comes from the simple idea of making tea by leaving a jar of water and tea leaves in the sun. The sun slowly warms the water and 'steeps' the tea, giving a mild, cold drink, so the name means 'tea brewed in sunlight'.