Sumac Tea Wild Lemonade

Staghorn Sumac is a plant that grows wild all over the Eastern part of the country and is great for making this Sumac Tee Wild Lemonade. It is plentiful where we live in mid to southern Minnesota. In early fall the berries are ripe for picking. Sumac Tea Wild Lemonade is an easy way to take advantage of wild sumac you might just find right in your own backyard.

If you are looking for other uses for sumac, check out our article on making sumac spice for hot tea. If you liked this great fall recipe, you may also like our Rhubarb Mojito in the spring.

Video Instructions For Sumac Lemonade

Our son Jackson actually came up with the idea for this post and he made a video on his YouTube channel “Jackson’s Tips For Life and Other Awesome Stuff To Do.” Here he demonstrates how easy it is to make a delicious Sumac Iced Tea:

Identifying Staghorn Sumac

Make sure you use Staghorn Sumac to make your Sumac Tea Wild Lemonade. The more commonly known sumac is poison sumac, although it is much rarer.  Staghorn Sumac is easily differentiated though. Staghorn Sumac has bright red berries with little hairs on them while the poison sumac has hard green berries. Daves Garden has a good article comparing the two species here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3940#b

Tips for Harvesting Sumac Tea

Wild Staghorn Sumac is covered with a bunch of hairs. You can see them if you look closely. The red hairs are acidic, containing malic acid (the same acid in unripe apples). This acid is water soluble and hard rains can wash some of the acids away, washing the great flavor of the Sumac Tee Wild Lemonade away with it. Therefore, try to harvest the ripe sumac bunches before rains for the best flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 cup staghorn sumac berries (about 3 bunches)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 lemon
• 1-quart water
• Mint for garnishment

(Parents – make this an adult drink by adding a splash of rum or vodka)

Equipment

• Kitchen Strainer – http://amzn.to/2y0buNk
• Canning Jar – http://amzn.to/2y0FMQk
• Canning Funnel – http://amzn.to/2xx06qZ
• Medium Pot – http://amzn.to/2yxAXuL
• Coffee Filter – http://amzn.to/2yxZT5p
• Muddler – http://amzn.to/2wJFooS

Instructions

Pick your sumac berries in bunches. Do not rinse them off as this will remove some of the malic acid contained on them.

Bring the water to a boil in a medium pot.

Remove the water from the heat and add the sumac. Muddle if desired. Let the sumac seep in the hot water for 15 minutes.

Pour the contents of the pot through a coffee filter.

Add the sugar and lemon.

Chill and serve with the mint and a wedge of lemon.

Other Wild Foods

This recipe is part of our Foraging Minnesota series.

We foraged these berries to make this great tea or lemonade. If you like foraging for food and ingredients, you will also like these other recipes.

• How to Make Homemade Maple Syrup
• Pheasant Poppers
• Strawberry Jam
• Crabapple Jelly
• Morel Gnocchi Mac and Cheese
• Homemade Maple Syrup

Preserving and Putting Off From The Garden

This recipe is a way of putting off wild berries from the sumac bush. We just freeze the tea and it stays fresh all through the winter. Here are other recipes for preserving things from the garden.

• Drying Herbs Fresh From The Garden
• Small Batch Salsa
• Dill Pickles
• Refrigerator Pickles
• Preserved Roasted tomatoes

Alcoholic Version and Other Drink Ideas

We turned this tea into an Old Fashioned recipe and loved it. Here are some other adult drinks to try.

• Sumac Old Fashioned Recipe
• Apple Cider Mimosa
• Homemade Irish Cream
• Campari Tonic
• Rhubarb Mojito
• Coffee Beer

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