By Sandra Fierling

Now summer is showing its beautiful face, it's time to consider cold drinks. Fruit tea is a great choice and much healthier than many summer beverages like iced tea and sodas from your local supermarket. Here you will find some easy recipes for fruit tea that will have your friends and family asking for more.

When you make fruit tea yourself, you get to choose everything - the type of tea, what you would like added to it and the amount of sugar/sweetener. In other words you are master of your summer tea!

For example you could simply make your favorite black tea, let it cool and serve it with ice cubes and lemon - adding some frozen berries makes it into a very special drink - raspberries are my favorite as they are not so sweet and they look good in the golden liquid.

My favorite is rooibos tea. I usually drink at least one cup per day (hot) and as I always make it in a teapot, I simply pour the left over tea into a glass jug which I keep in the fridge - therefore I have my own specialty iced tea available always throughout the summer. I can jazz it up with mint leaves and lemon, I can add fruit to it (lemon slices or even apple or peach slices look great). This tea is healthy and so versatile.

Peppermint is a great tea for hot days as it does cool you down. Again, make your peppermint beverage and cool it down in the fridge. Lemon slices and ice cubes do it proud - and don't forget some peppermint leaves as well.

I never sweeten my tea but if you want to do so, think of natural sweeteners like argave, honey or stevia. Give them a try and you'll be surprised.

If you like your summer drink bit sweet, then you can always try Honeybush tea - a cousin of rooibos and also from South Africa, this is naturally sweet. As with rooibos, cool it down in the refrigerator, add lemon slices and ice cubes and you're ready to go.

Hibiscus tea is naturally a beautiful red color and tastes great on its own with iced cubes. Adding orange slices enhances the flavor but you can also use strawberries as they blend in very well.

Teas area so very versatile, especially when consumed cool or cold with ice cubes and other fruity additives like fresh fruit slices and some mint. Next time you want to surprise your friends and family at a summer get together, try some of the recipes above. You won't be disappointed!