Spiked Peach & Lemon Iced Tea

On a hot sunny day like today there's nothing better than sitting outside with a cold refreshing cup of iced tea. How can you improve on regular iced tea? Add in some alcohol of course! This spiked peach & lemon iced tea will help keep you cool & relaxed all day long. And the best part? It's incredibly easy to make & if you're a fan of iced tea you'll wonder why you never tried to make your own sooner.





I was sent a selection of tea temples from teapigs so I could try out some new flavours of iced tea. teapigs are a great brand to use for iced tea because they make such a vast range of flavours. They also sent me a recipe card with some ideas of how to mix the teas with other ingredients. I'm obsessed with the Lipton peach and lemon flavoured iced teas so I decided to combine the two flavours using the Lemon & Ginger tea temples as a base. These taste amazing on their own but they work really well in iced tea too. This might sound weird but I find the teapigs tea temples really interesting to look at because they contain proper ingredients rather than just dried tea leaves. The lemon & ginger ones contain pieces of ginger, lemongrass, lemon peel and liquorice root. It's actually quite difficult to find peach drinks in the UK so I settled for Welch's white grape & peach juice and of course I had to use some peach schnapps! Anyway here's how I made this delicious iced tea cocktail:





Ingredients

3 teapigs Lemon & Ginger tea temples
500ml boiling water
250ml cold water
250ml White Grape & Peach Juice
150ml Peach Schnapps
2 fresh lemons
Lots of ice

Method

1) Boil 500ml of water and pour into a large jug. Add the 3 tea temples and allow to steep for 5 minutes.

2) Top up with the cold water and white grape & peach juice. Then add in the peach schnapps. Feel free to use more or less according to taste but schnapps is pretty tame so you can afford to be generous ;)

3) Leave to cool before putting the jug in the fridge. Otherwise the drink will go cloudy. Once fully chilled remove from fridge and add slices of lemons and ice to the jug.

4) Garnish each glass with a slice of lemon and pour out the drink. Enjoy!

If you want to make your own version of this cocktail you can pick up some tea temples from www.teapigs.co.uk and you can still get 15% off using the code BLOGGERS12 (discount does not apply to gifts and cheeky deals as these are already discounted)! To receive teapigs news and the latest discounts don't forget to sign up for their newsletter on the homepage. You can also like them on Facebook & follow them on Twitter.

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Message In A Bottle

Dress - H&M / Jumper - The Orphans Arms / Shoes - Topshop / Socks - Topshop
Clubmaster Sunglasses - Sunglasses Shop* / Necklace - Claire's Accessories / Bracelet - Ginger Pickle*

Finally, a nice Summery day! I have gotten a bit fed up of wearing jeans, boots and a jumper every day for the past few weeks so as soon as there's a bit of sun I break out the pretty dresses. I bought this white shirt dress from H&M. I have a couple of shirt dresses from there in pink & black that I love and I was so tempted to add this to my collection as soon as I spotted it instore. I managed to restrain myself for a while but then I saw Charissa wearing it on her blog and knew I had to have it too! I think they're great casual dresses & are perfect for Summer weather. This one is a lot more see-through than the others I have though. Think I need to invest in some kind of slip dress as I'm 99% sure you can see my underwear!

I wore it with this jumper from one of my favourite clothing brands - The Orphans Arms. If you've never heard of them before they're like a cheaper British version of Wildfox. I'm obsessed with their t-shirts and pullovers, I'd love to buy everything they make! This is a really thin jumper so it's perfect as a Summer coverup. My Topshop Vectra shoes finally bit the dust in the rain last week so I'm back to wearing these Topshop Kerb2 T-Bars as my everyday shoes. Not that I'm complaining, I will love them forever!




The other day I was kindly offered some new sunglasses by Sunglasses Shop. They have a huge range of designer sunglasses from brands such as Chanel, Dior, Celine & Tom Ford at unbeatable prices. I'm a big fan of Ray-Ban Sunglasses because of their classic styles & durability. I wear my Wayfarers all the time so I decided to go for theRay-Ban 3016 Clubmaster sunglasses. I love the shape & I see so many celebrities wearing them. They arrived incredibly quickly and were very well packaged - the service provided by Sunglasses Shop is just impeccable. I wore them for the first time today as it was so lovely and sunny out. They feel really comfy & light to wear. I've had my Wayfarers for years so it'll be nice to have a different pair of sunglasses this Summer.

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May Favourites

Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair
As my skincare stash grows I sometimes forget about some of the things I really like. I hadn't used this serum for quite a few months but I dug it out of my drawers a couple of weeks ago and I don't know why I ever stopped using it. It is expensive but I've had this bottle for well over a year now and there's tons leftover. You only need a few drops each night anyway. Advanced Night Repair is intended to be an anti-aging product but I use it to soften my skin, even out my skintone and it also helps so much with my blemishes & scarring. Everyone needs to try this at some point in their lives!

Clinique Moisture Surge CC Cream
I'm not normally one for a sheer base product but as my closed comedones continue to disappear with the regular use of chemical exfoliants & facial oils I've not felt the need to smother my skin in so much foundation. This product was really surprising to me because the coverage is brilliant for such a sheer formula and the shade Very Light is actually light enough for my skin colour! I'll be giving this a full review soon but this is definitely my favourite base product at the moment.

Pukka Organic Castor Oil
I bought this because I'd heard that castor oil can help improve the growth rate of your eyebrows & eyelashes. I'd previously had a lot of success using Talika Lipocils when I used to overpluck my eyebrows & pull out my eyelashes (bad I know!) but I wanted to try something a bit cheaper this time. The growth isn't as noticeable as with the Talika product but it has helped with the thickness and overall condition of my eyebrows & eyelashes. As I researched this it was interesting to discover that castor oil has many uses. You can make something called a castor oil pack with it to reduce pains, scars and cysts within your body. Wish I'd known about this before I had to have half an ovary removed! I even used it to stop a stye in it's tracks so this is a really useful product to keep around the house.

Trilogy Organic Rosehip Oil
After falling back in love with the Clarins Lotus Oil last month I decided to try out the Trilogy Rosehip Oil. Embarrassingly it was actually a Daily Mail article which prompted me to buy it. Needless to say I love this oil too! After using it for a couple of weeks my scars have faded a lot already and my skin feels amazingly soft & hydrated. My face looks brighter the next morning after I use this and it balances out any redness. I haven't had as many spots crop up and it really helps with cystic ones under the skin. Using facial oils has dramatically reduced the amount of little bumps under my skin too. It doesn't smell as nice as the Clarins one but otherwise this oil is just as lovely.

Korres Wild Rose Lip Butter*
I love absolutely everything about this lip balm! The colour, the pigmentation, the staying power & the hydration levels are all immense. It gives your lips an incredible shine & makes them feel kissably soft. Really wish I'd tried these sooner!

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