Iced tea
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:48 am
I think iced tea might be the greatest non-alcoholic drink on earth. I pretty much always have one of those 52-oz. QT cups filled with iced tea with me wherever I go. I know some people think it's bland, but I've just always loved iced tea since I was a little kid. Unsweetened, of course. I can take or leave the lemon slice.
It's just the perfect drink, really. Sweetened and/or carbonated drinks can be enjoyable in small doses, but they're not particularly quenching. Coffee is OK in the morning, but again, not a real thirst-quencher, and I start to feel cracked-out after much more than two cups. Water just gets boring after a while. Tea, on the other hand, has zero calories, quenches your thirst, and provides enough caffeine to keep you going throughout the day without making you feel like a twitchy basehead by 10:30 am. I brew it myself and go through a gallon of iced tea every 2-3 days.
I've always enjoyed the fruit-flavored unsweetened iced tea that you can sometimes find in restaurants, but it's next-to-impossible to find something like that to brew at home. I did a little experimenting and mixing & matching and finally came up with a "recipe" that I like. Others have also complimented me on my tea, so I figured I'd share it with you guys. Let me know what you think:
Ingredients:
1 gallon of water (Depending on where you live, it's probably worth it to spring for RO or purified water. Colorado tap water is excellent, but I've dumped a full gallon of tea down the drain that I tried to make with Arizona tap water)
1 gallon-size or 3 family-size teabags of black tea (I found the gallon-size bags at Sam's Club. I buy Lipton, but Nestea and Tetley are both good too)
1 individual-size teabag of Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger herbal tea (you can substitute Raspberry Zinger if you prefer)
Bring water to a boil in a large covered pot. Remove lid. Add tea bags. Use a spoon to dunk them a few times. Replace lid loosely on pot and allow to steep. Remove teabags and pour into a pitcher. Pour over ice and enjoy.
I usually let it steep for a few hours, until it cools down to close to room temperature. Putting the lid on loosely, leaving just a small crack for steam to escape, helps avoid losing a lot of your brew to steam while allowing it to cool much faster than if the pot was completely covered. You could always make sun tea if you prefer, but I'm just impatient. I'm surprised at how much "zing" you can get out of just one bag of the Celestial Seasonings tea. When I first tried this recipe, I used three bags and it was super-tart. Even two is pretty tart, but one seems to provide the perfect subtle fruitiness.
It's just the perfect drink, really. Sweetened and/or carbonated drinks can be enjoyable in small doses, but they're not particularly quenching. Coffee is OK in the morning, but again, not a real thirst-quencher, and I start to feel cracked-out after much more than two cups. Water just gets boring after a while. Tea, on the other hand, has zero calories, quenches your thirst, and provides enough caffeine to keep you going throughout the day without making you feel like a twitchy basehead by 10:30 am. I brew it myself and go through a gallon of iced tea every 2-3 days.
I've always enjoyed the fruit-flavored unsweetened iced tea that you can sometimes find in restaurants, but it's next-to-impossible to find something like that to brew at home. I did a little experimenting and mixing & matching and finally came up with a "recipe" that I like. Others have also complimented me on my tea, so I figured I'd share it with you guys. Let me know what you think:
Ingredients:
1 gallon of water (Depending on where you live, it's probably worth it to spring for RO or purified water. Colorado tap water is excellent, but I've dumped a full gallon of tea down the drain that I tried to make with Arizona tap water)
1 gallon-size or 3 family-size teabags of black tea (I found the gallon-size bags at Sam's Club. I buy Lipton, but Nestea and Tetley are both good too)
1 individual-size teabag of Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger herbal tea (you can substitute Raspberry Zinger if you prefer)
Bring water to a boil in a large covered pot. Remove lid. Add tea bags. Use a spoon to dunk them a few times. Replace lid loosely on pot and allow to steep. Remove teabags and pour into a pitcher. Pour over ice and enjoy.
I usually let it steep for a few hours, until it cools down to close to room temperature. Putting the lid on loosely, leaving just a small crack for steam to escape, helps avoid losing a lot of your brew to steam while allowing it to cool much faster than if the pot was completely covered. You could always make sun tea if you prefer, but I'm just impatient. I'm surprised at how much "zing" you can get out of just one bag of the Celestial Seasonings tea. When I first tried this recipe, I used three bags and it was super-tart. Even two is pretty tart, but one seems to provide the perfect subtle fruitiness.