sweet iced tea!
three of the most beautiful words in the English language!
Since my mind is in a bit of "teaopia", I will blog about tea tonight! Please bear with me....as I tea along here! :) The day began with a hot brew of Lipton's finest loose tea leaves with cream and sugar added. ( I take my tea like the Brits! But where are the crumpets?!) Mid afternoon, I simmered some mint leaves to make mint tea. My made-up recipe was 1/2 cup mint leaves, 2/3 cup sugar, and 2 quarts of water. I must not have the right touch though...my mint is "apple" mint; maybe that was the problem! Anyway, try as I might, I couldn't get it tweaked to where I could appreciate it! Even with lots of sugar, and a splash of apple juice, is was barely "tea-olerable!" (I need some help, Shelley! What did I do wrong?!) So after that fiasco, I made some "regular" sweet, iced tea! Good ole orange pekoe and black! Being me, I don't have a favorite brand; it varies from the cheapest Piggly offers - "Best Choice", to "Luzianne", to "Lipton", or "Red Diamond." The current box is "Leroy Hill - Hill and Brooks." Do y'all have a favorite brand or method to make good, strong, Southern, sweet, iced tea??? Whew! What a lot of adjectives!!! My method is pretty mediocre - I grab a quart Mason jar, fill it with tap water, and zap it in the micro for 5 minutes, (IMPORTANT! Do not omit next step!) then gently bring tea bags to nose and inhale deeply the deep, dark, musky scent of tea....and let your mind wander to faraway places with strange sounding names....then JOLT back to reality and plunge the tea bags in to the hot water, (I do apologize for my obsessive compulsive smelling disorder! But you should try it next time you make tea! :) You know you want to, and no one is watching, and so what if they are! If sniffing tea bags makes one certifiably crazy, I am a lost cause!) After the tea has steeped 10 minutes or half a day or so, pour it into a 3 quart pitcher along with a heaping cup of sugar. Liberally add ice and water to fill 'er up! Pour yourself a glass, and sit on the porch and rock awhile! Nothing hits the spot like a cold glass of iced tea on a hot summer day! Pleas tell me in the comments how you make or take your tea.....I'd "tea-otally" love to hear all about it!
I had a friend that said her mint wasn't good this year. She couldn't get her tea to taste good. I wouldn't know what to tell you.
ReplyDeleteI dunno either!! :)
DeleteUmm porch? rocking chair? I guess I missed it when I came last!
ReplyDeleteWell, I meant that IF you have a rockin' chair, rock and drink tea!! I might buy me a rockin' chair with my bday $$! :) and we DO have a porch! (even tho it's tiny!)
DeleteI'll be over soon! It's amazing how just 1.5 hours from here you can hi and get good sweet tea. But here? No way! Miss that stuff!
ReplyDeleteCome on down and get some! :)
DeleteI teatotally want some tea now! I like David's Catfish's tea. VERY sweet. :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE their tea! :) I think Anne's tea is very similar to Davids. Danl loves her tea!
DeleteYes, Anne's is similar. Spoon-standing-up-in-glass-because-of-sugar-content-kind-of-tea. Lol :)
DeleteFirst comment of mine here!! :) I'm so happy to find that somebody else has obsessive smelling disorder I must say!!!!! :D I thought i was the only one. Everything MUST BE SMELLED! :D
ReplyDeleteI agree!!! :) I'm always sniffin' and smellin'!!
DeleteWell......I buy the great value brand:) fill my coffee pot up with 8 cups of water and put 2 or 3 tea bags in where the coffee is suppose to go:) And let it brew. Put somewhere between 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar in your pitcher, depending on how sweet you want it:) pour the hot brew over the sugar and add a bunch of ice, stir, and finish filling with cold water:) ENJOY on ur porch that has NO ROCKER LOL!!!!!
ReplyDeleteTara, your tea is always SO good too!! ;) I don't use my coffee maker cuz I think it might make the tea taste like coffee. Do you have a dif one for coffee?
DeleteNo we just hardly every make coffee......If I made coffee alot I probably wouldn't make it in there!!
Deleteokay... here goes! :)
ReplyDeleteSOUTHERN SWEET TEA (you know it's SWEET!) :)
you will need:
1 gallon pitcher
3 or 4 tea bags (I always use Luzianne)
water
SUGAR
ice
you got the first part right... boil a couple cups of water and steep 3 or 4 tea bags for 10 minutes to 8 hours... Dissolve TWO CUPS sugar (or 1 3/4 if you're dieting! LOL) in a little warm water in a 1 gallon pitcher (OR you can dissolve the sugar in your tea brew after you take the bags out IF you did the 10 minute brew). Add ice (fill about 1/4 of pitcher) and pour tea brew over. STIR VIGOROUSLY! Fill pitcher with cool water and ENJOY!
How do you like my "gourmet" tea recipe! :)
I love me some tea too! :) And after reading this I doubt if anyone will drink tea at my house anymore! :)
We LOVE your tea!!! and will always drink it! lol no wonder it's so good! :)
DeleteOh... by the way... you gotta take a deep sniff of that sugar before you put it in too! :) It smells sooo good! (Is there a reason I weigh what I do? LOL)
ReplyDeleteSugar DOES smell good!! why do I know this?! :)
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