Wednesday 13 August 2014

My Favorite Iced Tea


Oh summer- the time when all I drink it seems is water, iced coffee and iced tea.  But I'm picky about my iced tea; I don't like that stuff that comes in a can, or a bottle.  Nope.  Only the home made stuff for me.  And its so easy to make, why wouldn't you make some homemade iced tea.  There are endless ways to make it your own!  I especially like using herbal tea bag, usually fruity.  I find them refreshing.  But I have used regular ol' black tea and its turned out nice too.  This formula, I guess, is for my current favorite iced tea.  Its refreshing, not too sweet, and caffine-free so you can sip it into those hot summer nights.


You need the basic iced tea materials: A kettle (or a pot and stove), a heat-proof pitcher (I got this Le Crueset one from Winners for 15 bucks!) and some tea bags.  I'm into the herbal berry teas byCelestial  Seasonings, but my absolute favorite is the Very Berry tea from Clipper Teas.  I just ran out when I was making this pitcher.  It turned out really nice too.  Not pictured it the sweetener you want to use.  I use honey most of the time.  You can use a wet or dry sweetener, it doesn't matter.  

Ingredients:

4 tea bags, any kind
3 cups boiling water
2 tbsp sweetener (or more or less according to your own taste)
4-5 cups cold water
Ice to serve
Any garnishes that you want, I used limes and cherries

Method:

1) Boil your water in a kettle or on the stove. 

2) In your pitcher or another heatproof container, steep your tea bags in the water for 15-20 minutes.

3) After you have steeped the tea, you will have a concentrated tea base for your iced tea.  While the tea is still hot, add you sweetener, and stir well.  Make sure that your sweetener is melted, dissolved and incorporated into the base.  

4) Taste.  You want it to be sweeter than you want the finished tea to be because you will be dilouting the tea with water and ice.

5) Add cold water to the tea.  Start with 4 cups and keep increasing until you have the strength of tea desired.  I like pretty strong tea, so I don't add the full 5 cups.  

6) Stir well, and that's it!  Serve in glasses filled with ice and any garnish!  Sip and feel Southern!


We like to sit outside and read and talk while sipping iced tea.  Its a pretty Southern thing to do.  Can we take a minute to look at the cool lids I found for mason jars??!:


They are made by Ball, and they were super cheap.  I got 4 lids and 4 reusable plastic straws for 2 bucks!  They were great for keeping the bees and wasps away.  If you don't have the time to make your own, these are a great buy.  You can use them without the straws, that is my favorite part about these lids.  

Enjoy!  


2 comments:

  1. Sounds good - except for the sweetener - I hate sweet tea. But otherwise yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm Southern. Sweet tea all the way!

    ReplyDelete

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