Monday 29 June 2009

Summer Tea

About 3 months ago I swore off my 3-4 can a day Diet Coke addiction. I suppose on the scale of 'things you can be addicted to' Diet Coke isn't a HUGE deal, but I generally don't like packaged, processed and chemical laden foods, so it really made sense to ditch it from my life. And besides, sometimes you just gotta do these kind of things to prove you can!!!

The biggest deal has been finding something to replace the Coke with. Coffee, of course, in the morning but I really only like it in the AM. Water is fine, but boring all the time. Drink mixes are nice, but probably have about as much junk in them as the Coke did.

So I decided to make my own ice tea. I started off wanting to do Sun Tea, but despite Facebook claiming I'm '93 % crazy' I am a pretty 'play it safe' gal and after a search on 'sun tea' turned up a Snopes warning about bacteria risks in sun tea - I opted for the safer 'Refrigerator Tea' route (really I already have enough bacteria in my life).

I must say, it is working very well. I just pop a couple tea bags in jars of water in the evening and the next day take out the bags and add a little bit of sugar. Delicious!!!



The one on the left is 'Green Tea' and on the right is 'Rooibos Tea'. If you don't know Rooibos red tea, you are leading a deprived life!!! Starbucks Vanilla Rooibos Lattes may be my favorite drink on earth right now. It is probably a good thing I live an hour away from a Starbucks - or I might be totally broke!!



Please excuse the dog dish in the background - dogs gotta drink too!!

Karen

3 comments:

Huskymom said...

I will have to check out rooibos since I can't have caffeinated beverages--I typically make decaf iced tea this way: heat 1-2 cups water in the microwave, add two decaf tea bags [such as Red Rose], let steep for awhile at room temp, add fresh mint (and sugar if you want). Store the tea concentrate in the fridge. To drink, I just fill a glass partway with ice, pour in some tea concentrate, add fresh cold water to desired volume (and I add fresh mint too). It's refreshing, tasty, low calorie, cheap, plus there's no jitters and no cans or bottles to recycle. Made-from-scratch iced tea is the perfect summer beverage IMHO.

Katerina said...

Sounds like a good decision. I have always loved tea and love to play with different kinds. One of my most favourites is white earl gray and jasmine tea. Try it out sometime. The Indian "Datah-Masala", that has many spices in it and needs to be cooked in milk is totally awsome too - but not really a summer cool-out drink.
Leafy is also higher quality than bagged.
-- Just a few notes from a tea adict :)

Andi Louise said...

SWEET TEA!!! Just like a southerner!!! LOL
We always put about 5 bags in a large coffee maker coffee pot, run the water though, let it seep for about 10 minutes, pour it onto a pitcher, add the sugar and lots of ice to melt and thin the strong tea out. I sweeten mine with my neighbors fresh honey. yummy.