Iced Tea

A while back I bought a Bodum brand Iced Tea pitcher.

I use it for lots of things.

Any beverage that is heterogeneous in composition, really.

So, lemonade is a big one all year round, but I've been making a fair few iced teas lately.

Mostly I've just been doing some varieties of plain black ceylons, but some of the more unique ones I've tried include a green, and even an earl grey.

My latest was just with generic 'Orange Pekoe'.  It seems the closest to the 'commercial' variety as I've come.  At least so far.

I like it strong, because my methodology consists of sur-saturating (over brewing) the solution and then diluting it afterwards.

Many purists believe that a good 'sun-soaked' brew method is best for iced tea, but again my methodology involves over saturation of the tea.  And if we'll all remember our chemistry lessons, this can only be done by hiking the temperature way up.  The higher your temperature, the more molecules you'll be able to squash in there because the water molecules are literally further apart the hotter they are.  Makes sense to me.  So, to get it SUPER concentrated, use boiling water.  The sun just can't do enough on its own.

Now, my cool pitcher allows for the tea (and lemon, let's not forget that there's an entire lemon in there too!) to be kept separate, which is very handy.

Pour the boiling water on, and let it steep for a few hours just on the counter.

If you like a sweetened tea, now's the time to add a good bit of sugar or honey or whatever.

Then, when it is reasonably cooled, add a tonne of ice cubes!

That's like three trays worth of cubes.

You'll notice that even though the ice cubes are not in the separated partition part, this awesome pitcher also has a 'strainer' perforation thingie on the spout, so it still catches the ice upon pouring!  

Anyway, that goes in the fridge and is ready to drink in about an hour or so.

It's super handy to have on hand, and delicious on a hot summer's day!

If you make your own iced tea, I'd be REALLY interested to hear about what kinds of leaf varieties you've used in the past, and what your favourite(s) are for iced tea!

So POST A COMMENT DAMN YOU!

:)