The Iced Tea Topic

[janeer]

I spent three horrid years in Nashville, but did come away with a huge appreciation for this "Picnic" iced tea. I like to make it about 8 hrs before serving and leave in the cinnamon. I sometimes sub unfiltered apple cider for some of the juice.

[Wholemeal Crank]

A friend recently suggested what turns out to be a very nice combination for an herbal iced tea: rooibos, hibiscus, and mint. Tart and refreshing when chilled. I prepared some as a hot infusion and chilled it overnight, very nice. But I made too much and the 2nd day version was not worth drinking.

[Jason Perlow]

Roasted Barley tea, called "Boricha" in Korean is actually drank hot during summer months. It has an interesting smoky flavor and is a good accompaniment to Asian food.

[Chris Hennes]

How is it chilled?

[Jason Perlow]

How is it chilled?

I've normally just seen it poured over large tumbler glasses with ice, at least at Korean restaurants in the NYC area.

[Jason Perlow]

Ah, I meant to say "Drank cold" in summer months. Missed the edit window. Yes, it's very good cold.

The tea is also referred to as "Mugicha" in Japanese culture. There's a eG Forums thread from 2004 where we talked about it at length.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Jason Perlow (log)

[CKatCook]

Just made up a fresh batch of mint iced tea. Just mint, hot water, and some stevia packets added to sweetness. Amazing over ice, especially on a blisteringly hot day like this in the NY metro area. Hit 99 today.

I am betting that would be good with cucumber slices in it...

[Naftal]

My favorite teahouse (Goldfish Tea) makes large batches of Gunpowder green tea and Keemun B black tea, and uses them when people ask for iced tea.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Now that I'm getting some actual summery-type weather here, it's time to make Horchata the way that Lojanas intend it to be made: strong and cold! I'll post back with pictures; my tea caraffe is nothing much, but the contents!

[Wholemeal Crank]

What do you do with pineapple sage besides make a tissane with it? Does it have other culinary uses?

Can't believe I missed this the first time around. Pineapple sage is one of my favorite herbs to grow, for the beautiful plant, and for the tasty leaves and flowers. I use it mostly in desserts--it is stunning in pinapple sage poached pears, especially when I can top the whole with fresh blossoms; gives a wonderful twist to an apple pie or applesauce; lifts an almond from interesting to wow. I've also used it in some spring and summer 'refrigerator soups'--fresh vegetable soups made with whatever came home from the market. It works very well with rosemary in those.

And, since I'm finally home during a proper heat wave, drinking some more chilled tea. Broke out the glass infuser mugs for the first time in while, dropped in a spoonful of some cheap sencha (I bought some of this in a local shop and found it was ok chilled but not so good hot), added cool water, and put in the fridge. The infuser mugs have glass filter inserts that clog too easily for me to enjoy regularly using them for hot tea, but they're just right for this use:

Chilled tea by debunix, on Flickr

Edited August 12, 2012 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[heidih]

Market had Tazo Passion Tea bags on sale so I snagged some. This is the passion tea that Starbucks sells as one of their iced tea selections. It is refreshing in a tart way but also has spicy undertones. The ingredients list is: hibiscusflowers, natural tropical flavors, citric acid, licorice root, orange peel, cinnamon, rose hips, lemongrass, and fruit juice extract for color. Why you would need more color using jamaica/hibiscus surprises me unless the quantity is very low. I have a source for good quality jamaica in bulk. I think I will play with this general concept to create my own blend. I have citrus, rose hips, and lemongrass in the garden.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Bulk hibiscus is cheap in the local hispanic groceries. After the cooling sencha start to the day, it's been more cold brewing in the heat with some yellow tea plus a hibiscus blossom, very nice.

[sadistick]

Recently been really enjoying a handful of mint and a cinnamon stick w/ some local honey.

great combo!

[Wholemeal Crank]

Another cool-brewed tea day: started with a pot of sencha brewed hot, but quickly had to move to cool brews--including leaving the sencha with some cool water on it, as it wasn't quite done at the end of my short easy hot infusions. Then some more hibiscus/peppermint & hibiscus/sencha. It's hot enough today that I set the teas up in quart jars for the brewing, because one 10 oz cup at a time is not enough.

[Tony Boulton]

As a Brit married to a Texan and living here in the Lone Star State, iced tea was a culture shock to me when I first arrived over ten years ago. But being a "when in Rome do as the Romans do" type of bloke, I got used to it. I had to do so, as my dearly beloved is as passionate about iced tea as I have become over the years about coffee. She sends it back in restaurants if it is bad.

She insists we start with filtered water and she is now an addict for Tazo Black Shaken. They describe it as having "citrus notes" although they are inaudible to me. After it was made popular in Starbucks, she searched nation for 1 gallon bags and eventually found them online. Recently Tazo seemed to have changed policy and are now selling half-gallon bags in grocery stores at an even lower equivalent price.

I recommend it.

[Jaymes]

As a Brit married to a Texan and living here in the Lone Star State, iced tea was a culture shock to me when I first arrived over ten years ago. But being a "when in Rome do as the Romans do" type of bloke, I got used to it. I had to do so, as my dearly beloved is as passionate about iced tea as I have become over the years about coffee. She sends it back in restaurants if it is bad.

She insists we start with filtered water and she is now an addict for Tazo Black Shaken. They describe it as having "citrus notes" although they are inaudible to me. After it was made popular in Starbucks, she searched nation for 1 gallon bags and eventually found them online. Recently Tazo seemed to have changed policy and are now selling half-gallon bags in grocery stores at an even lower equivalent price.

I recommend it.

My theory about why most Brits find even the very notion of iced tea so repulsive is that they aren't thinking of iced tea in its proper perspective.

Now that you are a Texan (at least temporarily, anyway), you're quite familiar with days of the sort of blistering heat that all you want to do is to find yourself a cool shady spot and gulp down gallons of something in a glass so frosty that rivulets are racing one another down the wet sides. On those days, nobody wants a cup of any sort of steaming hot beverage, since they're already steaming hot themselves. Those are the iced tea days.

I'm not saying those days don't exist in England, although I personally have never encountered one and I think if they do exist, they're not the norm. So, when Brits are deciding what sort of hot beverage they want on a cool, damp, English day, they're comparing a comforting cup of hot tea with other hot beverages...coffee, cocoa, broth, hot toddy, etc. It does seem to have a great deal more to do with cozy comfort, rather than quenching any sort of thirst. The thought of a glass of cold tea instead (especially since many Brits put milk in their hot tea) is unappealing to the point of being darn near revolting. I get that.

Therefore, when trying to explain the charms of iced tea to a Brit, I've found I do much better when I compare a frosty glass of thirst-quenching iced tea with frosty glasses of other cold beverages, as in "Would you like some ice water, or perhaps a lemonade? Or, how about a nice tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint?"

Something just perfect on a hot Texas afternoon in the dog days of summer.

And I suspect that, after having spent a little time dealing with this sort of heat, even the Brits would agree.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Jaymes (log)

[Tony Boulton]

My theory about why most Brits find even the very notion of iced tea so repulsive is that they aren't thinking of iced tea in its proper perspective.

Now that you are a Texan (at least temporarily, anyway), you're quite familiar with days of the sort of blistering heat that all you want to do is to find yourself a cool shady spot and gulp down gallons of something in a glass so frosty that rivulets are racing one another down the wet sides. On those days, nobody wants a cup of any sort of steaming hot beverage, since they're already steaming hot themselves. Those are the iced tea days.

I'm not saying those days don't exist in England, although I personally have never encountered one and I think if they do exist, they're not the norm. So, when Brits are deciding what sort of hot beverage they want on a cool, damp, English day, they're comparing a comforting cup of hot tea with other hot beverages...coffee, cocoa, broth, hot toddy, etc. It does seem to have a great deal more to do with cozy comfort, rather than quenching any sort of thirst. The thought of a glass of cold tea instead (especially since many Brits put milk in their hot tea) is unappealing to the point of being darn near revolting. I get that.

Therefore, when trying to explain the charms of iced tea to a Brit, I've found I do much better when I compare a frosty glass of thirst-quenching iced tea with frosty glasses of other cold beverages, as in "Would you like some ice water, or perhaps a lemonade? Or, how about a nice tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint?"

Something just perfect on a hot Texas afternoon in the dog days of summer.

And I suspect that, after having spent a little time dealing with this sort of heat, even the Brits would agree.

Nice theory and I do note the smiley at the foot of your post.

I got the concept of iced tea straight away. But then, I am well travelled having been on numerous round-the-world trips over the years.

I am unsure how many Brits you have met, on whom you base your theory, but I don't know one who finds iced tea "repulsive".

What you seem to miss is this. Iced drinks in Britain are familiar only to afficiandados of the likes of McDonalds or KFC. It is only there that the cup is filled with ice and topped up with liquid (which leaves me with the thought that I am being short-changed). Remember, too, that free refills are even more uncommon.

No, typically, I was always accustomed to the serving of water and lemonade (or carbonated beverages) accompanied by the inevitable question, "Would you like ice?". That is something rarely heard in Texas. But when it is answered in the affirmative in the UK it is followed by a gentle clink of one or two, maybe three if you are lucky, cubes of ice being spooned invidually into the glass.

Which reminds me of my favorite story of a stay in anhotel in London with my Texan wife years ago. I went to the bar and asked for a full English pint glass of ice to go with the pot of tea that had just been served to us. The young man looked at me very seriously and said, "If we do that we will have none left for the other customers". I pointed out that the establishment had an icemaking machine under the bar and that he should not panic.

It is raining in north Texas today and the temperature is struggling to get above 75. I think I will make a cuppa.

And by the way, I am not here in Texas temporarily, I am here until the Lord calls me home.

Edited August 21, 2012 by Tony Boulton (log)

[Naftal]

Bulk hibiscus is cheap in the local hispanic groceries. After the cooling sencha start to the day, it's been more cold brewing in the heat with some yellow tea plus a hibiscus blossom, very nice.

I get bulk hibiscus at a hispanic store,too. I use it to make a straight hibiscus iced tea.

[Jaymes]

My theory about why most Brits find even the very notion of iced tea so repulsive is that they aren't thinking of iced tea in its proper perspective.

Now that you are a Texan (at least temporarily, anyway), you're quite familiar with days of the sort of blistering heat that all you want to do is to find yourself a cool shady spot and gulp down gallons of something in a glass so frosty that rivulets are racing one another down the wet sides. On those days, nobody wants a cup of any sort of steaming hot beverage, since they're already steaming hot themselves. Those are the iced tea days.

I'm not saying those days don't exist in England, although I personally have never encountered one and I think if they do exist, they're not the norm. So, when Brits are deciding what sort of hot beverage they want on a cool, damp, English day, they're comparing a comforting cup of hot tea with other hot beverages...coffee, cocoa, broth, hot toddy, etc. It does seem to have a great deal more to do with cozy comfort, rather than quenching any sort of thirst. The thought of a glass of cold tea instead (especially since many Brits put milk in their hot tea) is unappealing to the point of being darn near revolting. I get that.

Therefore, when trying to explain the charms of iced tea to a Brit, I've found I do much better when I compare a frosty glass of thirst-quenching iced tea with frosty glasses of other cold beverages, as in "Would you like some ice water, or perhaps a lemonade? Or, how about a nice tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint?"

Something just perfect on a hot Texas afternoon in the dog days of summer.

And I suspect that, after having spent a little time dealing with this sort of heat, even the Brits would agree.

Nice theory and I do note the smiley at the foot of your post.

I got the concept of iced tea straight away. But then, I am well travelled having been on numerous round-the-world trips over the years.

I am unsure how many Brits you have met, on whom you base your theory, but I don't know one who finds iced tea "repulsive".

A very, very great many, as it happens. Throughout my life.

Most notably, I suppose, beginning when I was a child and we lived in Europe and traveled extensively. And then in my early twenties when I moved by myself to Hong Kong, a place that in the late 60's was full of Brits, including my roommate, a young British secretary, and my boyfriend, an English lad that had gone out to the colonies and was working for P&O Shipping, and lived in a very nice large luxury flat paid for by P&O, along with several other single guys that also had "gone out" (and, by the way, threw the most wonderful parties). In fact, in those days, my social circle was made up almost entirely of Brits, along with a few Chinese, and one handsome Pakistani man that was a member of Interpol.

And then, back in the States, throughout the years, we entertained in our home scores of RAF exchange fighter pilots and their families, sometimes just for meals and parties and social events, but frequently for several weeks, while they waited for their household goods to arrive, and to find a house and get settled in.

Not to mention that in my 18 years as a travel agent, and 8 years owning my own travel agency, I often traveled to the UK just for vacation visits and work-related site inspections.

Even now, by sheer coincidence, the neighborhood here in Houston where I live is basically an enclave of British ex-pats working in the petroleum industry.

And countless times throughout the years I've heard Brits say some version of: "I don't know how you Yanks drink cold tea. It just sounds vile (disgusting, nasty, repugnant, revolting, repulsive, etc.)," often said with an accompanying facial expression to illustrate just how vile, disgusting, nasty, repugnant, revolting, repulsive, is even the very thought, and sometimes, even including what appears to be an involuntary shudder.

Of course, everyone is different, aren't they?

And I definitely did not mean to impugn your level of sophistication.

Clearly a fellow that has chosen to become a Texan is worldly, indeed.

[Tony Boulton]

Aahh... the 60's! Those were the days. I would probably have held the same view about iced tea myself back then.

Even 10 years ago, I remember having lunch with a business asociate in Chicago and my choice of iced tea (on a warm Chicago day, I might add) was treated with some curiosity. Since then it seems to have become much more popular. So many good things have come from the South!

More on topic, I discovered this week that Tazo have taken out the citrus flavor from their black iced tea. I dare not break that to my wife, who despite her being the ultimate afficiando (in my eyes) has not noticed. It still tastes good to me though. But how would I know? I am just a Brit. ;-)

[Jaymes]

Also perhaps "more on topic," my "comadre" seems to think everyone needs an iced-tea maker and she keeps saying she's going to buy me one. I've never been much for gadgets in general, and I feel like it's a little late in my personal game to suddenly require a new one for which I never previously have felt even the slightest need.

Anybody have an iced-tea maker? If you do, do you use it? Does it justify the space it occupies when it's not in use?

[Wholemeal Crank]

I'd had no idea someone made such a device. It's so easy to prepare a bit of hot tea and chill it, and even easier to just take some tea and drop it into cool water and wait....

[Jaymes]

I'd had no idea someone made such a device. .

Neither did I. But she sure loves hers. The thing is big and cumbersome, but she has it out on her counter at all times. And after I was introduced to hers, I did a bit of googling, and it turns out several companies make them, so someone must be buying them.

I'm more of a "sun tea" gal myself, and really love the look of that sparkling amber liquid brewing in its big gallon glass jar out in the sunshine, but I do appreciate the large pitcher that comes with her iced-tea maker.

And god knows it's quicker. You put ice in that big pitcher, add your tea and water to the machine, select a strength, push a button, and ten minutes later, Bob's your uncle.

http://www.amazon.co...c/dp/B00008VSCO

.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Jaymes (log)

[Tony Boulton]

And god knows it's quicker. You put ice in that big pitcher, add your tea and water to the machine, select a strength, push a button, and ten minutes later, Bob's your uncle.

The iced tea maker was declared to be obsolete on these shores when we discovered the cordless electric kettle. And there is yet another great invention to come from the Mother Country. Even in Texas in August it is faster than Sun Tea.

[Jaymes]

And god knows it's quicker. You put ice in that big pitcher, add your tea and water to the machine, select a strength, push a button, and ten minutes later, Bob's your uncle.

The iced tea maker was declared to be obsolete on these shores when we discovered the cordless electric kettle. And there is yet another great invention to come from the Mother Country. Even in Texas in August it is faster than Sun Tea.

Oh, I know Sun Tea is hopelessly inefficient. And, truth to tell, I don't think it tastes much better, either, if at all.

But I just like looking at it.

Not only is it beautiful, it reminds me of the days in the US south when a big jar of sun tea out on the front verandah was a sort of a signal of hospitality within. Often that would be the first thing that greeted you when you had been invited to some sort of ladies social "do" - a coffee or brunch or book club or bridge luncheon or something.

As you probably know, the pineapple was a symbol of hospitality in the olden days. When the seafaring men sailed home from tropical locales, they often brought with them an assortment of fruit. The hostess of the house would set a pineapple out on the front porch to let all of the neighbors and friends know that her hubby was home from the sea, and that there would be excellent hospitality to be had within, most likely including a taste of sweet, exotic fruit.

I always saw a big jar of sun tea brewing on someone's front porch as being much the same.

.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Jaymes (log)