** 24/7 IcedTeaGirl Seeks Guests in Her Sand Box!**
But before you step in, I feel I must tell you:
If you are a Tea Aficianado, you don’t want to play here.
In this box there are no thermometers and no timers. In fact, No Food Rules is the motto and the only guiding light is FlavorFlavorFlavor. Background check: Father a career Naval Officer, 1st half of life in VA; Taste-forming High School years:VA., FL.,Italy, HI. Then MA. colleges and my beloved New England forever!
Growing up, it was ICEICEICEICE, and Lipton’s- fresh lemon- fake sugar.
In 1980, Bonnie Brown introduced me, through our New England Women’s Culinary Guild, to flavored tea. Mango, to be specific. Brewed and served the proper way. Then I was onto Earl Grey, Peach, BlackCurrant, PassionFruit, Lichee, Jasmine, Jasmine Pearl, Red and Lemon Zinger, Matcha, Chai, Lapsang Souchong, via friends, chinatowns, travels, reading, Upton Teas and VT. Traders. Included was tea as food prep: Gravlax coating; Chinese Tea-Smoked Duck. And now…24/7 Iced Tea.
-My, Gasp !!!!!! technique is: Bring to boil 6-8 cups of tapwater, remove lid, turn off heat, add ½ cup tea leaves, stir, cover and steep on the counter for ~4-5 days,with the tea leaves, using this concentrate daily as needed, straining and refrigerating it for future daily use. For the last year I have been totally happy playing with IceIceIce, Earl Grey, Lapsang Souchong (did I mention, I’m a smoke flavor and citrus addict) and Matcha (Japanese powder, through Amazon, whisked with a silver fork [matcha eats stainless] into a sludge-thick concentrate), all sweetened w/ my fav low cal, stevia- sweetened bottled tea drink, Bai Panama Peach. Flavored fizzy water is sometimes added and I usually use only 2 teas in a large iced tea mug. My teas are also major players in my occasional vodka-citrus-tea drinks.
NOW, how about you? What iced teas do you make and love? Please tell! Learning from you smart adventurous 52ers- is my very fav thing.
1 Comment
I make matcha every morning but have never had it iced. I may try that once it warms up here - we got another few inches of snow over the weekend but did finally have a few days in the 30's this past weekend so it'll probably be another few months!