Summer? Time for Iced Tea?

We turned the calendar page over into summer and by golly, summer like weather is actually here! We are nearly up to normal temperatures, and wouldn’t you know it, I’m leaving for vacation in Hawaii! That’s okay, I trust there will be two to three months of lovely weather to enjoy when I return……I hope!

With an unusually long, cool spring, we have only just begun to prepare iced tea for customers. Usually we’re keeping several pitchers “on tap” by now in our little frig. We do have a sturdy few who will start ordering iced tea when the sun shines any day past March, be it warm or not! So I did run a quick report to see what customers are purchasing to enjoy iced. The top five thus far are:

Breakfast Blend (Our “Basic Black” Iced Tea!)
Passion Berry
Mangosteen White
Apricot
Summer in Provence

(No decafs or herbals in there! Hmmmm…..That’s interesting.) At home, my boys and I have been enjoying a blend of Breakfast Blend and Spearmint over ice. It is so refreshing and of course a little lower in caffeine, too. I like this blend a bit sweet. :)

For iced tea you will use about 1 1/2 rounded teaspoons of tea leaves per cup. Put loose tea into a large infuser ball or fill-your-own teabags or loose into pitcher. Pour in several inches of fresh, boiling water. Steep for about 5 minutes, remove tea, fill with cold water and put in frig. Your infusion will be strong enough to handle those ice cubes. If you prepare sun tea, please make sure your container is absolutely, spotlessly clean. Tea is a perfect medium for bacterial growth. (I know…yucky!)

If you drink your tea sweet, we recommend making a simple syrup of sugar and water. Boil equal parts sugar and water on stove or in the microwave until the sugar dissolves. No more stirring and stirring and stirring to try to dissolve the sugar in iced cold tea. Simple syrup looks lovely in a small glass pitcher.

I wish you lovely (but not too hot) iced tea sipping weather!