The Perfect Ice Tea Mix?
For those that don't know, I live in the American South East. More specifically, South Carolina.
One of the many charms of living in South Carolina, during the summer months; is it's +90° heat and 99.9% humidity!
There's nothing quite like it.
Walking out of any building, to be greeted and assaulted by thick, very THICK humid air!
To combat this problem I decided to start brewing my own homemade Ice Tea.
Some first responses you may think...
"Hey dumb ass! Just drink some water or go buy some pre-made Tea at the store. Why go through the hassle?"
Well, my first response would be "yes, that's true!" But, some logic to why I started making my own.
- Water gets boring, it works... but Boring.
- Iced Tea off the shelves in stores are loaded with all kinds of crap. You'll never find a "Strait-up" Iced Tea.
It's either Sweet Tea, Flavored Tea, Half/Half of Tea/Lemonade, etc, etc.
####I just want a friggin' Cool, Simple and Refreshing Iced Tea dammit!!!
In addition, If you do happen to come across any "Strait-Up", already bottled tea in the stores; they're like $4 for a measly 20 oz. bottle! WTF!
And I'm NOT paying $30+ USD for a Iced Tea Brewing Machine!
I'm ole'fashion I guess?
Now we got that cleared from the system, let's get to a brewin' Brewster!
Here's What You'll Need and How I Make It
- Organic Black Tea Leaves and Green Tea (or what ever blend you like best)
- ICE
- Filtered Water
- Lemon Juice
Here's a itemized list...
- 2.5 Quarts of Water
- 8-9 Black Tea Bags
- 1 Green Tea Bag
- 1/16th (or 2Tablespoons) of Lemon Juice. You could use roughly 1/2 of a real lemon if you'd prefer.
- 3lbs of Ice or roughly 2.5 Quarts
- 1 Gallon Pitcher
First, you'll need to bring the 2.5 Qts. of Filtered Water to a boil.
While waiting for it to heat up, prepare the Tea Bags for placing them into the boiling water.
Here is how I prepare mine...
and then I'll twist them together. This makes it much easier while keeping them grouped together! See below..
Once the water comes to a rolling boil, you'll want to add the group of tea bags into the water. Once you add the tea bags into the boiling water, remove the pot from the heat and let the tea bags simmer for roughly 5 minutes and occasionally dipping them in and out of the water...
While you're waiting 5 minutes for the tea to steep. Start to prepare the pitcher with ice.
Again, fill the pitcher to roughly 2.5 Quarts of ice.
I've found that the 10 lb. bag will roughly make 3 batches of tea... if you don't use it for anything else :)
Next, time to pour the steeped tea into the pitcher of ice.
Once you pour the tea in and start mixing it around, now's the time to add in the liquid/ fresh squeezed Lemon Juice.
And There You Have It!
Ultra refreshing, Fresh brewed Iced Tea!
In my opinion, I find this method will always make the perfect batch of Brewed Iced Tea!
Of course you can experiment while trying out different tea blends, which I may start to do myself in the near future but, if you're looking for a good, quick Iced Tea for this(or any) Summer, then please give this a shot.
If you end up making some, post your comments and/or your recipe.
Would love to hear them!!
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I'll help me pay towards the A/c bill. LOL
#Peace!