Iced Tea
Now that the summer months are coming, I’ve gotten into the habit of making iced tea every morning, so by lunch time it’s nice and cold. Now, there are many ways to make iced tea. The two best known ways are to boil the water, add the tea and let sit for a little bit, then pour into a pitcher with more cold water, and finally add sugar. The problem with this method is that sugar takes awhile to dissolve properly in cold water, and the sugar that isn’t dissolved just settles onto the bottom of the pitcher. Think about when you are at a restaurant and your order iced tea. Usually it comes unsweetened, and when you put the sugar in the glass you stir and stir and stir, and you still have a bunch of sugar sitting on the bottom of a glass. The second method is known as sun tea. You take a glass jug of water and put some tea in it, and sit it outside for a few hours, then you bring it in, add more water, and sugar. Again, you have the same problem with the sugar not dissolving, and to top it off you are risking bacteria. I just don’t like either method.
There is a solution. It’s simple, actually, it’s simple syrup. Start a small pot of water to boil, and when it starts to simmer add in your sugar. Me and my family prefer a generous cup full. Stir the sugar until it dissolves and the [now] simple syrup comes up to a boil. Take off the heat and add in 6 tea bags of your favorite tea. Around here we like sweet ginger peach tea. Red raspberry tea is also good, as well as chai tea. Currently I’m planning on experimenting with green tea and honey tea, as well as anything else I find in the tea section next time I go shopping. I have a lot of teas. 
Once the tea has sat for awhile, which I leave it anywhere up to an hour depending on the kind of tea and the strength of flavor, squeeze the bags and pour into a 2 quart pitcher. Fill with cold water until you have 2 quarts, and put in the fridge. With this method, you really are only using the stove for about 5 minutes, which puts the kabosh on the worry that you might heat up the house. Also, the boiled water should have killed some of the bacteria in the water and in the tea, so no worry there. Finally, no sugar settling on the bottom, just cold, flavorful, and yummy sweet tea.
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marye
May 10th, 2008 @ 10:26 am
YAY! Finally someone else that knows how to make proper sweet tea!
Saturday Surfing:Coffee Savings for World Fair Trade Day!!
May 10th, 2008 @ 11:13 am
[...] Modern Princess knows how to make real southern sweet tea! [...]
Joseph Durnal
May 12th, 2008 @ 10:29 am
I sure do like drinking Amy’s tea!