Well, here in Minnesota it has been hovering above 90 degrees since I can remember, and the humidity is wobbling between 35% and 85%, depending on... well, I don't know what. I do know that for the first time since I was born, it was 97 degrees on my birthday. On May 19. That sort of thing just isn't normal this far north. The clouds kind of drift in and out, but not in a way that provides much shelter from the God forsaken solar heat. Ozone layer, where are you when we need you?
This is all to say that I am ever so thankful for iced tea. And here's the genius of it - I'm not waiting around for solar heat to brew it (though Lord knows I could), nor am I boiling a drop of water! One of my cookbooks (I've lost track of which one, so, grand apologies to the cookbook author who taught me this) shared this little tidbit with me: teabags and water WILL become tea, whether or not the water is hot! Imagine that! So. In my case, I have a glass bottle that some fancy fruit juice came in (FYI, strawberry kiwi juice just tastes kind of like cranberry apple juice or whatever). I discovered that this jar holds 4 cups of water, so I fill it up with tap water, throw 3 teabags in there (sometimes I get fancy and mix my generic grocery store teabags in with some mango tea from Trader Joe's or some Celestial Seasonings something-or-other), pop the lid on, and refrigerate. A while later... I don't know, 2 hours or whenever it looks like tea, I toss out the tea bags. Tada!
Also, I like to mix my iced tea with juice or lemonade, and at this moment I have added some mint leaves to the concoction as well. And ice cubes. Obviously. For extra deliciousness.
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For Southern sweet tea, you need to boil 1 quart of water with 1 quarter cup of sugar, then toss in the teabags (any kinda tea will do) and let it steep for a few minutes. Then let the stuff cool on the stove before refridgerating to avoid cloudy looking tea. Lemon and mint are welcome additions to all manner of tea.
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