Iced Tea

	Iced Tea Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea . - author Henry James (1843-1916)
	I dedicate this page to all who understand the joy of a good cup of tea. My Dad tells the story of a fishing trip to Canada where he attempted to order a glass of ice tea in a restaurant. They didn't sell ice tea. In fact they didn’t even know what he was talking about. Dad finally settled for a cup of hot tea and a large glass of ice. They had plenty of that! Apparently, ice tea is a United States thing. Richard Blechynden, a tea vendor at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, is credited with creating iced tea, in an attempt to boost sales of tea in the summer heat. Talk about a great idea! When it comes to good old American iced tea I am not real particular. My family has mainly relied on Lipton tea to fill this need and I am not one to buck family tradition. I prefer my ice tea on the strong side without sugar and. Many people prefer sweet tea. I really like the ice tea served at a nearby Red Lobster. I asked them once what brand they used and they kindly brought me a tea bag stamped Maryland Tea. I have never been able to locate a retailer for this brand. According to Red Lobster's website they use Tetley tea but this is definitely not what the tea bag was labeled in our local store. According to a web search Maryland tea is a product of Sara Lee. That makes sense - afterall, who doesn't like Sara Lee. American iced tea is typically black tea of a pekoe / orange pekoe blend. No it doesn't contain oranges. It is so named because of the color of the infusion. Pekoe is the leaves around the bud. Orange pekoe is the leaves and the end buds of the shoot. Orange pekoe isn’t considered to be a high quality tea. I suppose if I cared more about labels and less about taste I might refuse to drink what the peasants are drinking. As a blue collar, redneck, white guy, orange pekoe is as American as apple pie. I do not find it necessary to apologize for liking it. I also get bored reading Lipton Tea bashing reviews. They remind me of the story of the restaurant that is so popular no one goes there anymore. Huh?, you say. Exactly, I respond. Lipton is popular because people enjoy it. There are cheaper teas so it is not just price making it to sell so well. Certainly, you can buy black teas that are more exotic. I suggest you make a tall glass of ice tea from each and see what tastes best to you. It seems everyone has their own method of brewing ice tea. We use a pot on top of the stove and bring the water just to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and add one tea bag for each glass plus one for the pitcher. When it reaches the proper strength we pour it over lots of ice in a pitcher and fill the rest of the way with water. The secret to good ice tea, besides selecting a brand of tea you really like, is the water. Avoid using tap water. The chemicals in tap water will affect the flavor. Our tap water smells like bleach most of the time. Don’t use distilled water. It lacks minerals so it will taste flat. Do use spring water or bottled drinking water. You will notice the difference. Ice tea tastes best when fresh. My brother carries this to the extreme. He will dump a pitcher after just two hours and make fresh. Stored tea turns cloudy and sours quickly. Refrigerated tea will pick up odors from whatever is kept with it. Make it right. Drink it fresh. The few bottled and canned ice teas I have tried have not made me a big fan. Most were so overly lemoned and sweetened they were just not good. Since they are trying to compete directly with soda pop, most bottled/canned teas seem way over done. They also have a tendency to be more like a fruit juice than a tea. Two I did like are Arizona Green Tea with honey and ginger, and Lipton Citrus Green Tea (I drink this one often). Both of these were labeled as green teas but neither tasted very tea-like. They were good but they did not taste like tea. I had the diet version of each, which contained Splenda, or Nutrasweet and they were both very sweet.
	Home Loose leaf or bags? Tea Storage Iced Tea Hot Tea Tea Reviews Tea Links Due to spammers stealing my email address, I had to remove a direct link to email me. You will have to type the above address into your mail program to contact me. Sorry it is a hassle but it had to be done. Never post your address online unless you want to receive hundreds of junk spam daily.