Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Win-Win Ice Tea

It's hot, and for most that means lugging a lot of heavy drinks home. They consume your schlepping energy, and also since the bottles need to be manufactured and are heavy to transport, a great deal of energy is consumed in manufacturing and transporting them. Then some of the ice teas, for example, are in the refrigerator section of the market, consuming yet more fossil fuel. All so wasteful, really. What's the big deal of making ice tea?
Here is a very simple and delicious version I've served to enthusiastic drinkers. Start with Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Red Rooibos tea. It's obviously not local unless you live in Madagascar, but at least you're just transporting the tea, not the plastic bottle and the water.
Use a 2 quart glass pitcher - I do think the old koolaid commercial kind is the best ever....
Plastic pitchers are just not as aesthetically pleasing. Take 2 or 3 teabags (and appreciate that Celestical seasonings doesn't put each tea bag in yet another bag with a string, so it's more resource efficient), and brew the tea in a few inches of hot water. Hot tap water would be fine. Add sweetner at this point, so it dissolves - sugar, honey, or artificial, whichever is your thing.
After it brews about 10 or 15 minutes, remove the tea bags, add room water temperature, and refrigerate. If you have mint in your garden, even prettier.
Celestial Seasonings is a socially responsible company, by the way. So you can enjoy your tea from every angle.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love www.teacuppa.com rooibos while cherry. the taste is marvelous. once you opened the bag you could smell the wild cherry fragrance.

Anonymous said...

I like The Republic of Tea's Good Hope Vanilla Red (rooibos blended with vanilla bean) Tea but would be happy to try your Celestial Seasonings next time. Mine comes in a tall can, one round teabag stacked on top of the next. But BPT, don't recommend ingesting hot tap water... it loosens and frees up the lead solder and anything else icky that might be in old pipes. Cold water out of the tap for consumption is a better idea. Then heat.