Iced tea is one of my all-time favorite beverages. When I am out, I usually order it unsweetened, and then the add sugar myself, along with a squeeze of lemon.
“Sweet Tea,” made lovingly by proper Southern Ladies and Gentlemen, is usually a little too sweet for my tongue, but I’ll drink it when offered, to be polite.
A few years ago Lipton came out with “Cold Brew” tea bags and that is the only kind I make at home now. For my pallet, a two-quart pitcher takes about ¼ cup sugar and sometimes I’ll also add a little less than a ¼ cup of either Country Time lemonade mix or Tang.
Yesterday I had lunch out and ordered iced tea. I came home inspired to make a pitcher, but I was in a quandary about it – is it too late? It's nearly October and something about making iced tea felt… wrong. Like wearing white after Labor Day. No, different than that, but still, wrong. Is it wrong? Does iced tea have a season or at least an outside temperature range? It's in the 70s (was in the 80s yesterday). I can drink iced tea, right?
Does anyone add milk to their iced tea? I’ve never seen that. Iced coffee usually has milk, but not iced tea. Wonder why.
This all reminds me of a song by The Cowboy Junkies called “Cold Tea Blues.”
If I pour your cup, that is manners.
If I add your milk, that is friendship.
If I stop there, claiming ignorance of taste, that is tea.
But if I measure the sugar to satisfy your expectant tongue, then that is love.
(Sitting untouched and growing cold.)
And thus the difference between ICED tea and COLD tea.
2 comments:
I am having a similar dilemma. I do so very much love my iced vanilla latte, but as the rain comes down and the thermometer struggles to reach 60 degrees, is it wrong to continue to order it? I mean, they have pumpkin spice lattes on the menu - summer is most definitely over! As long as my hands are warm enough, I will order the iced drink. :-)
The only time I have seen milk in iced tea is in Thai tea. But then it's coconut milk, I think.
It's not wrong to have hot cocoa in the summer, is it?
As I understand it (truth in advertising: I can do without iced tea, but will not spit it out if offered), you brew it as hot tea, then add ice to chill.
It's like flying the flag at half-mast: You raise it to the top for a few seconds, then lower it to half-staff.
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