Refrigerator Iced Tea

(Tea Times Blog) – While wilting under the 100+ degree weather, I’ve been trying to build up enough energy to make iced tea. Whenever I thought about making some, it was still 94 degrees at 10 P.M. and there was no way I was going to subject myself or my family (including the fur-covered, four-legged variety) to the effects of heating water in my house.

After “Twittering” about my problem, I was reminded by Michael J. Coffey of TeaGeek.net that refrigerator tea would be the obvious choice. Yes, but that meant that I was going to have to move my body.  I would have much rather waited around to see if the tea would have just magically appeared, but I had already done that for the last two days, and I think it was Einstein who said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Or something like that. In any case I was still going to have to do some planning in order to get me some iced tea.

I was inspired by this TeaBoat blog post. This morning, before leaving the house for work, I dug out some of Trader Joe’s White Pomegranate Tea and Trader Joe’s Organic Mint Melange Tea from my cupboard and put them in my purse. When I got to work, I simply took three bags of each the white tea and the mint tea, removed the tags , and put them in a pitcher with six cups of spring water, and stuck the whole thing in the fridge for four hours.  (Note to self:  If your going to use bagged teas, try not to tear the bags while removing the tags.  What a mess!)

I went to check on my concoction at lunch time and found a lovely pink beverage waiting for me.  The pomeganate tea, which I’ve enjoyed sipping hot without any sweetner, was even more pleasurable cold.  The addition of the mint made the iced tea a very refreshing complement to my lunch, a pasta salad.

And granted, this was a pretty darn easy way to make iced tea. Even for someone in the midst of a stifling heat wave.