As the weather is considering a change to the warmer, I’ve been trying my hand at iced teas. Mostly cold brewed, and Hubby is enjoying most of the experiments right now since the weather is still not quite iced tea season for me… although I have tried a few. MissB was so gracious to share an iced tea blend of this and several others for me to experiment with. :)
Being my first iced tea blend from Southern Boy Teas (52teas), I thought I do the unmentionable and cut the bag in half and do a partial batch… Just in case I had a fail. Wanted to be sure I had a chance at redemption.
I first hot steeped the half bag to make a qt of tea, pouring that directly into a Mason jar full of ice when the steep was over. I then removed the bag, and the leaves that had escaped, into another Mason jar and cold steeped that overnight. The hot steeped version was almost bitter and although it smelled of strawberry, it was richer in the black base flavor than anything. I saved the hot steeped tea until the next day and combined the two into a 2qt pitcher … Eeks, is that allowed?!?! I’m thinking next time I may try to cold steep first and then hot steep later as MissB suggested, but I was so excited I forgot to double check which to do first if I wanted to try a double steep.
We enjoyed the tea with our dinner and it was a nice refreshing tea. It smelled much like a strawberry milkshake, but tasted better… Richer. A touch of sugar brought out the strawberry and made this a nice treat. My 8 yr old son tried it and said it was good, but not a favorite… I’m thinking when we try Monkey Fart he will go bananas over that one.. ;)
I’m not used to flavored iced teas in the summer… having grown up on Lipton w/loads of fresh mint, Gonna take a little getting used to added flavors in cold blends, but I think I’m going to really enjoy the variety. Hubby is really enjoying trying new things already and always comes home saying how much he liked whatever I had ready for him that day to take to work.. I’ve sent several and he’s only come home with one that was just ok. :) So much better than grabbing a soda… In so many ways! Love it!
Flavors: Berries, Cream
