Amazing Iced Tea!
While the fourth day of July is not a holiday up here, it seems an appropriate day to post my awesome iced tea recipe. Liberally adapted from an old family recipe, it is simple, delicious, and easy to tweak. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- half an orange, rinsed and sliced
- half a lemon, rinsed and sliced
- frozen orange juice concentrate
- black tea bags (2)
Make a big pot of strong black tea. I like to use Tetley bags for this, I find they're the best, but I've had interesting and enjoyable results using Earl Grey tea as well. Let the tea steep for a while (if you're me, forget it on the counter for an hour or two).
When you remember the pot of tea, pull out your pitcher and put two or three generous soup spoons worth of OJ concentrate in the pitcher. Stir in your warm tea slowly - the warmth of the tea will help dissolve the concentrate. Add slices of orange and lemon and let sit for a while. Here too the warmth of the tea will help mix the flavours. After about 30 min, or - if you're impatient - when you're ready to drink the tea, add enough ice to fill the pitcher.
More concentrate makes the tea sweeter; the original recipe calls for a whole can of concentrate, but I find that to be much too much. I've had good luck making one sweeter recipe, then adding another pot of tea to a half-pitcher to make a second batch of less sweet tea.
The sweetness and flavours change significantly after an overnight in the fridge; I think the orange slices macerate a bit. So tasty.
I have taken to drinking this in the morning in lieu of coffee - tea and OJ combined, a prefect breakfast drink. Particularly when the thermometer edges up into the 30s...
Ingredients:
- half an orange, rinsed and sliced
- half a lemon, rinsed and sliced
- frozen orange juice concentrate
- black tea bags (2)
Make a big pot of strong black tea. I like to use Tetley bags for this, I find they're the best, but I've had interesting and enjoyable results using Earl Grey tea as well. Let the tea steep for a while (if you're me, forget it on the counter for an hour or two).
When you remember the pot of tea, pull out your pitcher and put two or three generous soup spoons worth of OJ concentrate in the pitcher. Stir in your warm tea slowly - the warmth of the tea will help dissolve the concentrate. Add slices of orange and lemon and let sit for a while. Here too the warmth of the tea will help mix the flavours. After about 30 min, or - if you're impatient - when you're ready to drink the tea, add enough ice to fill the pitcher.
More concentrate makes the tea sweeter; the original recipe calls for a whole can of concentrate, but I find that to be much too much. I've had good luck making one sweeter recipe, then adding another pot of tea to a half-pitcher to make a second batch of less sweet tea.
The sweetness and flavours change significantly after an overnight in the fridge; I think the orange slices macerate a bit. So tasty.
I have taken to drinking this in the morning in lieu of coffee - tea and OJ combined, a prefect breakfast drink. Particularly when the thermometer edges up into the 30s...