White tea has a delicate flavor and when mixed with fruit it really adds a nice dimension. The mint and lime flavors are cooling and refreshing as well.  Although key limes are preferred you can use regular lime if you can’t find them.

If you are looking for a refreshing drink to serve for your Fourth of July celebration check this out.

Lime, and Mint Iced Tea

• 1 quart of water
• 4 white tea bags
• 1  1/2 cups fresh mint leaves
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup key lime juice
• Lime slices for garnish

1. Bring the water and sugar just to a boil.
2. Stir until sugar is completely disolved.
3. Remove from heat and add tea bags and mint.
4. Steep for about one minute and remove bags.
5. Allow to come to room temperature.
6. Remove mint and add lime juice.
7. Stir well and refrigerate. Serve  in frosted glasses over ice

image:sxc

Post from: Kettle and Cup

White tea. Adding the tea gives the flavor another depth and it is really good. White tea is very delicate so it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the fruit, in this case honeydew.

For an added intensity try this with Republic of Tea’s Honey Dew White Tea

Honeydew-Lime Iced Tea

• 6 cups cubed honeydew melon
• 2 cups water
• 1/3 cup sugar, more or less to taste
• 2 tea bags of white tea, or amount of white tea leaves to make 2 cups of strong tea
• 1/2 cup lime juice

1. Bring water and sugar just to a boil. stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add tea or tea bags and allow to steep for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Let come to room temperature.
4. Check to make sure there are no stray seeds on melon. Blend the melon in a blender with the white tea until it is a liquid. Blend in the sugar and lime at low speed, just until sugar dissolves.
5. Pour over ice and serve with a lime wedge.

Makes about 6 servings depending on size

image:marye audet

Post from: Kettle and Cup

There are a lot of ways to make iced tea, or sweet tea as we call it. In fact, by using some of the herbal and fruit blends you can make a healthier option for your kool aid kids.  The Acai berry tea that I reviewed yesterday is a good example, but there are thousands more.

Teavana

Keep in mind that with Teavana you can ask them to blend several teas for a totally individual experience.

• Blueberry bliss rooibos
• Rooibos Peach
• Caribbean Breeze fruit tea blend
• Tarocco Ruby Orange Herbal Tea
• Strawberry Kiwi
• Pacific Sunrise Rooibus

Adagio

• Afrikaans wild rooibus mint
• Mango Passion Iced Tea
• Any of the fruit flavored teas

Try mixing your tea with fruit juices for a variety of refreshing flavors! If possible let the tea come to room temperature before adding ice or refrigerating. Cooling it too fast can shock the tea and cause it to be bitter. I mean, seriously, if someone gave you a sauna and then dumped you in ice wouldn’t you be shocked? Have some compassion.

image:marye audet

Post from: Kettle and Cup

I did not grow in up the south. We moved to Texas when I was about 10 or 11, but by the time I was 16 I recognized that sweet tea was an institution that was taken as seriously as football in this area.  Not everyone could make it right. My mom, for example, bless her Midwestern heart, bought presweetened instant tea with lemon.  God rest her soul.

No, tea was an art form, perfected by generations of women that talked like Paula Deen, and knew that sweet tea was the answer to everything life threw at their families.  Open any refrigerator door in the South in the early 1970s and there would be a pitcher (probably tupperware) of sweet tea looking back at you.  Center shelf.

We created out Farrah Fawcett hair styles with a blow dryer, round brush, hair spray, and a big glass of sweet tea.  We chatted around the dinner table in our avocado and orange kitchens over pitchers of sweet tea.  In fact, the day that Nixon resigned I watched with a glass of sweet tea in hand.  There was protocol, tradition, and several pounds of Domino sugar in that tea.

What wine is to the French and Italians, what vodka is to the Russians, and what beer is to the Germans, sweet tea is to any southerner worth their hushpuppies.

C’mon, you know it is true. Sunday afternoon? Wyatts cafeteria? Fried catfish? Sweet tea!

There is only one way to make sweet tea.  The sugar can’t be added last.  You have to bring the water and the sugar to a simmer until the sugar dissolves.  Then you steep your tea.  Then you let it cool at room temperature. Then, and only then can you refrigerate it.

There will be no silliness like adding sugar to all ready prepared unsweetened tea. Just pour that stuff on your roses.

Make yourself a big pitcher of sweet tea, pour it over ice, and drink it out of a mason jar.  That’s some real southern libations, y’all.

If you need more instructions than that…well, you are obviously from the north…but here they are How to Make Tea, Hot or Sweet. Scroll to the  bottom of the page.

image:maryeaudet

Post from: Kettle and Cup

Nope, this is not a new recipes.

Apparently, according to doctors iced tea is one of the causes of kidney stones in people that are prone to getting them. It seems that tea contains oxalate which is a key chemical that produces kidney stones when coupled with dehydration and poor dietary habits.

I added the words in italics because it is something doctors never want to say..”Hey pal, your eating habits stink, of course you are going to be unhealthy.”

I don’t know. I will freely admit to not being a doctor. I don’t even LIKE doctors for the most part. (Sorry Cathy, I am sure the Wild Boar is different). I have spent my entire adult life staying away from them as much as possible. Sometimes I think that doctors take themselves WAY too seriously…and miss some pretty basic truths.

For example, in the article the guy they interviews drank six glasses of iced tea a day. How big were the glasses? I mean here in Texas we get BUBBA glasses which are basically quart mason jars. Did he drink six of those?

Anything we do in excess is bad for us. I would say that six glasses of tea a day was probably excessive. He was drinking it instead of water…that’s not smart. You gotta have water. I drink about 2 gallons of water a day, seriously.

So, if you are part of the ten percent of the population that is prone to kidney stones watch your sweet tea intake. And if you are not?

Here, have a Bubba glass of tea.

There are some other things you can do…but I think those things are best left for Simply Home Remedies, a little later.

Image:MaryeAudet

Post from: Kettle and Cup

There is, as far as I am concerned only one way to make iced tea and that is good old southern sweet tea. An iced tea by any other name just tastes…nasty.

But once you have reached the perfect tea you can do all kinds of amazing things with it! This is a light and refreshing summer drink that begins with a perfect half gallon of sweet tea.

Almost Mojito Sweet Tea

1/2 gallon of sweet tea, chilled

1 cup mint leaves, bruised

1/2 cup key lime or regular lime juice, fresh is best

a few mint springs and lime slices for garnish

Add lime and mint to the tea and allow to chill in the fridge for an hour or so. Strain out the mint and add slices of lime to the tea. Pour in frosted glasses and garnish with lime slice and a sprig of mint.

Image:Morguefile

Post from: Kettle and Cup

I was looking through the tea melange in the pantry on friday. I wanted iced tea that was flavored but different. Sometimes we get into an iced tea rut in the summer. Peach tea, raspberry tea, orange or lemon…you know how it is. God forbid that someone would think that we were boring and predictable around here.

I had picked up a box of Celestial Seasonings Powerfully Plum White Tea meaning to try it and review it. When I saw it on Friday I was pretty sure that it was going to make an amazing iced tea.

It did. Because it is a white tea we used extra tea bags. For one gallon of water we used 2 cups sugar (see how to make sweet tea) and about 10 tea bags, and let them steep longer that you normally would.

The tea is delicate and light with a distint plummy flavor. It is great as is but if you made a soda with it, half club soda/half tea it would be incredible. I can also see it with fresh berries added to it, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

Anyway, give it a try. I loved it and I think you will, too.

Image:Marye Audet

Post from: Kettle and Cup