A Nice Cuppa

When I was in college, I started brewing a mix of herbal teas together and refrigerating them, adding honey and mint or lemon to taste. I was also known for mixing juice and seltzer together. I’m not bragging, but stating the facts: I have been ahead of beverage trends for quite awhile. It was inevitable that tea would claim its rightful place among Americans, following the coffee craze. Tea, though, doesn’t necessarily inspire the same kind of hysteria that coffee does — it tends to be a restorative rather than rejuvenating beverage. Companies such as Teavana make it easier for a tea lover to indulge in his or her favorite brew and discover a myriad of new ones. You may have noticed Teavana stores in a mall near you; the company has a presence in many states across the U.S. The samples of both hot and iced teas they make available also make it hard to resist trying something new. If inspired, you can also order a tea drink right there in the store.

A few months ago, when I was eliminating coffee from my diet (too much acid; its absence, however, pains me in other ways) and switching strictly to tea full-time, I fell in love with a brew Teavana was selling, a combination of half Rooibos Chai and half Mate Vana. The mix boasts half the caffeine of a regular black tea because rooibos, or red teas, have none. Together, the fruity-spicy rooibos and the caramel and chocolate notes of mate make for a great tea — hot or iced.

For hot tea, Teavana recommends 1.5 teaspoons of loose tea per 8 ounces of liquid, and a brewing time of 5-6 minutes. For iced tea, you need double the amount of tea, which insures, as with iced coffee, that once you add the ice it will not become diluted. I decided to try this as an iced tea, so I took out my Mr. Coffee (irony!) Iced Tea maker, filled it up with its requisite 32 ounces of water, and let it go. Of course, people made iced tea with hot water and let it steep in the sun or elsewhere long before such modern conveniences were invented, so if you follow your own patented method of making iced tea, just be sure to adjust the amounts according to the size of your vessel of choice.

Ingredients
10 tsp. Mate Vana/Rooibos Chai or other looseleaf tea of your choice
32 ounces of water
3-4 generous handfuls of ice
Sugar, honey, or lemon to taste (I used about 3 tbsp. of honey)

If you are using an iced tea maker, follow the instructions per your manufacturer. Mine requires 32 ounces of water. I let it brew and then after it was finished, I added the honey while it was hot (it dissolves more quickly that way, ditto for sugar); added the ice, and put the pitcher in the fridge. It took less than hour to achieve a perfect chill, just in time for a sweltering weekend on the horizon. Enjoy!