TIP OF THE DAY: Make Iced Tea
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With warm weather upon us, our iced tea consumption rises to up to 6 bottles a day.
That’s a $10/day habit in bottled tea, $70 per week. Or, a mere fraction of that if we brew our own. Given our combined desire to spend sensibly and consume sustainably, we focus on home brewing. You don’t need any fancy equipment, but there are some specialty ice tea brewers that make sense for those who drink a lot of iced tea. Check out the options from Hamilton Beach and West Bend. We personally use the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker, one of our favorite kitchen appliances. We let the hot tea cool, then pour it into recycled 16-ounce drink bottles and place them in the fridge. You can just as easily pour it into a pitcher if you prefer to serve it that way, or store the tea in recycled quart bottles. |
 Iced tea makers brew the tea right in a pitcher. Photo courtesy West Bend. |
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Before we had the Breville tea brewer, we simply put loose tea in a large mesh tea ball/spice ball, or tea bags, and then placed it in a large mixing bowl and poured in an entire kettle of boiling water. (For green tea, don’t bring the water to boiling. The ideal brewing temperature is 180°F.) For the best iced tea, buy loose tea from a specialty tea store. The flavors are so intense, no sugar or lemon is needed. And you’ll need less tea: Loose tea can be infused two or three times, while most tea bags are made to produce one cup of tea.
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