[1] A wheel of citrus is messy to pick up and squeeze, and simply adds eye appeal to the drink. Use a wedge instead (photo © Regis Hari Bouchard | Unsplash).

[2] Fresh orange juice is delicious in iced tea; but again, squeeze a wedge rather than use a wheel (photo © Twinings).

June is National Iced Tea Month; June 10th is National Iced Tea Day.

If you like a slice or wedge of lemon in your iced tea, here’s a way to infuse all the fresh citrus flavor into your tea before you pour it into a glass.

The technique also works with lime and orange wedges, and with herbs like lemongrass and mint.

By the way, fresh orange and lemongrass are excellent complements to iced tea. Try them.

Bonus: Citrus fruits have plenty of vitamin C and antioxidants; lemongrass is full of antioxidants.
 
 
HOW TO INFUSE CITRUS INTO ICE TEA

This technique is for people who want a lot of lemon, lime or mint flavor.

For only a touch of flavor, a quick squeeze of the wedge is fine.

1. BREW the tea. While the tea is hot…

2. ADD wedges of fruit into the hot tea. You can squeeze the juice into the tea before adding the wedges.

With mint, crush the leaves and stems in your hand before adding; with lemongrass, crush the stalks (we pound them).

3. INFUSE the tea on the countertop for an hour or longer.

4. STRAIN the tea into another container and discard the spent fruit. Chill the tea.

Note that the tea will not be crystal-clear as it is when iced plain, but the flavor will be more intense.

If you always drink iced tea with sugar, you can add it into the hot tea as well. It dissolves very quickly, unlike stirring it into cold tea.
 
 
WHY NOT INFUSE PEACHES & BERRIES?

The reason the infusion technique works best with lemon, lime and herbs is because these items aren’t meant to be eaten, just to flavor the tea.

On the other hand, peaches, berries, and other fruits are meant as edible garnishes, rather than infusions.

Properly, the drink is iced tea: tea that has been chilled with ice. It is spelled this way in primers on editing and by the line editors of quality publications.

But, as more and more Americans care less and less about the rules of English, ice tea—tea with added ice—has been making inroads, even among some editors.

There is precedent: Ice water was originally, properly, “iced water.” We presume that editors in that era of transition were equally chagrined.
 
 
> ICED TEA TRIVIA & HISTORY
 
 
MORE ICED TEA

Have An Iced Tea Party

The History Of Iced Tea

How To Brew Perfect Iced Tea

How To Dissolve Sugar In Cold Drinks

For people who are so time-pressed to get out of the house in the morning, here’s a gadget from 30 Watt:

The Original Joeski Shower Coffee Holder.

Drink your coffee while you shower!

No suction cups, adhesives or wall mounts are used to affix the holder to your shower wall.

Instead, the Joeski uses silicone to grip the device securely to glossy surfaces like glass, mirror, marble, metal, shiny tile and laminate using a patented grip technology.

Just mount it onto a dry surface, smooth out the air bubbles, wait 24 hours, and then you’re ready to get your morning started.

It won’t leave any residue behind should you decide to remove it.

Holes on the bottom of the holder keep it from filling with water.

Get yours here.

There are also variations for beer/soda cans and wine glasses.

[1] Save time: Drink your coffee in the shower (photo © 30 Watt).

[1] An impressive party dish or appetizer: cooked store-bought pesto with kalamata olives and pesto sauce. We adderd ciliegene, small mozzarella balls Here’s the recipe (both photos © DeLallo).

[2] Here, pesto is a salad dressing on this baby arugula, snap pea and burrata salad. Thin the pesto to desired consistency with olive oil. Here’s the recipe.

[3] Pesto is a great sauce for grilled or roasted fish, meat and poultry. This is an arugula pesto (photo © Sun Basket).

You may enjoy pesto on pasta, but what about beyond?

Pesto sauce traditionally* consists of basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses. Salt is added for seasoning.

Here’s a recipe for homemade pesto. If you’d like to try other ingredients—cheeses, greens, nuts, oils—here’s a list of options.

Pesto originated in the Italian province of Liguria, where plots of sweet basil were plentiful. (The capital city of Liguria, Genoa, is the home of Christopher Columbus.)

Ligurians invented pesto sauce, crushing the ingredients with a mortar and pestle into a paste (pesto means paste in Italian).

Varying the amount of olive oil created a thinner sauce or a thicker spread.
 
 
MAKE YOUR OWN PESTO

It’s easy to make pesto at home. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle†, you can pulse the ingredients in a food processor.

Note: We tried it both ways, and the ground mortar and pestle version actually tasted more vibrant than the pulsed pesto.

We prefer it, unless we don’t want to take the extra time.

Here’s the classic recipe, plus tips to make a better pesto:

 
Extra pesto can be stored in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for up to one week.

Or, freeze it.

 
 
BEYOND PASTA: 14 NON-PASTA WAYS TO USE PESTO

 
 
RECIPES: NON-PASTA WAYS TO USE PESTO

15 Pesto Use Recipes
21 Pesto Use Recipes
Asparagus & Pesto Lasagna
Broccoli Rabe & Pistachio Pesto With Burrata
Pesto Cheese Spread
Polenta & Pesto Lasagna

*Today, cooks switch out the ingredients to make modern pestos: different herbs or green vegetables, nuts and cheeses.

†The mortar is the bowl, the pestle is the grinding tool. They were used to make both medicine and food. Ancient mortars and pestles found in Southwest Asia date back to approximately 35000 B.C.E. If that seems like a ridiculously long time ago, Homo sapiens evolved in Africa 300,000 years ago [source].

The English word mortar derives from classical Latin mortarium, meaning, among other things, both receptacle for pounding and the product of grinding or pounding. The classical Latin pistillum, meaning “pounder,” evolved into the English pestle [source].