Tea

What could be more refreshing on a hot and humid day than a glass of iced tea? This afternoon I was craving some iced tea, but we didn't have any already made--and besides, I don't like the (often bitter) taste of most conventional iced teas. Last summer, Mom made some southern sweet iced tea for a group of us that had gone hiking. I loved it! It was sweet, but not too sweet. Today I was wishing we had some of that tea, but I couldn't even find the recipe to make myself some--so I improvised.

Ingredients:
3 c. water
2 Lipton Iced Tea Brew (family sized) bags
1 cup sugar (approx)

Combine water and tea bags in a small saucepan, and bring just to a boil. Boil for a minute or two--not too long or else you'll bring out the tannin [bitter stuff] in the tea. Turn off the heat and let sit for 3 minutes with the lid on. Remove the tea bags--without squeezing them--and add 1 cup sugar, stirring until dissolved. Taste and add more sugar if desired. (I originally put in 1 1/4 cup sugar, and found the result too sweet). This will make a tea concentrate.

To serve: fill a cup with ice, and add the tea concentrate. I added enough ice to effectively dilute the concentrate in a 50-50 ratio. Add more ice if the tea is too strong, less if it's too weak.

Enjoy!

Now all I need is a hammock in the shade.

Addendum: After another batch of tea, I think 1 cup of sugar is still too sweet--even for a concentrate. Instead, start with 1/2 to 2/3 cup suger, and add more if you want it sweeter.