Iced Tea Recipes for the Empty Refrigerator Set

Wow - sweet tea, everybody just loves sweet tea. Well, ceylon tea, brew it, chill it, ice cubes, sugar, lemons - most people like iced tea, and will enjoy it greatly when thirsty - an event that tends to happen a lot in the summertime.

Iced tea, lemons, ice cubes, it's the truth - tea is good for you. A few people prefer having their iced tea unsweetened, and diabetics cannot have sugar at all, so, keeping sugar substitute by the pitcher of unsweetened iced tea, might be a good idea, especially for those reformed sugar lovers who really enjoy making the iced tea "to taste", by way of using lots of sweetener.

White tea is a lovely tea, with a delicate flavor that works well with white grape juice, delicately rinsed pansies, violets or other edible flowers... Wait, - there's more to it than that - there's green tea, black tea, herbal tea, even chickory - what, chickory and molasses, yep, chickory and molasses.

Ice cubes - add berries to the center of the tray prior to chilling, lemon bits, orange or lemon zest, mint leaves, even tiny flowers - wow!

Brands: Lipton, Nestea, Red Rose, Celestial Seasonings, Tao, Lindsay Gardens, Constant Comment, Twinings, Karma, Tazo, 4C, Eden Foods, store brand

Tea and fruit juice - add a cup of fruit juice to a quart of iced tea mix.

Fruit juice ice cubes, pour a cup of fruit juice into the ice cube tray, and allow to freeze for an hour.

Adding a cinnamon stick to the tea, while the tea water boils, arrange a cinnamon stick into the tea pot, near the tea bags.

In the morning, a jar of sun tea, placed in a window by the sun, will be brewing all day, and should be ready by the evening. I find that most iced tea tea bags will brew as "sun tea" if left all day in a sunny window.

I found dandelion tea to brew this way, if the leaves are pesticide-free, and thoroughly rinsed, the strong flavor of the dandelions is an interesting challenge, and a favorite of a few people who enjoy bitter beverages. This is something you might want to be certain to taste prior to serving.

Multitasking - cleaning the refrigerator while making iced tea

I approached this article with the excitement of a little child, and went to visit a few supermarkets, namely Tops and Wegman's, which carry the usual brands of packaged iced tea, such as 4C, Lipton, Celestial Seasonings, Nestea and the store brand. There are also things called tea bags, which are useful for the hurried house minder. Save the fancy tea and the tea strainer for another time. No need to pound and whisk your green tea cake here, concentrate on the fun of making your life easier in this great weather. So, place a half-gallon of water in your refrigerator, and allow to cool.

If your refrigerator has an automatic water cooler, or if you have a water cooler, skip this step of cooling water, it is already done. Also, please skip turning the automatic water dispenser into an automatic iced tea dispenser. I don't know how to do this, myself. Maybe there is a manual full of instructions regarding how to accomplish this.

This idea is especially grand if you tend to have jars of honey, jam, jelly, syrup that sit in your refrigerator for weeks or months with just the last few spoonfuls in the bottom of the jar.

Taking a few scoops of this, adding two cups of water, adding the mix carefully to your ice cube trays, and freezing it for two hours will give a person a sure fix of iced tea, no matter what the results of your impromptu search through your kitchen.

You could also make yourself a jar full or pitcher full of instant iced tea while you are waiting.

Next, boil some water, and get a huge cup for tea, or a large, relatively warm glass jar, gently placing two tea bags into it.

Find the baking soda box. Get a large cooler, and place everything in your refrigerator into the cooler, separating the jam jars and sauce jars that are nearly empty from the rest of the items.

By now the water should have boiled, so, wash your hands, and pour the hot water into the cup or jar, saving about a tablespoonful to add to the wet sponge you are going to place into the refrigerator. If there is extra water, use it to brew another variety of iced tea.

Scatter about a cup of baking soda into the refrigerator, throw in about a plastic cupful of water, close the door on the refrigerator, and allow it to set into the stains and odors inside the refrigerator. This will also serve to remind us not to add the glasses or cups of hot tea into the refrigerator until they are cool.

Next, take an elegant glass pitcher, rinse it, clean it, and add a tablespoonful of lemon juice to the bottom. Then, place the glass pitcher into the freezer, on an empty shelf, where it will stay put. The pitcher is there to ensure that the experiment goes well. It will be the final treatment for the cold tea, after the tea has become lukewarm, then cold. Also, if people arrive while you are still cleaning the refrigerator, before the iced tea is cold, it is easier to prepare a pitcher of tea using cool water, prepackaged iced tea mix and iced tea ice cubes for instant iced tea.

Wash the jam and sauce jars on the outside, and on the rims, and completely wash the lids. If the inside of the jar is clean, use it, use your own judgement call. Boil some more water, and fill a glass cup halfway. Add water about a tablespoonful at a time to the nearly empty jam jars, dissolving the sweet paste or liquid within, then, add some hot tea. Place the lid back on the jar, and allow to sit on the counter.

If you have a litte bit of water left, it might be a good idea to clean off that sponge you are using to clean out the refrigerator, carefully, without scalding your hands. A little boiling water does wonders to clean out a messy sponge. The water you use to clean the refrigerator (which should be off) should be lukewarm or tepid. Cleaning from top to bottom allows one to add the closed jam jars to the top shelf when the bottom of the refrigerator is being cleaned.

Using warm water in a bucket or a plastic quart jar, clean out the refrigerator, slowly, carefully, and allow yourself time to relax. If you get thirsty, have some iced tea. Every hour or so, wash your hands, check the ice cube tray, and make more ice cubes.

A few people are successful at making red, white, and blue ice cubes by way of using a cup of blue powdered beverage mix or blue energy drink for ice cubes, for the blue, cranberry drink, strawberry beverage, a cup of red powdered drink mix, or red energy drink for the red, and ordinary ice cubes for the white. Food coloring even works, just add a drop or two of food coloring to a cup of water, and mix, until the color is to your liking. Then, freeze the ice using ice cube trays that are about 2/3 full, 3/4 full maximum.

I do not know how to do these things using the automatic ice cube maker, thus I'm not suggesting doing anything other than what is in your instruction manual for your refrigerator's automatic ice cube maker. If you have any questions, read the manual.

Poetic Recipes

Berry Tea

strawberries
raspberries
blueberries
loganberries
mulberries
blackberries
gooseberries
bilberries

Rinsing these in cool water makes these excellent, placing a cup of berries into a jar of "sun tea" for four hours makes for a marvelous concoction.

From the late spring through the summer, we have little treats for a bit of pep.
Pick one of the above and add a 1/2 cup to a pitcher of cool tea.

Citrus Tea

oranges
lemons
limes
grapefruit
kumquats
tangerines
tangelos

Squeeze one or two of the above and add the juice to a pitcher of green or black cool tea. Grate the peel, or cut thin slices of citrus peel, and add to a tray of ice cubes.