(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

I? Am a genius.

I was sitting here at work going, "I want tea." Then I would go, "But tea is hot, and I am already hot. There should be some way to have cold tea."

At work, we have one of those K-cup tea/coffee machines, that you put in a plasticy cup and it gets punctured and hot water going through it gets you your drink. Next thought: "I can't use that! It will only make the tea hot!"

Then: "Wait. We have a water cooler. If I go get one of the regular packets of tea from the office and leave it to brew in my water bottle filled with cold-tap water from the cooler--PRESTO! Cold tea! Amazing!"

Yes, all of that was how I actually thought through this process. I am so smart.

ETA: SUCCESS! We have cold tea!

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Things to be aware of when making cold tea:

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/suntea.asp

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I are confused. Why would you want to leave it in the sun? Wouldn't that heat the tea and then make it less cold?

[viridian.livejournal.com]

That's kind of a ridiculous warning, though, given that it's not going to harbor any more bacteria than just plain water left out to get warm would, and really, how the fuck much bacteria does WATER get?

You're not going to die from drinking it.

But the point is, that in the summer, people don't want to heat up water for tea by boiling it on the stove, so they just leave it in the sun, because cold water doesn't make tea steep very well at all.

You can, however, just make it in your fridge. Just throw some tea bags in a container of some sort, add water, let sit for a few hours. Same thing. Just takes longer.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It didn't take that long to get about a pint's worth of tea in my water bottle. I didn't leave it even ten minutes, and it got flavorful enough. True, not as much as a hot beverage would have done, but a drinkable amount.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I think the point was more that there's small amounts of bacteria in both the water and the tea, and leaving them in the sun creates a happy environment for them to grow in.

For the record, I make iced tea all the time--I make a pitcher of hot tea, and let it cool. Then it goes in the fridge until I want it. Not really difficult at all. (I'm also known to make lemonade out of lemon juice, water and sugar...)

[shell524.livejournal.com]

You would want to leave it in the sun because it brews the tea without heating up the house, like viridian said.

I've had sun tea almost every summer of my life, and haven't died from drinking it yet. You put it out to steep for a few hours and bring it in to the fridge.

Lipton or Luzianne (forget which) also make actual cold brew tea. It has a little different flavor but is "designed" to brew in a pitcher of cold water.

And you can always just brew tea the normal way and put ice in it, just like iced coffee or chai from Starbucks. :p