On Summertime Beverages.

I'm aware that it's nearing the end of summertime (though I will be in full denial until the first snowfall). But I feel I had to share this little trick I recently learned.

You can cold-brew tea.

Not ground-breaking, I'm sure. Most people probably knew about this already. But I didn't really get into drinking tea until about a year ago, when I wanted caffeine in the morning before driving to my ridiculously early morning class. I didn't want to buy a coffee maker, and for a while I had been drinking the occasional mug of tea (with heaps of milk and sugar, British-style). So I decided that tea was my best option.

Anyways. Earlier this summer I was reading a post over at BrokeTO about ways to cool yourself off in the summer heat. Icy beverage ideas ran through my head as I figured I would make giant pitchers of delicious iced tea to pour over ice and enjoy in my non-air-conditioned home.

Alas, my plans failed. For whatever reason, no matter how many combinations of tea I tried, it never tasted quite right. I followed multiple recipes and instructions on hot-brewing the tea in a pot first, letting it steep for a while, and then chilling it in the fridge. But each attempt was pretty gross, I have to say. So for a while I just forgot about the idea completely, disappointed at my failed endeavor.

Then, in a search for information about green tea, I found a website all about it and how cold-brewed iced tea is somehow better for you (which I can't seem to find again at the moment).

Aha, success! I found that I could throw a tea-bag in my glass water bottle along with cold water and some ice, let it sit for a while, give it a shake, and voila! Some pretty weak green tea-flavoured water. The light flavour was perfect. I sometimes find plain water too tedious to drink, but I've realized that most juices are too high in sugar for my liking, and all of the water flavouring methods out there are flavoured with aspartame, which is just totally gross to me. So to bump up some extra flavour, I splurged on some raspberry-flavoured green tea. And it was even better than regular green tea.

Look at those pretty swirls. Brew, my pretty! BREW! MUAHAHAH!

Seriously, it's awesome. Perfect for busy people that need to keep hydrated but are sick of their water tasting like nothing. And those who hate artificially-flavoured stuff. Try it! It works, I promise.

Next up: I pledge to eventually invest in a French press so that I may make delicious cold-brewed coffee like the guys over at The Bitten Word.