When I was growing up my mom and daddy drank coffee. They had one of those big coffee urns that made 32 cups of coffee and they drank it until it was gone. They might take a whole week to drink it. But that’s all they drank. Every once in awhile they would drink a glass of milk or orange juice. Very rarely did they drink a coke, those were considered treats back then.
After Daddy died Mom retired the coffee pot and started drinking iced tea. She would buy a huge jar or Nestea and that’s what she drank. She would fix it by the glass. She would stir in about 8 tablespoons of sugar. It was nasty. Until you got to the bottom of the glass and all of that sugar. I always wondered why she didn’t brew a pitcher of tea. She would if we had people over for supper but if it was just her it came out of the Nestea jar.
When I discovered iced tea it was brewed. Even if I was making just one glass it was brewed. But I rarely put sugar in it. If I drink sweet tea, which is a staple in the south, it’s much more sugar than tea. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful. But if you have too much you can quickly get on a sugar high. So I use an artificial sweetener or just drink unsweetened iced tea. Well, around here you drink either sweet or un. I prefer the un- variety. There for awhile McDonald’s had sweet tea on their menu. I think it was more sweet than tea but I’m not used to sugar in my tea. I always ordered mine un-. They didn’t have the sweetener I preferred so most of the time I drank that unsweetened. The problem was that it was really strong. Then they started selling “diet tea”. That was unsweetened tea with artificial sweetener. It must not have gone over well because they discontinued it. They still sell sweet tea though.
A lot of people want lemon in their tea. That’s a personal preference I think. I like lemon but not always. I prefer lemon in my hot tea. My husband and I don’t like strong tea so if we’re eating out in a restaurant we’ll ask for a glass of iced water too so that we can dilute the tea. It’s so funny watching Jimmy add water to his tea. Most of the water ends up on the table and he rarely puts extra ice in his glass. Then he acts like he didn’t make a mess at all. I usually choose to ignore it. Unless of course, my iced tea is too strong. Then I’ll grab for that glass of ice water long before he does.
But I like my tea at home. Usually I won’t sweeten it but if I do it’s only enough to take the bitterness out of the tea. We have this wonderful contraption made by Mr. Coffee. It’s an iced tea pot. If you invite me to your wedding chances are real good that’s what you’ll get for a wedding present. I love them. You can control how strong your tea is and also how much sugar or sweetener you use. I can make a pitcher of that and it will take us a day or two to drink it. But we don’t let it go more than two days because it starts to get bitter.
You can get one of these Iced Tea Makers just about anywhere, even Amazon.
Inn twenty years of married life, Jimmy has never learned how to use that Iced Tea Maker. He will brew the tea on the stove if I don’t keep it made up for him. And I’ve come in with him making supper and found a skillet brewing the tea. He doesn’t care, he’ll use whatever he can find. It doesn’t matter, it tastes the same. Except when he is pouring the brewed tea into the pitcher he includes the tea bags in the pitcher. That causes the tea to strengthen while it sits. You can’t explain that to him. A couple of weeks ago he was cooking supper so I made a pitcher of iced tea. He also was brewing tea on the stove. We looked at each other and laughed. We made one pitcher sweet tea and the other -un.
I never developed a taste for coffee. There are times I regret that. And, if I can help it, I will never use instant tea in my life. But I could drink iced tea all day every day and be as happy as can be. Sounds sort of funny just obsessing about something so simple.