Tea of the Week: Organic Texas Iced Tea Blend

Congrats to Jason Witt who won last weeks Earl Grey tea! Visit Jasons blog Spirituality of Tea. I have a real treat this week, a brand new tea. My supplier says this one has been selling like crazy this summer, it's Organic Texas Iced Tea Blend. More about this tea.

The oldest known recipe for sweet ice tea was published in 1879 in a community cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree. The recipe called for green tea. In fact, most sweet tea consumed during this period was green tea. However, during World War II, the major sources of green tea were cut off from the United States, leaving them with tea almost exclusively from British-controlled India which produced black tea. Americans came out of the war drinking predominantly black tea.

So, just what do they do in Texas that makes their iced tea so spectacular? To find out, we went straight to the source - or rather, our Master Blender went straight to the source: Brownsville, the southernmost city in the State. Down in Brownsville he met with an elderly woman who claimed to posses the best iced tea recipe in all of Texas. Who was he to argue? He went with her to her home, settled into a porch swing and took out a pad of paper and pencil: “To make one and a half quarts of tea”, she began, “put one quart (4 cups) of fresh cold water in a kettle and put it over heat. When the water comes to a boil, infuse 5 grams of black tea in a teapot.” (We recommend measuring the tea with the Perfect Cup Tea Measure.) “Now,” she continued, “Here comes the tricky part. Don’t pour the hot water gently, really let the water splash down and agitate that tea - get it mad y’all! Then, set the tea aside and let it steep for at least an hour. Once it’s done, strain it out into a pitcher, add ¾ cups of sugar and stir that tea until it’s dissolved. Finally, add a couple of cups of cool water and set it in the fridge until it’s nice and cold. When you’re ready to serve it, garnish with a big ol’ slice of lemon…big enough that y’all can squeeze the juice right out of it! And that’s that!”

To complement that fantastic recipe, we’ve developed what we think is the world’s greatest tea blend for brewing world famous Texas iced tea. Brew a pot for you and yours today. Enjoy y’all!

On the home front, Candie is back from her vacation in Gatlinburg. Her sister renewed their wedding vows and they had a wonderful time. A pretty uneventful week for me, plugging away at de-cluttering and cleaning the house. I knit and sew in the evenings to relax and of course my days are filled with tea! Have a great week.