Iced Tea on the Road
I was traveling this weekend and didn’t have access to my usual tea-making equipment (I make iced tea almost every day at home). I had some great iced tea on the road and some not-so-great. Oh, and I was traveling in the South, so sometimes my request for unsweetened tea didn’t translate.
My stops and the resulting tea experiences:
1. For the beginning portion of our trip, I had brewed some tea the night before, cooled it, and put it in the fridge to chill. I used . Results were so-so. This tea tends to be bitter and it really clouded up in the fridge.
2. Saturday afternoon, my husband and I ate at a delightful little gourmet deli in Summerville, SC, called "The Eclectic Gourmet". They had big barrels of self-serve sweet and unsweet tea. It was actually pretty good. Very decent. (The food was especially yummy – my strawberry salad was excellent!)
3. Sunday the whole family went to IHOP. I asked for unsweet tea. "Sweet?" "No, without sugar." "Sweet?" I was served sweet, which had no tea taste at all, then finally unsweet, which was bland. Thumbs down.
4. Sunday afternoon I decided a shaken iced tea (black) from Starbuck’s was in order. I get it unsweet there, too, and it’s actually quite good. They use Tazo for their tea, so this led me to #5.
5. Back at home, made a quick trip to Target and the Tazo "Iced Black Tea" at the Starbucks shop caught my eye. "A refreshing blend with crisp, subtle citrus notes," reads the box. I tossed it in the cart and brewed a pitcher when I got home. Thumbs up! And my favorite glass container for iced tea – Chiller with Glass Lid – 64 oz.
