“The First Time I Ever Made Iced Tea”
The first time I (Vanessa) ever made iced tea, all the sugar in the world would not have made that tea drinkable. The tea was on the other side of bitter. For example, maybe you have done this and understand just how bad this was. You know, how if you bite into a green persimmon, your tongue goes numb and your mouth tries to close up and then runs away without you, and your face swivels up unrecognizable. This tea was worse than that. Now granted I was young and had never made tea before. However, I was hoping for “beginners luck,” unfortunately it passed me bye.
I had wanted a glass of cool iced sweet tea all day. So I thought, “I’ll just make me some”. I pulled out the pot and the tea bags, and for the life of me I don’t know where I went wrong. As I was letting the tea steep. I took a glass from the cabinet. Then I opened the freezer and pulled out an ice tray and used all 16 cubes of ice. My glass was running over with all that ice. Next I took a large spoon of sugar and sprinkled it over that mountain of ice. Very slowly I poured the hot tea over the ice in the glass and you could see and hear the ice popping from the heat of the tea, and see the steam rising from the glass. I took a big gulp. That is the moment when all my dreams and hopes for a glass of fresh iced sweet tea came crashing down, so hard they went right through the floor boards. I went running to the sink to spit that foul tasting tea from my mouth. I then rinsed my mouth with the water from the faucet, it was no use, that taste had already sank into every single tastebud I possessed.
Pure sadness took over, I looked at the glass of tea, it looked fine. I raised the glass to my nose, and it smelt fine. But —I just could not bring myself to taste it again. I poured the tea from the glass down the drain. I then poured the leftover tea from the pot into the sink. I washed the glass and the pot, dried them and put them back where I had found them.
I never told anyone that I had made that awful tea. Being Southern and making delicious iced tea go hand-in-hand. I could not let anyone know I had made such a bad tasting tea. And this is the first time that I have ever told anyone.
The next time my Mother made tea, I watched her like a hawk. I was in the kitchen standing beside her making a mental note of everything she did. A couple of times she even asked me if I didn’t have something else to do. I assured her that I had nothing else to do. As she made the tea I paid close attention to everything she did. However, the strange thing is, I still had no idea where I went wrong in my first go at making tea. Luckily! I did get better at making iced tea, no one would ever suspect that my first try had been so bad.
Today I know what had gone so horribly wrong. I let the tea steep for too long and the tea become bitter. Here in the South we drink black tea and black teas are high in tannins. Tannins causes tea to have a bitter taste. There are two ways that tea can become bitter. One, allowing the tea to steep for too long. This is what I did. The other way is steeping the tea at too high of a temperature.
I guess that I said all of that, to say this. Sometimes, well a lot of times, when you are in the kitchen trying something new for the first time, it most likely won’t turn out like you have imagined. The best thing that you can do at that moment is to go for it. Making recipes off the top of your head or following a recipe should not be scary. So keep cooking and trying new things with food. You are going to wind up with a lot of great stories that you can tell your family and friends around the dinner table.
Being caffeine-free we removed our classic Southern black iced tea. But we wanted to be able to still drink iced tea. Thank goodness for Blackberry Leaf Tea. Blackberry leaf tea is naturally caffeine-free and it has a taste that is incredible. I really cannot tell the difference between our classic black tea and blackberry leaf tea.
We all drink unsweetened tea; however, if you would like the tea sweetened add maple syrup or honey to the tea while it is still warm. It is really easy to make this recipe for blackberry leaf tea. Four ingredients and three kitchen tools are all you need. Start by placing the pot on the eye and add eight cups of fresh water. Cut the burner (eye) on high heat and bring the water to a boil. Add eight tea bags to the boiling water and remove form the eye. Turn the eye off and make sure that the tea bags are completely submerged in the hot water. You can make sure that they are submerged in the hot water by pressing the teas bags down with a spoon into the water. Allow the tea to steep for around five to seven minutes. Again don’t allow the tea to steep for too long and make the same mistake that I did on my first try. Remove the tea bags after the five to seven minutes. Pour the tea in a pitcher and place in the refrigerator to chill for later. You could also add some ice to a glass and pour the tea over the ice to enjoy now. We hope you enjoy this caffeine-free alternative to the classic black tea.
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