I'm melting! I'm melting!

Man, my apartment is hot! I've got the windows wide open and the fan cranked but nothing can cool it down in here. It's just hot. It is lovely outside though. I just got in from a dinner out on a patio and it was so nice. Sitting outside until 10 without having to put a sweater on is a treat. I could do without the super hot days but I do love the warm nights.

I mentioned in a post I wrote a couple of days ago, that I made some coconut iced tea and I said that it needed it's own blog post, so here it is.

About a month ago, I went down to the Bayswater Tea Co. to restock my Symphony and Divine Temptation teas. While I was there, I grabbed some instructions on how to make any of the loose leaf teas, iced. It seemed like a nice idea. Well, this week it got hot enough for me to finally think this was the best idea I'd ever heard.

I started with the symphony tea because it seemed the most like a traditional iced tea. I followed the directions on brewing, steeping, cooling and chilling the tea and then poured it into a glass full of ice and squeezed some lemon over it....wow! So refreshing and delightful. I loved it. The pitcher I had made lasted me about 3 days (I could have polished it off in a day but I was nursing it to make it last longer) Once that pitcher was done, I decided to try another flavour.

Coconut was next. I followed the same directions and felt like this could go either way for me. It might be great, it might be weird. I poured myself a glass over ice, skipped the lemon (it seemed strange to add it) and took a sip. I took another sip....and another. I couldn't quite decide how I felt about it. It was definitely refreshing and different but was it as good as the symphony. I tried my second glass with some lemon and liked it a bit better.

It was the third glass that won me over, because instead of lemon, I squeezed some lime over it. Well, who knew that would make all the difference in the world. As I closed my eyes, sipping away, dreaming of beaches, I realized how obvious lime should have been to the mix. Lime and coconut. The perfect combination. It smells like a vacation. It smells like sunscreen and margaritas. It smells like hand lotion from the Body Shop that LS and I used to love. We'd lather it on and close our eyes and dream of beer. It's such a great combination that someone even wrote a song about it "You put the lime in the coconut and drink em both up."

(I just double checked the lyrics on that and it looks like the lime and coconut was the cause of a bellyache and also the remedy for it - go figure)

So for any of you out there who have loose leaf tea at home - this is how you make it iced...

For Black tea
Use 4 teaspoons of tea for 1 litre of water.
Steep for 3 minutes.
Add 4 flat tablespoons of sugar while still hot.

For Rooibos tea
Use 8 teaspoons of tea for 1 litre of water.
Steep for 10 minutes.
Add 4 flat tablespoons of water.

Helpful hint
To quickly cool your tea, place the hot pot of tea in the sink or a big bowl. Fill the sink or bowl with cold water until the level of the water comes close to the top of the teapot. (I add ice cubes too) This will cool your tea down in 15 to 20 minutes. Once cool, the tea can then be placed in the fridge to chill.

I have put hot tea in the fridge before, to cool it down for iced tea, and all it does it warm up your fridge so I highly recommend following the quick way. And always serve over ice with a twist of lemon or lime. yu-um!