National Iced Tea Day

It’s National Iced Tea Day!  This is a celebration I can get behind! How about you?

I know there are about a half dozen ways to make iced tea and another hundred variations with different herbs, fruits, etc.

My favorite is simply this:

1. Fill a half-gallon glass jar with water.
2. Place two tea bags in the jar.
3. Seal the jar and let it brew in the sun.

I prefer using wide mouth jars because they’re super easy to clean.  My favorite jar lid is THIS exact one, that has a built-in handle.

I have used THIS handle for about year and it has far exceeded my expectations.  It’s sturdy, fully supports a heavy jar, and seals well.  It’s wonderful!

Let’s Talk Jars: You can find the larger mason jars in 6 packs at your local hardware store for about $10.  If you have a Menards near you, here’s a LINK to what I’m talking about. 

If your local hardware store doesn’t have them on hand, chances are they can order them for you.

Amazon also sells them, but if you want a handful of jars this isn’t the most economical route. I store a lot of our food in these jars, so I get them in the 6 packs!

Okay, back to the tea. Some people use 1 tea bag, others use 4 or more.  I have found 2 to be *just right* for me and my tribe.  Play around with flavors.  Oolong and Black tea are my pantry staples.  My kids love peppermint tea as an afternoon pick me up

After several hours remove the tea bags, stick the tea in the fridge, and enjoy it over the next couple of days.

If you want to make TRUE iced tea, you’ll need to pour it over ice, of course. Haha!  You can watch this video to see my favorite ice cube tray in action.

Sidenote: I turned the water off on our fridge as we use a Berkey. I questioned the quality of water coming through even the highest grade fridge filters. You should be questioning what you’re putting in your body too. 😉

I don’t add sugar to my homemade tea (it’s not that I don’t love a good sweet tea, it’s that sugar is too addictive for me so I only indulge on a rare occasion while I’m out of the house or when hosting a crowd).  I will sometimes toss a few lemon slices into the jar before setting it outside and that helps sweeten it up a bit.  Yum!

I want to know, HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR TEA?