Haven’t drank this tea in quite a long time. And considering I still have three tins of it (from my Starbucks days), I should probably start giving some away…
Anyways, iced tea time! Haven’t made iced tea since I finished off that lovely and convenient bagged English Earl Grey that I brought from Slovakia. Since the weather (finally) turned hot this week, I figured it’s time to make more classic iced tea. This was the only other earl grey blend that I have, but I was wary of trying to use this for iced tea, since this blend gets quite bitter and astringent if left in for too long or overleafed. It’s also very sensitive to proportions and steeping time, so I babysat is closely while in the making.
Didn’t make simple sugar this time, I figured I would start using that 3lbs jar of Belgian Rock Sugar I got years ago from Teavana, which conveniently sits almost full ever since then. A 1:1 teaspoon ratio of sugar to tea works well in this case. After brewing, poured in maybe a teaspoon of organic lemon juice, and presto! I actually liked it so much when I was taste testing it hot that I poured myself half a mug to have now. The only downside is that the astringency really does come through, even with the two teaspoons of rock sugar in it. And it’s not like it doesn’t taste sweet – it does, but the black tea base, for whatever reason, leaves that sandpapery feeling on the tongue no matter what. Whatever, I was kind of expecting this, but I can still make it work- it’s yummy nonetheless. I considered increasing my rating a bit, but this tea needed so much help to be enjoyable (and I still have to overlook that bitterness…) that I decided against it.
