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Alright so this is a tasting note not just on the tea but on the brewing process. So first of all, I usually brew tea in my ‘Perfect Tea Maker’ infuser from Teavana, but since I found myself over at the boy’s house for the weekend and he didn’t HAVE an infuser, I had to improvise. Teavana and other tea places try and convince us that we NEED their extra fancy equipment to make a delicious cuppa, but I find that this isn’t true. So, since I was going to make this tea into a cold brew, first I decided how much to make. Since I wanted to share it and make use of it for a couple of days, I made a 12 cup batch. I boiled up 6 cups of water in his dinged up old kettle and when the water got to the 208 temp (I guessed. I’ve been brewing tea long enough to guesstamate the right heat level) I just took that bad boy off the heat, tossed in four tablespoons of tea and then let it brew.

The great thing about the kettle method is that while his kettle isn’t the newest or the fanciest, it keeps heat really well. Plus, it holds more than my 32 oz perfect tea maker, making life a bit easier in terms of brewing up a big pitcher.

Something I’ve had to learn by trial and error is the perfect concentration of tea and water when brewing a cold tea. I used to think it was silly to add two teaspoons or whatever the doubled amount was, but really…weak cold tea doesn’t taste as good as a strong iced brew. At least in my opinion.

Anyway, after that little beastie was all nice and steeped, I just held a hand strainer the pitcher and added 6 cups of icy cold water to the brew then stuck it in my fridge. I chose to sweeten it with white sugar but you could use any method you want for that. I also add my sugar while the tea is hot so that it dissolves easier.

This ended up making 12 cups of Strawberry Lemonade Tea and I am going to enjoy drinking it for the next few days instead of my usual black sweet tea blend!