June 20, 2006

Rooibos ice tea

I have just watched the football game England-Sweden for a full 20 minutes or so, but really - I couldn´t be bothered. Oh yes, it is fun if they win but don´t force me to watch it! Perhabs if I take a book and some popcorn I can keep my football-loving man company on the couch...

But first: ice tea! My favourite beverage in summer. Refreshing and stimulating, a great pick-me-up after a long, hot day. We have had some sunny days and as soon as the first weather forecast came about the heatwave I made my first jug of ice tea. First I made some lemon ice tea but didn´t have any lemons in the house. It was good, but a little too sweet and too little lemon flavour. Perhabs the teabags were a bit old. I am still practising making ice tea from scratch, before I have bought these ready bags with a powder you just dissolve in water. It is good, but you don´t know a thing about the contents really. I will save the factory-produced ice teas for the occasional bottle of Liptonice on my way home from work...

The wonderful ruby red beverage in the picture is from my second batch of home made ice tea. This time I used some roooibos teabags I had in the cupboard. I don´t like it warm but as you know I don´t want to throw away things. Hence the tryout with rooibos ice tea! And it is *very* good, I think. This brand of rooibos, the only I have tried so far, is very spicy with a clear ginger note.

I used three teabags to 1000 ml boiling water in a jug and let them sit for 3-4 minutes. Then I added some fresh ginger and a tablespoon of sugar and let it cool off. Put in fridge for a couple of hours and enjoy with some ice cubes if you like.

Now I wonder what tea to use next, I have quite a few just sitting in the cupboard... Green tea perhabs?

4 comments:

Ilva said...

What a good idea, I will have to make this TODAY!!

Pille said...

This sounds delicious! I've got some ginger "refresher" (kind of cordial) in my fridge that needs to be used up, so rooibos ice tea it is!

Clivia said...

Ilva, I hope your tea turned out well!
Pille, ginger cordial sounds like a great sweetener for this! Sometimes I make ice tea from a summer fruit blend with elderflower, and sweeten it with elderflower cordial.

Max said...

Hey Clivia,

It's really an impressive posting about Rooibos Tea.I liked it. It would be really one of the better iced teas you have made.