When it's a hot day here in the tropics, I usually drink iced tea during the day. I make just enough with my Hamilton Beach iced tea maker (which is really just a tea brewer with a pitcher you can add ice to) to finish off by the end of the day. Very recently, I started drinking homemade iced coffee instead of iced tea.

I like iced coffee.

Over the past week, I had all of my upper teeth extracted. I have been in no position to make anything for myself until today.

After the first batch of teeth were pulled, and I needed something cold to drink, my wife made me iced coffee instead of iced tea because we were out of tea bags. She stirred sugar and instant coffee into half a cup of hot water and then added cold water and ice cubes.

I was surprised that I liked ice cold coffee. My wife continued to make me iced coffee until a couple of evenings ago when I fried my computer keyboard. Afterward, I couldn't bring myself to ask her for more. I was too embarrassed by my own stupidity. That's when I started making my own.

Better than store-bought iced coffee.

Although it's only a temporary thing because I like hot coffee better than iced coffee (but my gums can't take it right now), I find making iced coffee at home to be easy and quick. There's no need to stock up on iced coffee in a can or a bottle… ever.

You could argue that the cold coffee sold by Starbucks is better, but I can't agree with you. I've tasted so many brands of cold coffee (which isn't really iced coffee anyway) over the years, going back to 1987 in Japan, that I can only remember a few brands which weren't worth buying.

Well, I don't need to buy any iced coffee at all anymore.

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The last time I was at the Royal Subic store aboard the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, I was looking for teabag tea to use with my iced tea maker and had difficulty finding anything other than various green teas. I prefer black tea and I'm not sure why, but it's probably because that's what I grew up with. The Olongapo markets carry Lipton teas, but I was looking for something a little different and I found it.

Black Tea with Cinnamon

I had never heard of the Steuarts brand of tea, but I was willing to take a chance. Before I brewed my first pitcher with it, I looked it up on the net. I found the George Stuarts Product Page but strangely, this particular product wasn't shown.

This tea is part of the Ceylon tea collection sold by the George Stuart company, and a little research told me that Ceylon was one of the former names of the country of Sri Lanka. So now when I see a tea package of some kind that says "Ceylon", I'll know it comes from Sri Lanka.

The Taste Test

I wasn't disappointed. The cinnamon taste did not overwhelm the natural taste of black tea like the teas with lemon flavoring added (or any fruit for that matter). I like the natural flavor of black tea and that may be one of the reasons I don't like the tea you buy in jars and cans with fruit flavors added. The fruit flavors are all that I ever tasted with brands like Snapple and Arizona Iced Tea.

The cinnamon taste isn't strong and there's just enough there to tell you that it has cinnamon in it. My wife's aunt is staying with us on vacation and when I walked near her, she said she knew what kind of tea it was by the smell. I think she cheated and saw the box in the cabinet and tried to act like she knew something she didn't. Unless that lady has a super keen sense of smell, I don't think the cinnamon smell is strong enough for you to smell unless you have the cup at your lips.

I'll be looking for similar types of teabags the next time I'm out shopping for groceries, regardless of where. I kind of like having a variety of tastes and smells to go along with the natural taste and smell of black tea. I'll even deal with green tea if I find something suitable. The only requirement I have is that the added flavor doesn't overwhelm the natural flavor of tea.

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As I recently alluded to, I've been using my Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker since my wife returned from the US. After leaving a partial pitcher of brewed tea in the fridge for a couple of days, I remembered why I started drinking instant iced tea in the first place. Saying what was in the fridge became bad tasting tea is putting it mildly.

What Makes Brewed Tea Turn Bad?

I've been searching the net for days, looking for an exact answer to this question. The best anyone could come up with is that it starts to ferment or starts to sour due to some form of bacteria or tea leaves decompose just like any other plants and the "extracted" ingredients don't stop decomposing. All of it makes sense, but I can't find an authoritative answer anywhere. Perhaps you could enlighten me and point me in the right direction?

I don't know what causes iced tea, which has been sitting for more than about 15 hours, to suddenly develop a smell and a taste akin to gasoline (or chlorine). I really can't say what it smells like, but it's really bad. I have quickly learned not to store it for longer than the same day it's made. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't sound quite right to me, but what I'm trying to say is that I'll brew one pitcher, pour a glass and then put the rest in the fridge. If I don't finish it off the same day, it gets tossed in the sink.

Go Back to Instant Iced Tea?

The only reason I will EVER return to drinking instant iced tea is when I can no longer find teabags (any brand). Brewed tea, from tea leaves, tastes so much better than instant it's ridiculous.

I've found that I can drink tea, hot or cold, without sugar if I make it strong enough. It's when I make it too weak that it seems to need more taste to it, and sugar gives it the taste. I prefer the taste of the tea over the sweetness although I know a lot of people prefer sweet iced tea, especially southerners.

Anyway… now that I know I can't store iced tea for longer than a day, I don't think I'll ever "accidentally" take a swig of bad tasting tea again.

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My wife brought a Hamilton Beach iced tea maker back with her in August of last year (when she only stayed for a month) and it sat on my kitchen counter, gathering dust, until she returned permanently a week ago today. I had an instant iced tea in a jar, also collecting dust, for at least two months. In fact, the moisture from humidity was absorbed each time it was opened and the last time I opened it, the powder was hard. I tossed it the same day my wife arrived.

Teabags

One of my sisters-in-law is living with her soon-to-be husband. He spent months (a couple of years, I think) as an overseas Filipino worker in Qatar. Each time he returned for vacation, he brought something back for me. The last time, he brought back a box of "Lipton Yellow Label" teabags which sat in a kitchen drawer until the day my wife returned.

My wife also brought three boxes of Luzianne teabags with her, so we have plenty of teabags to go through before we have to get some more. I've only been drinking one or two cups of coffee per day, in the early morning, since my wife arrived. I've been drinking brewed iced tea the rest of the time. I had actually forgotten how much better brewed iced tea tastes than instant iced tea. I'm sure I'm not the first to say there's a world of difference.

Brewing the Tea

The reservoir above the carafe can hold as many teabags as you see fit to use. I prefer to use five of the small ones or three of the large ones. The drip "switch" at the bottom can be set to mild, medium or strong. I really don't see the point, but I set it to strong. After the tea is finished brewing, and it shuts off just like an automatic drip coffee maker would, the tea is a dark, "golden" brown. That's the best description I can use, but it looks awesome considering it's actually black tea.

My wife was the first to make iced tea with the tea maker. She tried putting the ice in the carafe before brewing, but it melted by the time the brewing was completed. The second time, she added ice after the fact and that worked fine. It still melted quickly, so I told her to just forgo the ice and we could add ice to our glasses each time we filled them with tea. That's what we've been doing ever since.

Coffee or Tea?

I still need my coffee in the morning, when it's still cool outside and prefer it during the late evening once it cools down again. In between, I like to drink iced tea instead of plain water.

What's going to be interesting, over the next month or so, is finding more teabags made with black tea. I've found some with green tea, but none with black tea, and I don't like green tea. I guess the search will go hand in hand with my search for a decent coffee maker.

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It's summertime in the Philippines and it's just too hot to drink coffee (hot coffee) except for when it's before 9 am. Only someone more insane than I would any drink any kind of coffee other than iced coffee after that hour of the day.

I switched from hot coffee to iced tea and plain ice water when the weather started to become unbearably hot. Lukewarm water, or even chilled water from the dispenser, just doesn't cut it.

Does Hot Coffee Cool You Down?

If you listen and believe some of the old-timers, it does. It really doesn't. It makes you sweat (perspire) and air blowing against the sweat is what cools you down. What happens if you're already sweating? It does nothing for you at all, except make you feel hotter than you already are.

If you're already hot and you drink hot coffee, you're going to sweat profusely. Sweating causes dehydration and sweating profusely can cause you to dehydrate faster than you may realize. That's a dangerous situation to be in, regardless of what you drink.

Iced Tea and Iced Coffee

In some places, iced coffee is preferred over iced tea. The Philippines is not such a place. Iced tea (with lemon) is served in every restaurant I've been to here. Iced coffee is never served (but you can buy it in the stores).

I don't know about anyone else, but iced coffee just doesn't work like iced tea. Iced tea cools me down quick. Perhaps it's because I drink it faster than I can drink ice water. I can't do that with iced coffee and as expensive as iced coffee is, I really wouldn't want to do that anyway.

I still have an iced tea maker sitting in the kitchen that I haven't used even once. I still have jars of instant Nestea in the cabinet and I won't be using the iced tea maker until those jars are empty. I still don't have any teabags either. I'm sure I'll be doing the iced tea making thing when the instant tea runs out. That is, if summer continues to drag on like it did last year.

Iced Tea instead of Ice Water

I have never been able to drink ice water quickly, although my wife can guzzle a glass of it without stopping. I don't know why I'm any different. I can drink iced tea like that, but not ice water.

Ice water would be considered healthier, but if I want to cool down, nothing works better or faster than iced tea. I've tried it with fruit juices and other things and still go back to drinking iced tea.

(Image source: The Myth of Perfection: If You Want to Live, You Have to Grow at Totalpossibility)

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There are so many ways to make iced tea, it's probably impossible to write about all of them. I'm going to try to cover the ways that I've done it, my mother and siblings have done it and the way I've seen other people do it. I'll start with the picture you see on the left.

The Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker

I always thought that making iced tea was incredibly simple and couldn't be made any easier. Actually, the simplest way is to use instant iced tea. In my opinion, however, instant iced tea tastes like utter garbage compared to iced tea being made from freshly-brewed tea using tea bags.

The Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker is one of several kitchen gadgets that makes brewing a half-gallon (two quarts) of tea extremely easy. All you have to do is to fill the reservoir with water, put the tea bags into the chamber at the top of the serving pitcher, and turn it on. In 10 minutes, you have freshly-brewed tea. I wouldn't recommend putting ice in the pitcher, as displayed, before brewing or you're just going to end up with more water.

The instructions won't tell you how much tea to put in the chamber. Based on experience, I would use one or two of the large tea bags or three or four of the small tea bags. To be honest, I've had one of these iced tea makers sitting on my kitchen counter for almost two months and I've yet to use it. I still have a jar of instant iced tea in an upper cupboard and it's still only half empty. I drink a lot more coffee than I do tea.

Old-Fashioned Tea Brewing

The way my mother and siblings brewed tea was to put tea bags in a sauce pan and let it boil for 10 or 15 minutes. After the tea cooled a little, the tea bags would be thrown away and the tea would be transferred to a gallon pitcher. Water would then be added to the pitcher to make the full gallon.

The tea bags wouldn't be thrown away immediately. They usually poured the brewed tea into the pitcher, poured more water into the pan and then poured that water into the pitcher before adding more plain water. This was how they extracted the last remaining amount of tea still in the tea bags.

Sun Tea

In places where the sun shines most of the year, people make sun tea. There have even been entrepreneuring companies making specialty glass containers for sun tea.

The way we always made sun tea was by filling an old pickle jar (which held a gallon) with water, put five of the small tea bags or three of the large tea bags in, and put the lid back on. We would leave it out in the sun for about an hour because we liked it strong.

Iced Tea – The Final Ingredients

Some people add nothing to the tea except ice cubes. Other people add sugar. I've see creamer added to hot tea, but never to iced tea.

A lot of people, mostly US southerners, like sweet iced tea. One of the chicken places I went to when I lived in that area provided sweet iced tea with almost every order of chicken. It was so sweet; it was almost too sweet to drink.

I prefer my iced tea to be slightly sweetened. No more than two spoonfuls of sugar with 8-12 ounces of tea is enough.

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