Not Your Momma's Tea-Party Recipes

What could be more refreshing on a hot summer day than the traditional Southern Sweet Tea?  What about "Tipsy Tea"....a fun "party" variation of an old favorite!

My daughter gave the me the inspiring and delightful book called, "Porch Parties".  This book is dedicated to cocktail recipes and lots of ideas for outdoor entertaining!

For "Tipsy Tea" start with a great Sweet Tea....

8 cups water
8 heaping teaspoons nice black tea in an infuser
1 cup sugar
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Remove pan from heat. Add tea in the infuser. Stir in the sugar. Steep for at least one hour.

Fill a glass with ice and pour tea over ice.

Now add 2 ounces of Orange Flavored Vodka that has been chilled.  Cut a round slice of an orange and then cut in 1/2 and use as a garnish.

Woowee...yummy...I'm sure this will be a hit!

Another Great Tea "Cocktail" is the Green Tea 'Tini

This recipe calls for the use of a speciality item called:



According to the Zen Green Tea Liqueur website, this liqueur uses "green tea leaves from Kyoto, the historic capital of Japan, well-known for it's superior quality tea."

The Green Tea 'Tini recipe is as follows:

3-4 ounces Citrus Flavored Vodka....chilled

2 ounces Green Tea Liqueur (Zen Green Tea Liqueur)

1 ounce lemon-lime soda

fresh lemon or lime slices

Using a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, green tea liqueur, soda and ice.  Shake well and strain into chilled martini glasses.  Garnish with lemon or lime slices.

And toast to your health...after all your having your "green tea" aren't you?

Iced tea is quite versatile... and can be combined with many other beverages to enhance flavors and taste.  The famous "Arnold Palmer"...1/2 lemonade and 1/2 tea is quite refreshing.

So this summer, make it a point to try some new recipes featuring a great standby...iced tea!

Happy Summer Infusions!!

Kate

http://tea4kate.com

Not Your Momma's Iced Tea--Celebrate National Iced Tea Month in June !

In the summer, at our house, there were always two pitchers of iced tea in our refrigerator. One of them, my mother referred to as " Your Father's Tea" (meaning sweet tea--southern style) and the other was, regular plain iced tea, no sugar. These were the two choices available. My mother made the iced tea from tea bags, although our neighbors used that very modern, "Instant Tea". ( You can taste the difference).

Growing up in the '60's, I started making sun tea in the summertime, and have continued the practice. Now, however, warnings about bacteria that can grow in sun tea may cause me to consider it a "Steep Risk" http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/suntea.asp.
If any of us got sick from sun tea, I didn't know it. I probably blamed some other "germ" or even
decided that a small child must have shared his illness.



The popularity and availability of a wide variety of flavored black and green teas has greatly increased my iced tea choices. (See list below for teas that are excellent iced). Magnificent Mango, quite popular in our tea room, competed with Arctic Raspberry and Shanghai Lime (photo) as favorites for iced teas. My iced tea choices are not limited to tea bags, instant tea, sweetened or unsweetened. .....I can celebrate incredible abundance !

Oregon Street Tea Company's Great Iced Tea Recipe:

For 2 quarts (1/2 gallon)

* In a 6 cup teapot, place an infuser filled with 12 teaspoons of tea.

* Fill the teapot with water heated to 195 degrees.

* Brew 5 minutes.

* In a 2 quart container fill 1/2 with ice.

* Pour tea over ice.

* Add cold water if needed to make 1/2 gallon of great iced tea !

The following teas make excellent iced teas and can be purchased from
http://www.oregonstreetteacompany.com

Black Flavored Teas:

Arctic Raspberry
Cranberry Breeze or Cranberry Orange
Lemon Lift
Magnificent Mango
Peach Apricot
Wild Cherry Blast

Green Flavored tea:

Strawberry Fields Forever
Shanghai Lime



The Very Popular "Arnold Palmer" http://www.arnoldpalmertee.com/news.asp

Fill a glass with ice and add:

1/2 lemonade
1/2 black tea (brewed)
1/2 Lemon slice to decorate the rim of the glass

Very Refreshing !


Hawaiian Iced Tea

Make 2 quarts of Oregon Street Tea Company's Great Iced Tea

Add:
1 can (16 oz) pineapple juice
1/2 cup simple syrup (recipe follows)
Refrigerate until chilled.

Garnish with fresh pineapple spears and serve


Simple Syrup: ( You can also purchase this)

1 cup white sugar
1 cup water

Combine sugar and water in saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Cool.

Happy Iced Infusions !
Kate

Land of Sweet Tea and Poke Salad

Sweet tea, found in the refrigerator of all true southerners, must be sweetened ( meaning LOTS OF SUGAR) while the tea is still hot. It is sacrilegious to add sugar after the tea is poured over ice ! During my recent visit to Missouri, my cousin introduced me to "Ready to Drink" gallon jugs of pre-sweetened tea.

This product, extremely popular in the South, tastes similar to homemade. Sweet tea is served year round in the South. It is assumed that if you ask for tea, you mean Sweet tea, and you only designate "unsweetened" if you don't wish to have the traditional tea.

We stopped for lunch at Poke Salad Annie's....a delightful little restaurant in Humansville, Missouri, recommended by the desk clerk at our hotel in Bolivar. After being seated and ordering our iced tea (sweet tea for me, of course), I ask the server why they chose the name "Poke Salad Annie's". She told me the restaurant was named after a song. It's true..there is a famous song Tony Joe White wrote in 1969. He is definitely a Southerner...using his first & middle name...Tony Joe....like Jim Bob or Troy Lee. He and Johnny Cash sang "Poke Salad Annie" as a duet, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6diOn540Ws , and then Elvis Presley delivered his rendition in 1970...absolutely vintage Elvis..the way I remember him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d_LCGalZ1I&feature=related.

Poke Salad Annie's menu features regular items like Black Angus steaks and unusual specialties; frog legs & crawdads on Friday & Saturday nights. My favorite lunch time "claim to fame" is Doc's Gourmet Fried Bologna, advertised as "Not your momma's fried bologna". All my life, I believed my Grandmother was the only one who ever fried bologna. I learned not to discuss eating fried bologna in California because people looked at me like I must be from another world, which of course, the South, especially the Ozarks, is a world unto itself. But then, here, at Poke Salad Annie's, was fried bologna, in black and white, on a restaurant menu !!

Poke Salad, though, was not on the menu. Poke Salad, is made from Pokeweed, www.pokesaladfestival.com/plant.htm , a weed of great distinction in the south. My mother told me about gathering "poke greens" in the spring with her grandmother. Turns out, poke weed is toxic and must be prepared only by those carefully trained to do so. My understanding is one gathers the young green leaves in the early spring, and then the leaves are boiled for 5 minutes, rinsed and re-boiled. Most southerners add a bit of bacon grease to make a tasty substitute for spinach or collard greens. Bacon grease, like Sweet tea, is a staple in all Southern kitchens .

Poke Salad, (Polk Sallet, Poke Sallet, Poke Salat) is so revered in the south, that several towns celebrate this spring time green with a festival. The festivities are as distinct as the spelling of Poke Salad. In Gainesboro, Tennessee, not only do they choose a "Miss Poke Sallet", but the highlight of the party is the Outhouse Race , www.gaineboro-jcchamber.com. In Blanchard, Louisiana (near Shreveport), the 35th annual Poke Salad Festival rates a parade and it's own website: www.pokesaladfestival.com. Poke Salad recipes and folklore and Important Health Information can be found at http://www.rockytopgen.com/polksalad/index.html .

You may never eat Poke Salad, but if you are in the South, you will be ask if you'd like iced tea. (Meaning Sweet tea !)

May all your infusions be sweet,

Kate