Not Your Mother’s Lipton Tea

I am a good ol’ Southern Iced Tea drinker.  Please note the caps.  And it is sweetened (my daughters’ say waaayy to much).  But for 50-something years it has been Lipton or Louisanne tea bags, boiling water.  Let it seep.  Add sugar.  Store in refrigerator until pitcher is finished.  Repeat.  This is the routine regardless of season and temperatures.

Now Savvy comes along and gets interested in hot teas.  I have had hot tea in the home of tea drinkers – England – and sorry, but tea DOES NOT have milk in it.  But I have slowly branched out.  I have a recipe for Russian Tea which I enjoy during the winter, especially when I feel like I have a cold coming on.  But with the amount of lemonade and Tang on top of the instant tea, I am not sure real tea people would consider that tea.  I have discovered I enjoy a fruity based tea if I am doing to deviate from my norm.

 

 

So, while out getting Texter’s Batman shoes a few weeks ago, I came across Teavana.  In sticking my nose in the store, I was obliged to sample about 8 different teas.  Youthberry/Orange blend took me by surprise and I couldn’t wait until Savvy came into town to take her there.

When she came into town and we were out running errands, we stopped by Teavana and sampled teas.  Now her little eyes just lit right on up.  Better than a jewelry store for her.  But the highlight of the trip was sampling the Blueberry Bliss/Strawberry Lemonade combo served cold.  It was great.  And probably one of the most important parts, is very little sugar.  In fact, they sweeten it with their German Rock Sugar.

 

 

It looks like gravel and actually to suck on a piece of it will cure a craving for something sweet.  The rock sugar is suppose to be better and not kill the beneficial ‘stuff’ in the tea.

If nothing else, how can you not like something that looks like this….

 

This is the blueberry bliss, if you haven’t guessed already.  I was really impressed with all the chunks of ingredients instead of it all being ground to a fine powder.  And then the Strawberry Bliss looks like you could just add milk and eat.

 

Of course, this is loose tea and I sent all the empty teabags to Arizona with Savvy.  So my tea brewing for a large pot of tea is very ‘ghetto’ according to the girls, but it works for now.  Savvy and I are suppose to be dividing up the tea so she can take some back to Arizona with her, long with the rock sugar.  Oops, I can’t seem to find it right now.   Oh, darn.