Avenue Vine

After a bit of experimenting, and stimulation to the dry parched tongues of fair goers, Richard Blechynden succeeded. Iced tea was on its way to becoming one of America's favorite summertime drinks. As for the instant tea we scoop out of the can, it was developed in the 1950's. It is a powder made from a concentrated brew. The water is removed by drying. One pound of leaf tea makes enough powder for 200 servings

How to make Iced Tea:
1. Bring 1 quart fresh cold water to a full boil.
2. Remove from heat. Add 15 teabags or 1/3 cup loose tea.
3. Stir, cover, let stand 5 minutes.
4. Stir again, strain.

Pour into pitcher containing an additional quart of fresh, cold water.

Southerners drink iced tea year-round, and have been doing so since the 19th century
when ice became generally available. If you order tea in a restaurant in the South you'll
get iced tea - probably sweetened, so if you want it hot or unsweetened, you'd better say
so!

The tea plant, a bushy evergreen shrub that can grow to a height of 30 feet, is thought to be indigenous to a region covering Tibet, western China and northern India. There are several tales about the origin of tea as a beverage. One story goes back to 2374B.C. Chennung, a reigning sovereign at that time, decided to boil some water to quench his thirst and placed the pot in the shade of a tea plant where a breeze blew tea leaves into the pot. Upon tasting it, Chen-nung was pleased by its flavor and aroma.

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Tea became such a popular beverage by the sixth century in China, that merchants commissioned a book extolling the pleasures of drinking tea. Tea drinking spread to Europe in the sixteenth century, when trade with China became commonplace. Today, England is the world's number-one tea consumer.

English and Irish colonists made tea a popular beverage in North America up until the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when settlers opposed the heavy taxes and stormed tea ships in the Boston harbor. The British continued to dominate the tea market until 1859, when Americans George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman began to buy tea directly from the ships and sold it to their customers for one-third the price charged by others. They established the "Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company", which later grew into a chain of supermarkets under the name "A&P."

By the late 19th century, Americans were enjoying "iced tea", which was popularized by Richard Blechynden at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Many people still start with bulk tea or bags, but today you can get tasty iced tea in cans, from liquid concentrates, and from powder. One of the latest developments is Lipton's new Cold Brew Blend. These tea bags are 100% natural tea and actually infuse in cold water. According to Lipton, in a blind taste test, more than 95 percent of consumers could not tell the difference between new portable Cold Brew and traditional iced tea.

Tea contains a number of substances, including caffeine, essential oils, enzymes, tannins and phenolic compounds. It also contains potassium and magnesium. Tea (with no cream or sugar) has 2 or 3 calories per 6 ounces.

Keep bulk tea for up to 18 months in an airtight container, preferably metallic. Chinese teas keep for up to 3 years.

Try some of these tea recipes:
Southern Iced Tea

Ingredients:
• 3 cups water
• 3 teaspoons (heaping) fresh orange pekoe bulk tea
• 4 cups cold water

Preparation:
Bring the water to a boil in a non aluminum saucepan. Reduce heat to low and add tea; cover and let tea simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain into a large pitcher and add 4 cups cold water.

Mint Tea With Lemon

Ingredients:
• 4 tea bags
• 8 fresh mint sprigs
• 4 cups boiling water
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, or to taste
• 3 cups hot water

Preparation:
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add tea bags and mint; cover and let steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients in a 2-quart pitcher. Remove tea bags from tea mixture; add to pitcher and stir well.

Chill. Serve over ice.
Makes 2 quarts.

May 7, 2008