Sweet Tea
    There is something about a glass of sweet tea on a hot day that just brings peace to the mind. I can't think of anything more relaxing than sitting on the front porch on having a glass of tea and listening to the birds that are often around. You see there is more bird food than cereal at my mothers house. So naturally there are plenty of birds. Anyone who has enjoyed this experience will not disagree. Even those not indigenes to the south.

   Well I wasn't going to be caught dead in Afghanistan when it is 120 outside with out a glass of sweet tea that is not the powdered kind that comes with our meals ready to eat (MRE). So the weekend before I left for Afghan Land I went and bought 75lbs of sugar and all the family size tea bags that they had at the grocery store. They only had three and I'm about to get into the second box (Hint Hint). I packed everything up. put Mr. Tea Pot in with the rest of the 98 gallons of Rubbermaid storage that I was going to send via military airlift. Now I've got sweet tea and I'm happy.

   What? Oh you want some to. Well here is what ya got to do.

 
First ya got to get ya one of these nifty Tea Pots by Mr. Coffee. It makes tea much like one would make coffee. When you get this cool little device you need to take the instructions that it came with, and throw them out the window of a moving car. Trust me I've read them. Apparently Mr. Coffee was thinking bout the Yanks when they wrote the the directions for makin' tea. Sugar was not mentioned once.

Depending how much you going to make will depend on the number of tea bags you use. I recommend the Lipton Iced Tea Blend. It comes in big bags so you don't have to count out 50 of those stupid little bags when you're gonna make a gallon. I use the recommended number of bags on the side of the box. About a cup and a half of sugar for a gallon of tea will do ya good. I don't like it much sweeter than that. If you do, then by all means start your own website and put your recipe up.

Now ya need the water. There are some lines on the side of the pitcher. The one on the bottom says "water". Guess what? That right fill that sucker to the line. Now there is a second line closer to the top of the pitcher. It says "ICE". Forget that line. "but I want it cold-" FORGET THAT LINE.  Ok Pour the water into the top of the white thing much like you would a coffee maker. See told ya it was like makin coffee.

Now ya want to put that sugar we talked about in the pitcher. Put the Tea bags in the blue thing and put the lid on. Place the pitcher with the blue thing on top next to the white thing and then push the little blue button with the light next to it. The light should come on. If it doesn't then you should plug the thing in. I know I didn't tell you that but come on. Well is about 10 minutes your its gonna look like this and the light will go out. slide the pitcher away from the white thing, careful its gonna be hot. remove the blue thing's lid and take a spoon and squeeze the remaining water from the tea bags. After all the water has drained throw the bags in the trash or save them for compost, because we like nature and our pretty flowers.

 
 

 

 Stir is all up after ya take the blue thing off. If your making the Gallon, I recommend you do so because it's O' so good, Then pour the slop into a pitcher with Ice cold water if you want to drink the tea soon. If you can wait the temperature of the water makes no difference. Put the stuff in the fridge and go about your business. Sweet tea is best for about 4 days. If it last longer than that your not drink'n it fast enough. It's hot out, ya need your fluids. now I get about 3 L of tea out of a batch. That blue pitcher says it's a gallon but its a liar. That or the translator got the contents wrong on the water bottles. Either or ya get six and a half bottles bottles of tea. I only use 6 bottles of water, but with the addition of sugar it creates a little more mater so ya get more than what you put into it. Now that is an investment.

The key to sweet tea is the native water. If you don't have water with canoe guys on it. just give up.

If you can't get it right or ya have some problem with the white thing drive back down that road you lost the directions on and see if you can find them. If ya can't give up, you weren't meant to enjoy the fruits of the Lipton tree. So now you can enjoy sweet tea all summer long.