Sun Tea - How To Make It At Home
As an eHow writer put it “This isn’t the riddle of the sphinx here. There’s sun. There’s tea.” But there are some things you can do to make the most of your sun tea. You also need some supplies and a lot of patience. Although making sun tea requires a minimal effort on your part, making tea with solar power takes a lot longer than other methods of making iced tea.
Sun Tea - Your Choice Of Tea
Although some people like making their sun tea with regular black tea bags, many people find the result rather weak. If you like strong hot black tea, then you will be unimpressed with the taste of solar-powered iced tea. But you can use any kind of tea bags to make sun tea, and even a blend of two or more kinds of tea bags.
This writer recommends using green tea instead of usual black tea. You could also use half of your tea bags as green tea, and half an herbal tea, like a berry flavor. Green tea needs less time to brew than black tea and tastes better if the water is hot but NOT boiling. The sun will heat up the water well, but will not boil it. If it does, I think the least of your worries are overly bitter tasting iced green tea.
Sun Tea - Your Choice Of Container
There are many containers you can use for making your sun tea. But it is imperative that they have lids. If your jar, pitcher or whatever does not have a lid, then many generations of insects will choose to commit suicide in your brewing tea. Although this adds protein to the tea, it is a real turn off at social gatherings. Your container – a pitcher, water jug, jar or a special sun tea jar – needs to be at least a half gallon in order to make a few glasses or iced tea.
Some people can detect when tea is made in a plastic container than in a glass one. There is a subtle difference, but one you might not be able to detect. Remember when Coke came in glass bottles only? That Coke comes around at Christmas only, now. Compare the taste to out of a plastic bottle. There is a subtle difference that separates mundane from gourmet.
Simply use one regular sized tea bag per cup of water in the container, fill with cold water and set in a sunny spot for at least five hours. Then, bring the container in and stick in the fridge overnight. Serve over ice, and then say “Ahhhh!”
By Home And Garden Editor
