I bought some chamomile mint tea bags, then filled and started my electrical kettle. When the water was ready, I brewed two tea bags in my little ceramic tea pot. After 15 minutes, I added that to a pitcher with about a tablespoon of honey.
I ended up added another few cups of cold water to that, then put in the fridge.
I’m now enjoying a glass over ice.
(Full disclosure: someone recommended this or something similar before and I’m only now trying it.)
Next time I’ll use four teabags. This combo only made about three glasses, and it’s a little weak in flavor. And dammit, I have honey on my left hand! I washed the damn things after I poured the glass!
Anyone have anything good they make on a hot night? Stiff scotch on the rocks?
Right now, I’m sipping a big bottle of Gatorade… (And the real heat of summer hasn’t hit yet!)
What I find is really odd: even in the heat, a cup of hot tea is good. Somehow, the heat of the beverage doesn’t seem relevant to the heat of the air in the room.
For years, I’ve tried to counterfeit the “Mint Julep” that they sell at Disneyland. So far, my best fake is ginger ale, with a few drops of mint extract (I just checked, and it’s McCormick’s Pure Mint Extract, a combination of spearmint and peppermint. I don’t know the proportions.) Oh, and a bit of artificial sweetener. It evokes the Disneyland julep, but doesn’t match the flavor exactly.
And it’s hard to beat the classical lemonade. Ah!
ETA: I’ve never worked with honey. You mentioned getting some on your hand… Is the stuff inescapably messy? Does it leave a residue on the inside of the pitcher or the teacup? I’ve always dreaded it, imaginging it as something like Dr. Seuss’s oobleck…
The honey reference is a call back to an old thread of mine. Honey isn’t especially messy, unless you’re me and are incapable of using it without getting it seemingly everywhere.
Yesterday was our first day of an official heat wave. I was thinking something lemon-gingery, but alas, I have nothing lemony nor gingery in the house.
I love Italian ice at this time of year, though! If you let it sit out enough then break it up it becomes a poor man’s 7-11 Slushie. My favorite flavor is mango. Yum!
Seltzer water with lime. Who needs sugar, caffeine, or alcohol?
Iced tea is nice if you must have caffeine, but I’ve never much cared for the Southern habit of dumping an absurd amount of sugar into the pitcher. PG Tips makes excellent iced tea.
I’ve figured out a passable home recipe for the Ginger Green Tea that Argo Tea makes. I make a half-gallon pitcher at a time and it’s yummy in summer heat. Plus, chopped ginger in the pitcher makes for a little snack. The longer it’s in the fridge, the spicier it gets.
Fresh fruit (last night was strawberries, but I’ve also done peaches and mangoes), buttermilk, ice cubes, and honey or sugar. Throw it in a blender. It’s a cross between a smoothie and yogurt, and it’s totally refreshing and delicious.
Well, I don’t use sugar, and can take or leave caffeine in the evening. But if I don’t ingest alcohol, I soon find my levels of hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase plummeting, often to the point where I swoon. So there.
I saw some green tea and mint teabags at Aldi’s, when I go back I’ll buy some to brew some iced tea. That sounds refreshing, with a little sugar syrup, over ice.
I bought four cases of Polar seltzer water (in cans) on sale, ridiculously cheap, orange vanilla, lime, lemon, and plain. Very mild flavors (around Christmas they have Candy Cane flavor, which tastes like seltzer stirred a couple times with a peppermint cane. Wish I had some of that now.) Seltzer mixed with fruit juice over ice is refreshingly excellent!
I avoid alcohol when it’s very hot, I have enough trouble navigating through a stifling day sober. The main problem is getting enough ice, two little trays in my overstuffed freezer are useless. So I may go buy a bag of ice at the gas station and put it in the cooler in the basement to use as needed.
Makes approximately 2/3 gallon
INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
3 tsp lime juice concentrate
3 cups club soda
6 Tbsp creme de menthe syrup (not liqueur)
6 oz thawed lemonade concentrate
mint leaves
pineapple slices
maraschino cherries
bamboo skewers
METHOD
Dissolve sugar into club soda. Add lime juice and lemonade and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add creme de menthe. Chill.
To serve, combine 3 parts syrup to 5 parts water. Add mint, and skewer two pineapple slices and a cherry. Serve chilled (add ice cubes if necessary).
I like those teas infused with fruit essence like they sell at Peet’s during the summer months. Last year they served samples of a seriously good mango iced tea. I’m starting to look for it again this year and so far I don’t see it.
I like them without sweetening, so that the slightly bitter, tannic edge can act as a good thirst quencher.
I find the lime flavored tonic water is great. Basically, add 4 ice cubes, then about 2 fingers of the tonic water, then all the rest fresh water. That little bit of tonic water gives the ice water a nice little kick on a hot evening.
I asked a friend today what he likes on a hot day, and he said cold milk. That strikes me as too heavy, and too thick, but it works for him, so I said I’d mention it.
I used to be a beer drinker… Hm… Had to quit, as it was sort of out of control… But Tecate beer, which is weak and watery, was particularly good on a real hot nasty sweaty day. Lighter beers work well on that kind of day.