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Brew Your Own Green Iced Tea

Dan Knight - Jan. 2006

Bad habits are acquired easily and dropped with difficulty. Sometimes it's easier to replace a bad habit with a better one.

Thus I switched from Coke to Diet Coke about 15 years ago, quickly dropped 15 pounds, and unfortunately regained it and then some in the intervening years. After decades as a heavy cola drinker, I broke the habit this year. Instead I drink a lot of green iced tea.

64 oz. of Water

They want you to drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water per day. A few nice cold glasses can be refreshing, but water is essentially bland. Boring. Good for you, but not particularly attractive.

That was part of the reason I drank Diet Coke and, later on, Diet Pepsi. I liked the taste, and a little caffeine can be a good thing. I had no idea it could be contributing to gastrointestinal problems, and now Prilosec is part of my daily regimen.

Over the summer I discovered Arizona Green Iced Tea. It's refreshing, and green tea has many therapeutic properties. It comes highly recommended in Men's Health, The Abs Diet, and pretty much everywhere, so I've moved from something that was damaging my insides to one that's making me healthier.

I still buy a 20 oz. bottle of Arizona Green Tea now and then, but mostly I make my own. It's a lot more economical, and I don't have all those glass bottles to recycle.

Recipe

To make your own green iced tea, you're going to need green tea, sweetener, very hot water, a pitcher, and maybe some ice cubes. I make a half-gallon at a time, and here's the process I use.

Pour water into coffee maker to the "10 cups" mark or slightly beyond. You can use tap water or bottled water, but I prefer the economy and taste of Brita filtered water. I even use it when I make ice cubes.
Put 3 tea bags in your coffee pot, maybe 4 if they're small or you like stronger iced tea. My favorite is Celestial Seasonings Honey Lemon Ginseng Green Tea. I've tried store brand, and I won't do that again. Run the water through the coffee maker, and let the green tea steep for 10 minutes or so.
Measure out your sweetener and dump it into the pitcher. My preference is honey, and I find 2-1/2 fluid ounces provides just the sweetness I like. Feel free to use sugar or sugar substitutes, and adjust sweetness to your own taste.
Remove the tea bags from the coffee pot and pour the steaming hot beverage into the pitcher. If you want to add a touch of lemon, now is the time.
Top off your pitcher with ice cubes or cold filtered water, and you'll have a half-gallon of green iced tea.

Adjust to suit your taste. You might like a stronger or weaker tea. You may prefer a different brand; I've found that Celestial Seasonings Honey Lemon Ginseng Green Tea comes fairly close to Arizona, although my recipe isn't as sweet as theirs.

Green iced tea is much more palatable than plain old water, and besides taste you have antioxidants. It also boosts your metabolism, which can help your diet, and fights many things from cancer to tooth decay.

I will admit that I don't go through 64 oz. of green iced tea every day, but I usually come close. I usually make 5-6 pitchers per week, and it's a nice part of building a healthier me.

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Brew Your Own Green Iced Tea

64 oz. of Water

Recipe

Go to the Low End Living home page.

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