Curses!

I got my new cabinet delivered and it doesn't hold all my mugs! Well, it does hold most of them, so that totally counts for something. And I was able to place my overflow cookbooks on the available shelves, so it's kinda sorta working out. I can't say I'm disappointed. More, I'm not surprised. And, I think I found another mug I haven't taken a picture of.

But today is the second of the superly duperly large mugs I mentioned yesterday. This one specifically says not to be used with food, and that's okay. It's just too enormous for a simple cup of tea. But, it was a gift from my youngest, so it's special.

Today, despite the freezing weather, I had a glass of iced tea with my lunch. In my mind, iced tea is the perfect beverage for every day of the year.

June is National Iced Tea Month

Now how awesome is that? An entire month dedicated to the drinking of such a thirst quenching - and good for you! - beverage!

Growing up in the south, tea was pretty much a staple, and the sweeter the better. We used to tease my sister when she made the tea about how much sugar she added. Would you like a little tea with your sugar, dear? Add a squeeze of lemon and you could hear the contented sighs.

Well, I still live in the sort-of-south, and I still drink plenty of iced tea. Just no longer sweetened. It's weird, but I always lightly sweeten a cup of hot tea, but I prefer my iced tea unsweetened.

Each morning I make a pot of tea. Into my mug, along with the delicious flavored teas I prefer, I add a teaspoon of stevia. I sit back, close my eyes and sip, savoring the taste and smell of whatever tea I chose for that morning. A piece of toast or some other savory type breakfast dish and I can face the day. Never anything sweet to eat with my tea.

When I am done enjoying the first cuppa, I do something some might consider odd. I pour the leftover tea from the pot into a pitcher and fill the rest of the pitcher up with filtered water. Then for the rest of the day, I pour this into a glass filled with ice and continue to enjoy my tea, this time as an unsweetened iced tea!

Honestly, I had never considered doing this before, and lamented how there would be days I found myself pouring out half a pot of tea after it had gotten cold (and I'm not hip on microwaving it to warm it up!) What a waste, I would think! Then one day I hit upon the idea of just adding it to a pitcher with more water and voila! Flavored iced tea was born. Okay, flavored iced teas are not original, but why I never considered doing this before I have no idea. I've consumed flavored iced teas at restaurants and thought nothing about it. At home, however, I would always fall back on the traditional orange pekoe bags to make the iced tea I grew up with.

Now I get to enjoy my tea all day long and no longer cringe watching a favorite morning drink swirl down the drain, wasted.