How Tea Was a Dirty Word.....

While I was growing up tea was practically a dirty word.
I'm sorry Mom but it's true.
I'd see that quiet look of horror on your face if we visited some one and they offered...God forbid...TEA and not coffee. Not that me own dear Mother is a coffee addict or anything. The mornings she was grumpy before she got her daily dose of caffeine..... I'm sure that was completely unrelated to the need for coffee...yeahhhhh....
But anyways tea just wasn't a drink we ever had. Tea was the stuff the old ladies at the local women's club sipped at during their meetings. Tea was what my grandmother had when I visited her. Tea just wasn't something the general population was slurping down. Good strong coffee was what the local folks preferred.
We did have a box of tea on hand in our kitchen though. Red Rose I believe it was...and I only remember there ever being that one box and it never being replaced....... the only time we even blew the dust off it (discreetly of course) was when some delightful old biddy paid us a visit, and when offered a cup of coffee, answered in her (delightful of course) querulous voice "I'll have tea dear"
Oh dear indeed. And mother and I would exchange that look, the one that spoke of bewilderment and suppressed panic. As the tea had been sitting in our cupboard for God knows how long... and should one in good conscience serve, God knows how old, dusty tea to a delightfully unsuspecting biddy? Apparently.........we could...
We never poisoned any one with dusty tea.... so far as I know, so that's something at least.
Making tea for company was always an adventure. I'd take great care to get the exact instructions on how to make the cup of tea from the tea drinker. And I'd get that curious from them too, as if they thought I was soft in the head for needing very clear instructions on how exactly I should plop one tea bag into one mug of hot water. Little did they know what an adventure this was for me....making TEA of all things. Giddy at the prospect and watching them wide eyed in anticipation as they took the first sip and didn't collapse from dusty tea poisoning. Mother and I would always relax after that first sip.
Coffee I was familiar with. When people popped in for a visit, the sound of their car in the drive was enough to spur me into action. Putting the kettle on for coffee. Every one drank it instant, except at Christmas when who knows how many would drop by and so we'd break out the coffee maker...ohhh fancy and have an entire pot heating all day.
It gets to where you know how people take their coffee. They'd barely have time to sit down at the kitchen table before a steaming mug of hot joe, just the way they preferred it, would be at their elbow.
But back to the tea.
The lone dusty box of tea of undetermined age.
We did finally start using it though as I recall now. But not for drinking....accck God no, turns out you can boil the hell outta it and use it to antique fabrics for crafts. So there you have it, in my Mother's household (again sorry Ma) tea was for old biddies and crafts.
So fast forward years later into the lovely bliss that is my life with Alan. Imagine the VERY first time I meet all of Alan's family. The first meal..ahhh I recall it well. Bar-B-Q. Very tasty. Every one was so nice to me, so polite. All "let me fix you a plate dear, and how cold is it up where your mom is now dear" And some one, I dont even recall who set a glass of *iced tea* down by my plate.
I already knew things worked a little different so far south....for instance no one has snow chains in their trunk, EVERY one has sun glasses with them 24/7 and no one gawks at Palm trees. AND they drink iced tea. (on purpose!!!!!)
Well I'll just give it a go too I think.
No offense to any one, but I thought I understood immediately why my mother kept her box of tea bags on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard and left them there. I mean it was tea...unsweetened and cold.
It made no sense to me.
At first.....
But as I was introduced to all the lovely rich and spicy flavors of south western cuisine. The Mexican, the Bar-B-Q etc. I started to realize that iced tea is VERY refreshing after you walk in from the blistering heat to sit down and eat a spicy meal. Pop is nice but it fills you up fast, and some times seems too sweet. Water is always lovely but sometimes you do want a little flavor. And then comes the waitress with the tea. A tall dark glass with a slice of lemon floating in it. With little packets of sugar at the table so you can sweeten to your heart's content (which I did during my early tea drinking days...oh I sugared it up) Alan introduced me to the fine art of squeezing your lemon slice and jamming it to the bottom of the iced tea glass so that it stays and how every sip you take tastes faintly like lemonade! YUMMERS! DELIGHTFUL! Iced tea was starting to make sense.
And then I had an epiphany...... I could make tea at HOME. And with vaguely guilty thoughts of my Mother I brought (WILLINGLY) boxes of tea into our household. I brewed up great pots of it, poured it over tall glasses of ice and sweetened it with Stevia and.... HEAVEN! Cold and sweet with no calories to speak of. AND CHEAP. Holy Hannah a box of tea is like a buck sixty nine at the grocery store and you can make dozens and dozens of glasses of iced tea with it. Well YOU can, I can't cause I make it so strong and dark you'd think we were having coffee. So that means I go through the tea faster then the average person I'd imagine.
This has opened up so many tea doors to me. It's like a whole world of delicious flavors and beverages that I never knew existed. Those sneaky old biddies from back home......they didn't ever ONCE let me know what I was missing. Curses you old biddies...curses....
Course drinking it iced is a whole different thing then hot...so HOLY HANNAH AGAIN!!! maybe they didn't even know themselves the whole other world of ICED teas. I suppose it makes sense geographically speaking. Some one walks in from a blizzard of snow outside and you offer them something iced..... they're more then likely to dump it over your head.....IF you're lucky...if you're not you might end up head first in a snow bank.
So now here I am smug in my understanding of the deliciousness of iced tea, feeling quite superior of my past ignorances.
We buy GREEN Yerba Mate by Mate Factor tea in bulk and it rivals coffee...YES iced coffee as our beverage of choice on a hot day. Note how my wicked awesome JD Robb book stands in as a handy size reference to the amount of green tea we have.

I've brewed up so many different teas and tea concoctions that I've felt almost like a kitchen witch with a bubbling cauldron. Cackling a little bit as inspiration hits and I throw fresh ginger in the pot, or cinnamon or heck two kinds of tea at once! I've even had tea and coffee mixed together. Teafee we dubbed it. Quite tasty too.
But here's a favorite of ours. Especially for the summer months.
Brew up some YerbaMate green tea WITH dried lavender flowers.


As seen below my coffee pot can make more then coffee. It brews a mean cup of tea as well.


After the tea is made, you pour it into a pair of pretty glasses. It won 't be steaming for long.
Add lots of ice, lots is important, too little and it melts too fast and leaves you with a luke warm watery-ish tea that makes you cry. Then add a little stevia for sweetening followed by a splash of rose water.


Golly, you drink this and you'll feel like you're in the middle of a garden in full bloom wearing nothing but...er....wait as I was saying it's dang tasty. AND refreshing.
That's right Ma!!! DANG TASTY AND DOUBLY DANG REFRESHING!
Tea just aint a dirty word for me any more.