Loosely connected thoughts

[redbird]

It's not a vacation: it's more like short-term disability.
Would it be easier to learn to like cola, or to start keeping decent iced tea in the fridge?

Comments

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Tea in the fridge.

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

Cola is either loaded with corn syrup, which is evil, or articfical sweetners, which are more evil. Go with the iced tea.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Cola is either loaded with corn syrup, which is evil,

But that volume of any other equally caffeinated liquid with eight spoonfuls of sugar in it is even worse, let alone a pig to dissolve.

Pepsi; it's not a drink, it's a drug delivery system.

[redbird]

Of course it's a drug delivery system. At the moment, I'm less sure that I want my drug delivery system to be in the vicinity of 80°C.

And I don't need to put that much sugar in iced tea if I make it myself. Though Pepsi is preferable to most commercial bottled/canned iced teas, in part because it doesn't taste so much like something I can do better myself. In Hong Kong one can get decent canned oolong tea, chilled, but it's very rare in North American shops. There's also at least one North American (possibly New York area) brand of barely sweetened tea I've seen in bottles, but I have no idea who carries it: I've only seen it in cases under the desks at a place where I was doing casual office work.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Tejava, probably. That's on the West Coast, anyway.

If you've got a heat-proof pitcher (by which I mean one that won't crack or melt on contact with boiling water), making iced tea is not that hard.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

There's also at least one North American (possibly New York area) brand of barely sweetened tea I've seen in bottles, but I have no idea who carries it: I've only seen it in cases under the desks at a place where I was doing casual office work.

Might be Honest Tea. I quite like several of the varieties, especially Assam Black and Moroccan Mint. I don't like sweetened tea and these are almost sugarfree. In the summer I often make a pitcher of iced tea and keep it in the fridge. I use a mixture of fruity herbal and caffeine-containing tea bags, brew a strong pot, and then pour it into a pitcher into which I've emptied a tray of ice cubes.

[redbird]

That's the one. I liked their Assam, didn't like the green that was also in the case under that desk.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Hey, wouldn't the stores in Chinatown stock the sort of canned unsweetened tea that you can get in East Asia?

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Iced tea is cheaper; cola is more available when you are out and about.

If I had the choice to do over again I'd pick an iced tea habit over my raging addiction to Diet Coke.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

decent iced tea in the fridge is the preferable option, for sure.

But I don't like my iced tea to be sweetened at all (hot tea, neither), so my addition to store-bought is Diet Coke.

I dislike the aftertaste of the corn syrup sweeteners enough that I don't mind Aspartame.

But when I have the option of making my own, it is in the arena of good tea from the fridge.

As for commercial brands, http://www.itoen.com/ (http://www.itoen.com/) offer good unsweetened teas. Expensive, but available.

[sraun]

Decent iced tea in the fridge.

Somewhere I have a ice tea maker from the same people who make Mr. Coffee. I wonder if it's still available...

Yep - www.froogle.com for "mr. coffee iced tea" found a bunch, this one is closest to what I've got.

It's a wonderful device if your freezer has an automatic ice-maker. It's all right if you don't - just make it straight and then toss it in the refrigerator to cool.

My trick - toss the sweetener in the compartment with the tea - that way it gets well dissolved during the brewing process.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

As a two-liters-a-day cola drinker, I would say that if your current preference is for iced tea then you should just stick with that instead of giving lots of $$$ to big corporations.

[ailbhe]

Tea. That way I can keep reading about the way you made your iced tea today and which kind of tea you used.

And it'll probably taste better.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

I remember reading a study that there was a lower incidence of teeth decay among tea drinkers, even allowing for adding (feh!) sugar. So do it for your teeth.

When we drove out to Midwestcon, one of the convenience stores had plain, unsweetened iced tea in bottles. It was yummy, but I haven't seen it at any convenience store in Maryland.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Most bottled iced tea has citric acid added which I find icky -- since I drink mine unsweetened. I make a big pot of tea which I let steep for a rather long time then pour it in the pitcher and add an equal amount of water. I don't keep it in the fridge, but I have an ice-maker. It really tastes better without the sugar you know, and you can make iced tea from any you use for hot. I like Constant Comment iced tea best.

MKK

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

I can't stand most bottled iced tea, but drink the homebrewed stuff quite a bit, especially in summer. I've discovered that adding cinnamon and mint to the tea while brewing makes sugar unnecessary, at least for me, though the tea, as a result of the cinnamon, tends to be cloudy. And that's even when I use the iced-tea maker (mine is apparently similar to sraun's) with multiple coffee filters in the basket!