Microwave Iced Tea      Flavored Coffee

Microwave Iced Tea

Iced tea is something you normally wouldn't think of needing a recipe for. However, I've noticed so many people, even restaurants, serving instant tea that I thought it would be nice to take a minute to talking about how easy it is to brew. 

It's one of those things that it's easy to convince yourself the instant is just as good until you put a glass of brewed iced tea beside a glass of instant and taste the difference. There really is no comparison so if you've gotten into the habit of using instant tea try brewing some and see if you don't think it's worth the little bit of trouble.

With the microwave it's so quick and easy too. I put 7-8 tea bags in a quart jar then fill it about half full of water.
Microwave on high for about 4 minutes or until the water is hot. Let set and steep for a few minutes.

Dump the mixture into a gallon jug or pitcher straining out the tea bags. I also rinse and squeeze out the tea bags to get all of the tea out.

Then add the sugar while it's warm, if you want to serve it sweet, and fill the jug with cold water.

I do like to always use a glass jug or pitcher for tea as plastic does absorb odors that will affect the taste of the tea. Plastic also stains so bad so glass is a much better choice for tea.

There's a place in St. Louis called Soullard Market that has all of these wonderful little shops. It's a farmer's market and it's one of my favorite places to go. One of the shops is a tea shop where you can buy about 40 different kinds of tea loose and brew them individually or make your own blends. So if you like tea look around locally and see if you have one of those wonderful little tea shops. You'd be surprised how much difference there is between different varieties of tea.

Flavored Coffee

Another beverage that is always popular at big meals is flavored coffee. Even if you're not a coffee drinker yourself you should think about serving it when you're having company because most people do like coffee.

I think it's really nice after a large, rich meal to sit with your company over a cup of coffee and visit. And of course it's wonderful served with dessert.

If you'd like to try something different it's very easy to make flavored coffees right in your coffeemaker. They sell those little boxes of flavored coffees for outrageous prices and they're instant coffee which is even more repugnant than instant tea.

So here are a couple of things for you to try that will give you wonderful flavored coffee for a treat.

• For a mocha coffee just sprinkle a little cocoa powder over the coffee grounds before brewing.

• Another one I like is to sprinkle a little cinnamon over the coffee grounds before brewing.

Once you've had these flavored coffees that are brewed you'll never drink that instant stuff out of the cans again.

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