Ice tea days

It's getting really hot here as summer pushes on.
The heat and sun, though nice after a long winter and wet spring, are not my friends. My fair skin burns easily, my hair frizzes and my brain feels like it's melting. So I spend most of the time hiding indoors, yet the heat still finds me (I don't have AC in my apartment and fans only do some much).

Oddly though I love tea I had never really tried iced tea, except the ready-to-drink versions from Snapple, Nestea, Lipton's and so on, which I don't drink too much of due to their usually high sugar content.
I knew about the existence of iced tea made from real tea, but had some how failed to ever try it (maybe because my family will drink hot tea even if the roads are melting) until I was in Burlington with tea drinking girlfriends and we found a magical tea house that served amazing home-brewed iced teas (I'll tell you more about this wondrous tea house and shop another time). 

I fell in love.

After a few trials with plastic pitchers, teapots, and large bowls I realized the error of my ways (trying to filter out loose leaf tea from a large bowl is VERY messy) and bought a Takeya Iced Tea Maker (because it seemed simple and was on sale when I saw it).

I haven't been disappointed at all.

And it's very straight forward to use (I prefer the cold brew method, but you can also hot brew the tea and add ice to chill it).

Step 1
Take the Takeya Iced Tea Maker and remove lid and infuser.
Fill almost to brim with cold water (I use filtered water).
Measure out 8 tablespoons of loose leaf tea into the infuser (you can use bags or blooming teas as well).

Step 2
Twist the infuser back into the lid.
I then swirl the infuser in the water a bit to get the leaves wet, so they don't all float immediately to the surface, before securing the lid in place.

Step 3
Leave in the fridge overnight or for 8 hours.
Remove the infuser.
Drink your lovely iced tea!

 Pros
- Simple to use
- Nice way to use up older teas that are loosing flavour
- Can mix in fruit, herbs and other things or make your own blends
- Airtight lid means no fun smells/tastes picked up from food in your fridge (my husband loves making spicy marinades so this is really important for us, I don't relish the idea of garlic tea)
- Lots of space in the infuser for tea to expand

Cons
- infuser is hard to wash (really that's all I've got after 3 months of use)
- my infuser is a bit short for the pitcher, but it still works well and I've noticed that now they come with a sort of extender to make the infuser reach further into the pitcher.

I really do love the simplicity of it all and though cold brewing is a slow process I find the tea has less bitterness too it. The hot-brew method is very fast, about 10 minutes and it's ready, so better if you need to make some quick.

There are lots of different iced tea makers out there just be sure to find one that allows the tea to expand so you get the most flavour from your leaf and is airtight to keep it fresh and tea tasting!