Stick the kettle on, I’m gasping. A kick off your shoes and lasso your shopping bags to the kitchen counter, end-of-a-hard-day’s-slog catchphrase, at least in the green and pleasant land where I come from. But who, in this suffocating swathe of summer – not that I’m protesting the sun we clapped our hands in prayer for, locked in the ten blue months of winter – can gulp a steaming mug of earl grey or chocolaty chai? I remember being small when, in my childish puzzlement, I scoffed at my Grandmother slurping a scalding cup of tea to cool her down. A hot drink on a hot day? Surely not. Yet, upon further research, it seems her party piece is more rooted in reality than I gave her credit. Still, I’m not sold. I crave something frosty. But what better for a tea lover than that exact beverage, only on ice? I embarked on an exploration…
The quest began on a coffee date with my aunt and uncle in the North York neck of the woods. I confess to being a calorie counter, of the bordering obsessive variety, so frappuncinos, coolers and iced capps – although trendy, cupped in one palm with a blackberry blinking in the other – are off the menu. My go to, of late, is tea, on account of it reminding me of home; the weather twisting into autumn, my Mum and I crunched up in woolly socks on the settee, cradling our cuppas. But also as I’m successfully – although agonisingly – “off” coffee. So, still baking in the Second Cup queue, I ummed and ahhed, plumped for tea – vanilla rooibos – though, still warm and sticky, really not fancying it. Why not try it cold? chimed the barista. I gladly sipped the brown, icy nectar. I was then eager, on my next visit, to delve into wildberry iced tea, upon a barista’s kind coaxing. It proved a brave and fruitful decision which set me wild and fumbling for the next secret goody I’ve missed out on.
I leave you to steep at chapter one of my iced tea expedition with a tip to always ask the crew. Be daring! Splash into something new.
