Monday, July 25, 2011

Do you remember ....... sun tea?

Photo Credit
The other day, I looked out my back door and noticed our neighbor was brewing up a fresh batch of sun tea.  Until I noticed the jar on her sidewalk, I had completely forgotten about sun tea; we used to make it all the time when I was a kid.  

I distinctly remember that we had a small sidewalk at our house, and my mom would put a jar of tea out to brew in the sunshine.  We would leave it there for a few hours, then bring it in to the house to chill it.  It seemed like a little piece of heaven.  But I thought people had pretty much stopped brewing sun tea anymore, since it has a propensity to create bacteria.  Apparently the water has bacteria that is boiled off when making tea the traditional way, but its growth is actually fostered by sun brewing.

As the summer days blaze on, I, like most, tend to increase my fluid intake.  Surprising though, I find myself drinking more coffee.  While a hot drink on a scorcher of a day might seem crazy, I think it is actually the caffeine I am wanting as opposed to the heat.  Sometimes I will even make iced coffee.  I think I would be too nervous making sun tea, because it is just my luck that mine would be chock full of bacteria, and I would get sick.  I guess it is best to leave this drink in the memories of my childhood.