Luzianne

Neat little local place called Woody’s is a combination of working gas station and mini-mart with some of the best smokehouse barbecue in town. (“I’ll have $20 worth of unleaded and your two-meat combo!”) Went for lunch and had iced Luzianne out of the big brew vat. There’s just something about on-tap teas that taste stale and acidic, even for a brand that’s generally pretty reputable. But it was cold and I was hot. Makes me appreciate good, freshly steeped tea on ice.

It is ice tea weather here in the Coastal South, so I made a pitcher of black and blue tea with this today. Two bags Luzianne black tea, about two cups of frozen blueberries, thawed, blended to release the juice and strained, two quarts of water, and a couple of tablespoons of agave nectar to lightly sweeten. Cheers, y’all!

Story time:
Finally starting to get my computer back online. I swear they make it harder every system to format and reload Windows. Anyways, I am really excited cause I get the new tea that I ordered from Teavana in tomorrow. Plus the parts that the electronics shop ordered for me should also be in as well; which means I can finally start to use the nice Kenwood record player that I found on the side of the street. Now to decide what record to crissin it with. Hmmm… “The Who” maybe?

Teatime:
Ok, I might be jumping the gun, but I think that Luzianne tea makes the best sun tea EVER!!! First, the liquor color that these giant tea bags make is extremely dark red. It reminds me of the brackish water that you see inland where all the Cyprus trees are. When you swish it around it turns into a rainbow of reds, oranges and yellows. While the taste is not super exquisite and doesn’t have a lot of flavor notes, the one classic malty note that it does have is lovable. There is absolutely no bitter after taste and is great plain or with a lemon in it. I am definitively keeping this in the pantry for sun-tea.
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Specifics
Temp: Hot summer days
Bags: 4
Water: 64oz
Time: 2 1/2 hours
Liquor: I will up load later…

Overall, I would recommend this to a friend to make sun or ice tea with.

My Hubby makes great sweet tea with this. We always have a pitcher on hand. Sweetened with a mix of white sugar and agave – it’s not as super-sweet as some would make it. This tea is very forgiving and hard to oversteep. Doesn’t get as bitter as other supermarket brands.

Okay for making southern style sweet iced tea.

The package I bought has double sized bags and no wrappings over the bags, which is convenient.

I’m not the biggest fan of iced tea, but I am trying to cut down on soda and hot tea in TX at the start of spring —> summer can be unappealing, as can putting warm/room temperature “builder’s tea” into a reusable water bottle.

So, I am at moms on Saturday night. They always have a pitcher of Lipton DeCaf – on purpose. I took one sip, and asked, “You just open a new box?”
“No, why?”
“Uhmmm, no reason.”
“Oh, wait”, she says, “It’s not decaf. They were out, and its Luzianne.”
Yes, and thank you. I drink the Lipton without complaint because it is home. I am not saying this was great but comparatively speaking, it was a pleasant change of pace.

You haven’t seen much of me around lately. Not been feeling that well. My breathing is giving me fits. I told the praise team some changes needed to happen. I love playing but lately it is just too much. On a normal Sunday, including all music in the service, I’ll play about 10 different songs. This week I only played 5 and I quit halfway through the last. The church was in to it and we had a keyboard player there, so no one noticed. Trouble is he is seldom with us. He is usually out performing concerts. I am trying to encourage a new member, who used to play piano at her old church, to play. She says she can’t do what we do. That is not what I would want anyway. I want her to bring back some good old lively hymn book music. I would love to see her share a song, then us, back and forth. Truly blended style. If we can’t share on Sunday morning, what makes us think we can share on Monday morning?

This makes a great pitcher of iced tea. Drinking it makes me feel like I’m back home in Louisiana.

This is my favorite of mass market black teas for making sun tea. The taste is not bitter, reliably smooth. I also use it if I want to caffeinate some of my herbal teas into an iced tea blend. Blended with Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Orange Zinger is super yummy!

This is the go to tea to make southern sweet tea. Don’t you dare use Liptons! My mom and I would make a gallon on a hot day in the summer, and it would gone before night. I prefer brewing the tea longer, my mom sticks to 5 minutes.

Want a non-cloudy iced tea for storing? Keep it out to cool before sticking in the fridge, it’ll be crystal clear!

Also, per 3 family size tea bags, we add a leveled 1/4 tsp baking soda, too. It makes it alkaline.

Brewed it strong for a big batch of Southern iced tea. Mmm.