Unlike my usual crazy ideas, this one is minor. More or less something I've been trying to do for years, but never had the proper means of doing it until now. I've noticed over the past two years some of my fans, showing pictures of their favourite foods and beverages. Be it stuff they bought at some fast food joint or stuff they made at home.

Myself, I am a huge Tea Fanatic. Iced, Hot, Camellia, Herbal, you name it. So I decided to share my love of it, with all of you through an experiment I've been working on.

I've decided to make home made Ice Tea of 4 different varieties.

To do this I had the following items:

4 Mason Jars for Containers

3 brands of tea. 1. White Tea. 2. Green Tea. 3. Orange Pekoe. The latter of which because it's the most commonly known tea and iced tea and I wanted to compare it to the others.

Room Temperature Water

Kitchen Timer

Tea Kettle

First off the jars:

These are very cheap mason jars, mostly used for Preserves, you can pretty much get them at any Dollar Store.

The teas next to them, I bought specifically for this, while I already had Orange Pekoe at home.

I picked Green and White Tea, because of their health benefits including, but not limited to weight loss.

I labelled these accordingly: White Tea, Green Tea, GTWT (Green Tea/White Tea) Hybrid and Orange Pekoe Tea. They are also positioned the same way in the next picture:

Using the Kettle I boiled some water and let it cool at room temperature. I then poured the glasses until it only had a few inches of space left. I did this because due to buoyancy, the tea bags would cause the water to rise.

As you can see here, I put the Orange Pekoe in first before placing the rest in, hence why it started to extract faster. Within seconds of me putting the other three in and taking the picture. Not quite unexpected, because Orange Pekoe is the more instant of them. However I set my timer for an hour and left it to steep. As that's the required amount for room temperature water. Whereas hot temperature steeping is 3 - 5 minutes.

Within a half hour, I checked on the progress. The White Tea showing a nice dark golden brown, the green showing a more light gold colour, the hybrid being a darker version of the White, due to two bags being put in there and the Orange Pekoe earning it's reputation as the Black Tea, by turning almost black.

Within the full hour they were ready, they look pretty much the same as the half hour mark save for some differences. However watch the next picture.

I took the bags out and stirred each and every one of these. Each one looking exactly how I expected. With the green being the lightest of them all. I have currently put them in the fridge to make cold. I will not sweeten them just yet, as I want to try it out as is, but once they are ready I will try each one out. Starting with the Orange Pekoe for comparison. Will update when it's ready.

The purpose of this is more or less a lesson in health. The iced teas you all purchase is probably the most unhealthy beverage in the world. Even the Green and White ones that boast better health benefits still have a huge hunk of sugar in them. So, to prove a theory correct, I am making my own iced teas which should be healthy compared to the stuff at the store.

Update:

After putting them in the fridge for a couple of hours, I took them out. Some of them kinda frozen, but hey, that's what happens when you put these in small jars. I tested them out one tea at a time and I have judged them both based on unsweetened and sweetened. Using a half a teaspoon of sugar per jar.

The Orange Pekoe by itself, is surprisingly naturally sweet. Strong, but sweet. Adding sugar simply made it sweeter.

The green had a lighter taste to it and the sugar made it a little sweeter.

The hybrid one, was very strong and is somewhat sweet with the sugar in it. As per expected, since I mixed two teas together.

Compared to the hybrid, the White alone is strong, not unbearable, but unless you have a strong stomach and tongue I doubt you can drink that without sweetness. The sugar helped a little.

All and all, this was a successful taste test and if I am able to do so, I may get bigger jars for more tea. My main goal is to get one of the faucet ones. Making it very easy to dispense. But that being said, it does prove my point on the Ice Teas. Whether it's green, white or classic orange pekoe, I advise all of you not to drink that shit again. Before, I loved them, because I thought they were a good alternative to soda, which I also like, but have been cautious around. However, compared to the taste here, you can't even taste the tea in the store brand ones. With the Lipton and Snapple brands, you taste more of the lemon and sugar from them. With Arizona, you get somewhat of a taste, but it has the same problem regarding the sugar department. Even the expensive stuff like Loose Leaf, would more likely kill you than this.

If sugar isn't your thing I suggest Stevia or Honey if you can get it. Or if you prefer, unsweetened. Either way, it's much better for your health to make this yourself than to buy it at the nearest store. Not to mention depending on where you get it, it's very cheap. Myself I purchased the Tea for around $2.99 CAD per pack at a store that's part of a chain of Asian Themed Stores. When I say Asian Themed, I mean all of Asia. Middle East and Far East. The White Tea especially, since it's organic.

But Sky's the limit, let me know what flavours you like and if you can make Iced Tea out of them.