"ICED TEA"

What is not to love about iced tea? I've been hooked on it since I was little but didn't consume it much then. Into my twenties, I became a true "iced teaaholic!" Everyone who knows me, knows that I live on it--day and night. Used to use tons of sugar with it and lemon when I made it by the gallon and everyone loved it including me. [Think in retrospect that it tasted more like lemonade of sorts.] Iced tea accompanied me to my school where I taught: I took it in a big jug. And I also took a jug of ice. My former dentist just loved my eating all that ice with the tea for I broke off more molars or the fillings in them. That fact made me have many dental trips over several years.

Former students of mine still know that I drink iced tea or ask me on facebook. I am forever branded with iced tea--no way to get away from that.

Used to use tea bags and make iced tea the normal way but letting the tea steep and then cool it. Somehow, I discovered instant "Nestea" and have been addicted to it ever since. It has zap to it whereas other teas don't. Know it has caffeine for I wouldn't be up writing this at five in the morning. But that's the price I pay for loving it! [The lemon went by the wayside as did the sugar: I use a sugar substitute.]

Carrying my iced tea around with me in my car has had many merits believe it or not! About eleven years ago or so,  I was pulling into a drug store's parking lot only to see my older son running to the front door. I hollered at him and asked what he was doing; he said frantically "Do you have your tea with you?" "Yes!" I replied. "Give it to me" he said. And he went running to his car [with my iced tea] where I could see smoke billowing up in the front of it.

I was parked beside him and saw him pour the iced tea into the vents on his dashboard. And then he told me that somehow a cigarette he had intended to put in the ashtray fell into the vent! No wonder he had fire. That day my iced tea came in very handy. [He quit smoking soon after that--not sure if that had anything to do with it or not but still?] And his reason for going to this drug store in the first place was to get a bottle of pop or some water to put out the fire so it was fate that I pulled in at the same time.

Iced tea has helped me with bee stings, from becoming choked on something and who knows what else? All I can say is that I am forever hooked on it--with ice or not just as long as it is cold! If you  are wondering if I drink other beverages, yes I do: I drink V-8 juice, cranberry juice, coffee loaded with half and half and sometimes Pepsi. But if it were added up, iced tea would be about three-fourths of what I consume. Must make Nestle Corporation happy for they make Nestea!

Sherry Hill