The Unusual Suspects!

Good morning, tea friends! How about this amazing weather we have been blessed with lately? We have been so lucky and this has allowed me to get out in the garden! Finally! Although it has felt so good and I have been productive, let me tell you, that is not easy work and I am hot (not to mention dirty)! Can you say "Lake anyone?"?

Speaking of hot and the temperatures that we have been having, some of our recent posts have been focused on our iced teas! Iced tea is a great way to cool down and these recent posts have more so highlighted the crowd favorites for this. This post is going to be dedicated to giving you some ideas for iced teas that you might not immediately suspect, but are actually fabulous!

Let's start with our Pomegranate Oolong. To give a quick refresher, oolong teas are both wilted and steamed. They are a bit of a hybrid between black teas and green teas, as they are "semi oxidized". For a more in depth description, check out our Oolong tea page here! We chose to highlight our Pomegranate Oolong here, for it's fruity notes. People just seem to associate fruit flavors with summer, but for some reason, we rarely see this tea chosen as one to drink iced. Pomegranates are revered for their juicy and refreshing nature which lends itself, naturally, to being a perfect flavor iced! If you love pomegranates in the morning for breakfast, consider making yourself a pitcher of this iced tea overnight in one of our Mist pitchers! They are the easiest thing to use and you'll thank yourself when you wake up to a scorcher and have a pitcher of this waiting in the fridge! 

Another tea that is surprisingly good iced is our Chocolate Mint Black Tea! Have you ever had one of the Peppermint Patty McFlurries? Think of this flavor, just WAY less calories! Do you crave that little sweet satisfaction after dinner but seem to feel guilty letting yourself indulge in dessert? This is the perfect compromise. Our Chocolate Mint Black Tea is a black tea base that is enhanced by flavors of chocolate and mint. I don't know about you, but I love the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies and this tea tastes just like them! Even better, I love putting them in the freezer and then munching on them later! Full disclosure, I may have eaten an entire box in one sitting. This tea is my way of avoiding ever doing that again, while still enjoying these flavors chilled! 

If you are more partial to the green teas, one tea that we rarely see iced, but is surprisingly lovely, is our Genmaicha. This tea is a vegetal tone tea that actually incorporates pieces of popped rice in it. When you serve it iced, you will find that this "toasted" flavor from the popped rice is more evident, as well as a heightening of the light citrus flavors! I highly recommend this tea in the morning to start your day as it has a medium caffeine content. It is an invigorating way to begin the morning and will leave you feeling healthy and hydrated! 

As we have touched upon black teas, oolong teas, and green teas, I feel as though we should include an unsuspecting rooibos tea as well! The one that many often forget to serve iced is our Gentle Slumber. Gentle Slumber is a rooibos based tea that incorporates both chamomile and peppermint for their calming effects. I often talk about this tea for before bed time, but haven't added that it can be just as delicious over ice in quite some time. On hot summer nights, sometimes we find ourselves so restless. I know sometimes I struggle to find that perfect comfortable position or the heat can just seem unbearable. It is hard to quiet both my mind and body in the heat and this tea is caffeine free, and both the chamomile and peppermint, as mentioned, are known for their calming properties. Try drinking a glass of this tea over ice before you start your bedtime routine to ensure that you are both hydrated and calm as you settle in with the sandman!

Lastly, I'll mention a personal iced favorite of mine that is often overlooked. I absolutely love our Ice Wine tea served over ice! Ice is in the name people, come on!!! Our Ice Wine tea is a black tea that incorporates the flavors of the winter harvested grapes used to make the coveted Ice Wine. I love this tea iced as it really highlights the chill behind these winter harvested grapes. I highly recommend this one! 

Above, I briefly mentioned our Mist pitcher. This is by far the easiest way to make iced tea. I have written a couple blog posts about this product prior to this that I will link below! 

Cold Brewing!

Summer Iced Tea Made Easy!

If you have any other unsuspecting teas that you love iced, please shoot us an email at info@goodlifetea.com or comment below! Let us know! I love hearing your feedback! If you decide to try any of our teas iced, let us know how they were! I would love to add any additional great ones to this blog and keep it up to date! Stay cool out there and have a wonderful weekend! - Kaytea :)