The End of Summer Has Me Seeing Red
My love-hate relationship with iced tea runs deep. As a child in Tennessee, it was all hate—it would take years for my palate to appreciate the complex flavors in a glass and for me to home in on my ideal ratio of sweetener. Eventually, I would come to enjoy (cold-) brewing and drinking iced tea, particularly at home, where I can have full control over the teas and flavorings that go into it. Today, I relish the balm of iced tea whenever another scorching heat wave wracks the crumbling façade of what’s left of our Earth. Adding just a dash of sparkling water keeps things festive too.
My fizzy tea trick isn’t the only way to bump up the refreshment factor, though. You could also freeze iced tea and swirl with frozen lemonade (and vodka!). You could add plums. Or you could go the route Epi contributor Marnie Hanel and her coauthor Jen Stevenson do in their new title, Summer: A Cookbook, and make flavored ice cubes to keep the party going.
Summer: Inspired Recipes for Lazy Days and Magical Nights
$19.00, Bookshop
Flavored ice cubes aren’t a new concept, but they’re still infinitely riffable. Lemonade ice cubes for tea are pretty common, and you’ve likely seen coffee ice cubes for, well, iced coffee. Rose ice cubes are delicious in spiked lemonade. A host of other combos are limited only by your imagination.
Hanel and Stevenson’s version starts with a bright red homemade hibiscus tea concentrate that is chilled and frozen in ice cube trays. The flavor of the flower-petal tea is akin to cranberry juice (tart and fruity) but with a floral, pleasantly tannic backbone. Hibiscus tea goes by many names worldwide: It’s commonly sold as agua de Jamaica in Mexican restaurants and markets, sorrel in Caribbean communities, and karkade in Egypt. Simply put, everybody thinks it’s delicious.
In Summer, Hanel and Stevenson use the hibiscus ice cubes to further chill a glass of iced black tea. The benefits are myriad. First, the bright red ice puts out a scintillating ruby glow as light refracts through the glass. (You cannot kill these vibes.) Next, as the cubes melt, they impart that signature tart flavor to the tea, turning it even more lip-smacking and refreshing with each sip, like a lemon you didn’t have to squeeze. Finally, they make it seem like you put a lot of effort into this afternoon backyard gathering when really all you did (basically) was boil some water and then freeze it.
I can see a lot of places where hibiscus ice cubes would add a welcome jolt of flavor: margaritas on the (tart, flowery) rocks, cardamom sharbat, straight-up rum over a giant ball of tangy ice. I could even imagine working them into my morning coffee routine. (Hey, if coffee lemonade works, why not?) But I’ll also simply pour a freshly carbonated bottle of seltzer over these cubes, giving in to the hypnotic result of my drink going from clear to pink to unabashedly fuchsia. And then I’ll drink all those lovely, delicious ice cubes in less time than it took to make them. Don’t you just hate that?
Inside-Out Iced Tea
Originally Appeared on Epicurious
