Where Are The Iced Tea Pioneers?

A couple of things to share today with you my dearest blog-heads:

I try not to comment too much on the weather. It just seems far too pedestrian and cliche (translation = lame) to do so. Oh sure, I offer up the occasional post about the change of seasons or the frozen tundra which caused me to slip, fall and break precious bones. But a rampant diatribe on weather just isn't my usual thang. My usual attitude toward weather is one of general disregard. It's always there. It changes. It comes and goes. I try to be prepared for things like rainstorms and blizzards, but beyond that I have called a truce with weather.

An exception must be made today as the thermometer mercury hit a high of 98 degrees in the upper Midwest. It is hot and oh so humid around these parts. We are talking typical August weather in late May. What gives? I got the air conditioning fired up and house sealed up tighter than the sutures of Pamela Anderson's latest breast augmentation (Pam, if you are reading this, take no offense). What really troubles me about this unusual turn of weather is how quickly it moved from "so cold I can't take it" to "so hot I can't stand it." I crave balance. I desire not breaking out into an ugly sweaty mess as I walk into work and start my day. I want an end to all things sweatness related. Mother Nature, please consider keeping us at a temperate 76 degrees with sunshine and partial cloud cover and a gentle breeze thankyouverymuch.

Which brings me to my next topic. Iced Tea.

Love it. Do you love it? Huh? Do you? Do you?

I think iced tea, and tea in general, screams ritual so it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that people have definite opinions about when, how and where they drink their tea. You can point to the East India company and likely thank those dirty, colonizing Brits for helping us see the value and enjoyment tea brings. The U.S. South certainly deserves some of the credit for carrying on the tea tradition albeit iced cold and refreshing. Now, some only drink tea in the summer. I don't trust these people. Their ability to so thoroughly compartmentalize their beverages frightens me greatly. I bet these people also alphabetize their DVDs and color code their sock drawer. I hope none of my blog-heads fall into this category. If so, please take no offense. You are lovely and wonderful and surely there is a special place in heaven for you and your kind.

For me, tea is a year round thing. Mr. Oz renewed my love of tea by making it a staple in our home. He has been known to whip up pitchers of the stuff and likes to add his own twists like pomegranate juice or berries. I say we need more versatile beverages like coffee and tea. You just don't hear about people grinding up some bean or plucking some leaves and steeping it in liquid to create a new beverage. This is ingenuity and creativity at its most basic and its most profound. I mean who does that? Imagine the trials before they got to the tea we know today? Imagine how much bitter, nasty, unconsumable, vial crap folks had to endure and, yet, they had a vision to carry on and persevere. Incredible.

I don't think we have that type of fortitude anymore. If it's out there, it's certainly not being recognized and touted as it should. We need more tea pioneers. We need more crazy people who steep things in boiling water and drink it down with gusto. There is a life metaphor in there somewhere, but I'm just too damn hot to figure it all out and wrap it a nice neat bow. Viva La Tea!

And, I bet you thought I was going to start in on the Teabag Movement, eh? Fooled ya.