Summer Iced Tea Spritzer

Ok, I spend a lot of time talking about food as nourishment which is all well and good.  At the end of the day though, food isn’t just a conglomeration of vitamins, minerals, protein, fat and fiber.  In truth, food is a representation of our social customs and traditions.  It marks certain occasions, comforts us in cold or hot weather and creates a space around which families often gather.

For me, cold food and drinks are integral to my summer experience.  I have amazing memories of playing outside throughout the humid, sticky Florida summers as a little kid.  My salvation: my mom kept the freezer stocked with Otter Pops.  If you’ve never had an Otter pop, it is a long, thin pop that you suck out frozen, sugary goodness from a plastic wrapper.   It is labeled as a popsicle, with a texture somewhat similar to a snow cone.  Aaah! 

At nine years old, we drove north to set up residence in Pennsylvania.  What did I discover when I got there?  The happy chimes of the ice cream truck!  I can’t imagine the reason, but there were no ice cream trucks where I lived in Florida.  I had never even heard of the concept.  It was a novel, albeit wonderful realization that icy goodness could be delivered daily to my street.  I started with the snow cone and moved on to many of the ice creamy options.

Then I hit my teen years and I spent a few summer weeks with my friend at the Jersey shore.  That is when I discovered the chipwich.  I’m pretty sure the chipwich was created by some super genius ice cream God.  What more could you ask for than a chocolate chip covered vanilla ice cream scoop that is sandwiched between not one, but two yummy chocolate chip cookies?

Now that I’m an adult, I’ve moved on to iced drinks as my chilly comfort from the blazing summer rays.  Sitting outside with a cold drink, packed with extra ice and dripping with condensation is my current salvation from the summer heat.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that coffee (my normal go-to summer beverage) is not an option for me right now due to my taxed adrenals.  So, I’ve been on the hunt for a yummy, chilly summer drink and I think I have finally found it!

I call it Fruity Iced Tea Summer Spritzer.  The thing I love about it is that no ice cubes are needed.  My fridge has ice making capabilities, but sadly my non-renovated, 1940s bungalow does not have water hook-ups for the freezer.  My landlord said it was something about not wanting to ruin the apartment’s 1940s authenticity.  Personally, I would be willing to compromise authenticity for bountiful ice cubes, but I digress.  I’m stuck making ice cubes in the little trays, which means trying to smash the cubes out of the tray into my drink.  This frustrates both me, and my loud noise hating poodle who takes any ruckus is indication of an intruder.  I try to explain to her that I was just making ice, but she is too busy furiously barking out the window to listen.  So, an ice cube-less cooling beverage is a double win for me.

Ingredients

8 ounces chilled iced tea

splash of seltzer water

squeeze of lemon

½ cup frozen berries

½ cup loosely packed mint leaves

I started off by brewing the iced tea.  This time I used Tropical Crimson herbal iced tea by Rishi Tea.  I love it because it is a reasonably priced organic herbal tea that is tasty and refreshing. I think this would go especially well will with an iced green tea, but try it with your favorite.  I brewed the iced tea ahead of time (according to the directions on the box), so I had plenty of time to let it chill.  With the heat we’ve been having lately, I want my beverage to be good and cold before drinking.

Once the tea was ready, the rest was easy.  I started by placing my mint leaves on the bottom of the glass.  Then I poured the iced tea , filling the glass ¾ of the way.  Then I added just a splash of club soda (or any sparkly water).  The goal was to add bubbles without completely watering down the drink.  There is nothing I hate more than a watered down drink.  I then added just a quick squeeze of lemon.  I wasn’t going for lemonade.  I just wanted to give the tea some depth of fruitiness.

The final ingredient is frozen berries.  I added about ½ cup, but add as many as appeals to you. The berries keep the drink cold just like ice without having to bang out any cubes and without ending with a watered down drink as the beverage cools!  It is pretty to look at, chilly to drink and yummy to eat all the sweet berries once you get to the bottom of the drink. 

So that is my current summer obsession.  It is also rich in antioxidants and fiber.  But who wants to think about nutrition that when soaking in the summer rays.  To me, it is an Otter Pop for the slightly more mature seven year old in me. 

A Plea for Rain, Hay and Plentiful Avocados in California

So it is raining here in Los Angeles.  And when I say rain, I mean a very slight drizzle.  But hey, my fellow Los Angelinos can attest, drizzle is for us what a downpour is to most other parts of the world.  We see rain here so rarely that when it happens, it is often the top story on the news.  Reporters will do man on the street interviews to discuss local resident’s experience of the treacherous trickle.  No joke.

Yet we need rain to nourish the land.  California is in a horrible drought which means all of us locals need to be mindful of when and how we use water.  It is destroying crops. I read a statistic that 17,000 agriculture workers are expected to be out of a job this year.  I even read somewhere that the possibility exists of needing to migrate people out of California.  Whoa.  Personally, I’m opting to be migrated to Hawaii.  I was born in New York, not too far from the Canadian border but I’ve gotten way too used to sunshine to turn back now.

California is supposedly the number one state for US agriculture.  Yup, amazingly we have more than movie stars and botox factories here.  Who would have guessed?  It is amazing for us Los Angelinos to remember that California isn’t just a conglomeration of coffee and juice bars, but is very much a large expanse of farmland.  I wonder if the farmers, toiling in the dry sun all day laugh at those of us who thrive on spray tans.  But I digress. 

So, we have a lot of agriculture here in California.  Do you like cheese?  Amazingly, we have a lot of cows here.  California is also a really good state to find organic raw milk (if you are so inclined and don’t happen to have your own cow.)  We are also great growers of grapes, apples, almonds, walnuts, lemons and hay (yes, I said hay.) (http://norml.org/legal/item/california-top-10-cash-crops)   Personally, I am a big fan of the California avocado.  I’d never had an avocado before moving here and was shocked to find it is served on EVERYTHING.  I become judgmental when I go back East, shaking my head at the dismal selection of available avocados.  I look sadly at my fellow shoppers and wonder if they have a glimmer at what they are being denied based on geography.

There are, of course, other reasons to be concerned about a drought than food.  Fire is a huge concern and dry conditions create the ideal setting for an out of control blaze.  As much as we like to feel in control of the elements, Mother Nature can overpower us.

So if those of you who have more access to the wet stuff could kindly do a rain dance for us, it would be greatly appreciated.  Even if you aren’t a great dancer.   It will benefit you too by keeping pricing down for some of your favorite commodities.  A slow down in production means less availability and high prices for everyone.

And if you are into entrepreneurship, you may want to invest in a galosh manufacturing company.  See somebody is going to have to sell us Californians rain gear once it starts raining again.  Seriously, do you have any idea where I might have left my umbrella?  If I retrace my steps I last saw it in 2011.