OT - This makes me crazy.

notjustair · Jun 10, 2015

I drink entirely too much iced tea in the summer. I brew it with half decaf and half regular bags, so I feel like I am doing my part. I do drink about a gallon a day after all. I don't drink soda to speak of and I don't "drink", so this is my vice.

Why can't any gas station brew their own tea anymore? All of the tea is made the same way as soda - a concentrate that gets mixed with water when you pull the lever. They try to be sneaky and make it look like a brewed container but you can hear the dispenser pumping away in the back room. It tastes gross, too - like every chemical they put in it to make it last five years. Are the kids working there unable to brew tea???

Sorry, I just had to vent. I spent my day in the pickup dragging the stock trailer. It was time to deliver animals for butcher and didn't even have any decent tea to look forward to. Did I mention the thermometer in the pickup said 100 degrees? Ugh.

Dean · Jun 10, 2015

I drink home made iced tea year around.

I make it the old fashioned way with loose tea (getting hard to find) and a tea strainer (getting even harder to find).

I use a three quart pitcher. A pitcher laste about 4-5 days in the winter and about 2-3 days in the summer.

For years I sweetened it with liquid sweetener but I can no longer find it so I went back to old fashioned sugar.

Dean

Greg1959 · Jun 10, 2015

notjustair- Actually I can help you with that. I did a short part-time stint with a company that part of my job was to install these these units.

You are presented with a large container supposedly holding this 'fresh brew' tea. Just lift the lid of the container and you will see a big plastic bag of the concentrate being added to the restaurant water supply at a predetermined rate. I could strengthen or weaken the tea at the owners request.

Thing was, we were instructed to install plastic bags of 'tea concentrate" mixed with water. You thought you were getting 'Fresh Brewed" Tea.

Heck, I even serviced some stores that requested that I adjust the Bunn coffee makers to add more water to the carafe than recommended!

Vern · Jun 10, 2015

I drink iced tea year round also. No sweetener. Lemon juice.
Also about a gallon a day.
Vern

2x4 · Jun 10, 2015

that is not the only drink they ruin. I love a good cappuccino but almost all the convenience stores serve a poisonous brew. They must never taste the stuff they make or they'd make it correctly. Face it, they really don't care what you think of it. They just want the money.

Steve@Advance · Jun 11, 2015

"Are the kids working there unable to brew tea???"

My guess would be yes. Some are unteachable, some unreliable, but probably the main reason is they don't have time to do everything involved in running a store and be at the register at the same time, especially when there is only one employee there.

So it's easier and more cost effective to have vendors come around and service the equipment on a regular schedule. Less liability for the store owner too, someone gets sick from something they ate or drank, blame the outside contractor.

One thing I have a complaint about is the ice! As in the kind made in the store ice machine...

The ice machines require periodic disinfecting and cleaning, otherwise they grow MOLD! Nasty! Sometimes we think it's the product coming out of the dispenser, which it can be, those require cleaning too, but typically it's the ice. I never use ice from a convenience store dispenser! Even worse are the open bin type, where people reach in with the scoop, or their hands, or their dirty cup...YUM!

ShadetreeRet · Jun 11, 2015

About the only way to eliminate that problem is just purchase one or two half gallon insulated jugs and brew your own at home. I did that for about a year, some time ago. I worked for a company delivering materials to various job sites and sometimes was on the road two or three hours at a time, never knowing what would be available at each job site, I carried half gallon ice water, a cooler that held six canned drinks and sometimes tea or coffee in another.

Tony in SD · Jun 11, 2015

If you think fresh brewed Ice Tea is hard to find, try to find fresh lemonade. Even up scale restaurants dispense it from soda pop machines. Ive learned to ask for a large glass of ice water and a bowl of sliced lemons, which they always bring me at no charge. Yup, you gruessed it I make my own, right in front of them. I've never been charged for it either. I expect they will never catch on. LOL

mjsnodgrass · Jun 11, 2015

my grandma use to make the best tea. she would put just a few tea bags in water and set in the sun. I've tried many times to make it like she did, but can't seem to get it right. i wish i would have paid more attention to grandma and grandpa when they were on this earth. the older i get, the smarter they get.

Dick2 · Jun 11, 2015

We have a pizza place here that brews their own tea; if you are an early customer be careful as the container is still hot. Take a lot of ice in your cup to cool the tea. However, they don't have coffee. I guess coffee doesn't go to well with pizza anyway.

rrlund · Jun 11, 2015

If you have to get it on the road,it's best to just get the bottled stuff.

showcrop · Jun 11, 2015

Either you or your parents must have come over from England, LOL.

Dachshund · Jun 11, 2015

I just stick 2-3 bags in a quart jar of water, then set it in the fridge. When it's done "brewing" it's already cold....

Dieseltech · Jun 11, 2015

Told my pastor once the Boston tee party was a failure, they didn't get rid of it all! LOL Never understood the tee craze, just ruins good water..

jimg.allentown · Jun 11, 2015

So, what is wrong with drinking a gallon of brewed tea a day?? I grew up on it, and still drink about a gallon a day of home brewed tea - no additives, just water and tea bags. I will disagree with you about the decaffeinated, though. I refuse to allow the chemicals that are used to remove the caffeine. They include formaldehyde, trichlor, and perchlor. Toxic at best, carcinogens at worst. I just take along a gallon thermos with me if I go away from home for the day. Besides, it costs me less than 20 cents per gallon to brew tea. Most places charge from a dollar to three dollars for a 12-ounce glass of tea. Nice markup for them, too expensive to suit me.

Dave H (MI) · Jun 11, 2015

I drink fresh brewed hot tea year around, regardless of the temperature and we have no AC in this house. Close to a gallon a day. In summer I also drink ice tea. I like my hot tea black but I put sugar in the ice tea because it comes from restaurants and the quality is often poor. I am so fussy about my hot tea that I won't drink it if not made to my exact specifications. A teabag is not a toilet plunger. Tea should steep and not be beaten out of the bag. Red Rose and ONLY Red Rose. My mother once told me she gave it to me as a baby to soothe teething pain. Tea is like religion to me.

CGID · Jun 11, 2015

You can do a fair job of making you own decaf - hot or cold - by steeping the tea for 30 seconds in hot water, then transferring the tea into a second water for the rest of the brew time. Thirty seconds in hot water, and most of the caffeine will be dissolved out. A little flavor will be lost in the first water but for ice-tea it will be plenty good.

CenTex Farmall · Jun 11, 2015

One gallon a day? I think I go through two during the summer while out in the field.

2 quart jar in a cardboard "koozie" makes for no plastic taste contamination.

Agree that all restaurant/convenience store tea is a non-starter.

1948CaseVAI · Jun 11, 2015

If you have Quik Trip in your area (and if you are in Kansas, you have one somewhere nearby) try their brewed iced tea. They sell a lot of it so it is always fresh, and it is the best brewed tea I have ever had. We are all addicted to it.

Chuck MA · Jun 11, 2015

It used to be next to impossible to find unsweetened ice tea fresh brewed or fountain or even in the beverage coolers now if you are lucky you can find it. I just don't like sweetened ice tea. It hit or miss in restaurants also although last couple years i've been able to find some decent fresh brewed ice tea in restaurants and occasionally a convenient store.
Chuck

RBnSC · Jun 11, 2015

I have two words for you guys. KIDNEY STONES
Ron

550Doug · Jun 11, 2015

Here's an idea I came across lately:
For anyone that likes iced tea AND still has a massive rhubarb patch, try this:
Ingredients
10 stalks rhubarb
3 1/2 quarts water
3 cups sugar
4 tea bags

Instructions
chop rhubarb to half inch, or so
combine rhubarb, water and sugar
optionally let stand in the refrigerator over night
bring it to boil then simmer for an hour, or so
add tea bags and let steep 15 or 20 minutes
strain the mixture - I use that conical sieve thing that I use for making tomato juice

chill the liquid and then enjoy

lloyd in sc · Jun 11, 2015

You come into my Blue Cactus Café you'll be charged for it. If you ask for a cup of hot water & pull out your own tea bag you WILL be charged for it also.

If you are too cheap to pay your own way stay home...

T in NE · Jun 14, 2015

Blue cactus cafe..... ok, that's now on my avoid list, too.

OT - This makes me crazy.

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