June is Iced Tea Month

This is the seventh annual National Iced Tea Month -- who knew? We're being encouraged to drink at least one glass of iced tea every day this month in celebration. What are we celebrating? Well, it definitely tastes good, it's easy to obtain and reasonably priced, and it actually has some healthy benefits -- phytochemicals in green and black teas have strong antioxidant properties! Iced tea has been around for over 100 years -- since the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair (you can learn more about that by watching Judy Garland in "Meet Me in St. Louis") when an enterprising British tea purveyor realized folks didn't want hot drinks and promptly began adding ice to his tea. It's been an American hit ever since -- 80% of the tea we consume in the U.S. is iced!

I love iced tea -- any iced tea: green, black, flavored, sweetened, lemony -- love it. For this month, my choice has been entirely devoted to "Awake" by Tazo, a bold blend of black tea from India and high-grown from Ceylon that is truly invigorating. You can easily find it online or at your local Starbucks Coffee Shop. I make mine a bit concentrated by using 3 teabags per 16 ounces of boiling water, then add water and ice when I'm ready for a drink.

It's gardening week for me here in Virginia -- still have lots of plants here that need to find permanent homes. I've been creating a little woodland retreat area in amongst the trees in the back yard and have 20 or 30 shade plants to incorporate -- hostas, astilbes, bluebells, hollyhocks ... I'll put up a picture when the planting is done!