Iced green tea with pomegranate juice

A healthy and thirst-quenching drink perfect for a hot summer's day: iced green tea with pomegranate juice.


...but ignore the part about using tea bags, however. Instead, brew your loose-leaf green tea the way you normally would, pour it into a mug or cup filled with ice, leaving a little room in the cup for the pomegranate juice. Then, once the tea has chilled (it only takes a minute or so), add in about half an inch of pomegranate juice.


You can also chill your brewed tea before pouring it over ice — you get less melting and therefore less dilution of the tea. If you're going to be using hot tea, you can brew your tea on the strong side to allow for dilution by the melting ice.


More tips and recipes for iced green tea are available here.





—Mellow Monk

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New jugs (for milk and iced tea) and a new source of filtered water (for home, office, and the Earth)

Change is sometimes inevitable and inescapable, so the only thing to do about the new eco-friendly milk jugs is to embrace them enthusiastically. The secret to pouring without spilling is to tilt it downward without lifting it up off the table, as shown in the picture below.

And don't forget to save a couple of those jugs to make Mizudashi Iced Green Tea.

Speaking of water, this article about sea water desalination has an illustrated, easy-to-understand explanation of how reverse osmosis filtration works. The same technology that's being considered as a solution to global shortages of drinking water is already popular as an on-site water-filtration alternative to trucking and lugging around those huge bottles of water for home and office water-coolers.

Resting the edge on the table as you pour is the secret to preventing spilling.

—Mellow Monk

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Strawberry iced green tea

Here's a great treat to beat the summer heat—the strawberry iced green tea.



Don't forget to add real strawberries as a garnish.


—Mellow Monk

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Round ice cubes — ice spheres

Responding to a demand expressed by the country's bartenders, a Japanese company has developed a mold for making seamless ice spheres.


The spherical shape has a lower ratio of surface area to volume, so the ice melts more slowly, thereby diluting your drink less. These ice spheres would be great for iced green tea, too.


At least, that's what I thought until I saw that the prices for these ice molds start at around $800. I think I'll wait for the price to come down.



Hey, that's cool! [Get it?]


—Mellow Monk

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Cocktail recipe: Green tea mojito

Here's a recipe for a green tea mojito. I've modified this recipe, replacing bottled green tea with a freshly brewed infusion of authentic loose-leaf green tea (such as yours truly's).


Ingredients
juice of half a lime
6 large mint leaves
brewed green tea – 75 ml (1/3 cup)
white rum – 30 ml (2 tbsp)

Instructions
Pour the lime juice into a highball glass. Add the mint and crush with a spoon. Fill a glass with ice and add the tea and rum. Stir well and garnish with a mint leaf, if desired.






The green tea mojito served up at Kyoya in San Francisco.


—Mellow Monk

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How to make crystal-clear ice

For iced green tea aficionados—instruction on how to make crystal-clear ice.


By the way, if you liked iced green tea you might want to try Mellow Monk's Mizudashi, cold-brewed iced green tea pouches.





—Mellow Monk

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