Tea Time

I always have a bottle of water in my car, stowed in a tote between the front seats that also holds CDs and miscellaneous stuff. I've got water available at my fingertips if I want a swig while I'm on the road, and I'm ready to keep hydrated when I go to the gym. Earlier this year I switched from a plastic squeeze-top bottle to an electric-purple metal model, which holds 3 cups and has a screw-on loop top.

When the bottle is empty I bring it in the house, fill it from the spigot in the refrigerator, and put it back in the car.  I've been doing this for quite a few years, and the system works for me. By leaving a filled bottle in the car, though, I have seasonally different drinking experiences.  In the winter the water gets a bit icy, and when the weather is steamy like it is now, it's quite hot.  As I was drinking the tepid water yesterday afternoon a thought occurred to me: I wondered if the water was hot enough to make tea.  I decided to perform an experiment on the way home from work today.

I brought a tea bag with me this morning, and added it to the water bottle before I left the preschool's parking lot at the end of the day. You need 6-8 ounces of water to make a cup of tea, so in theory I could have made enough tea for an entire party in my bottle, but since I only had one bag I poured two thirds of the water onto the parking lot, added the tea, and put the lid back on.  I had to run an errand, and it took me 25 minutes to get home. When I brought the water bottle inside and opened the top I had perfectly brewed tea!

I added some sweetener to the tea and drank it after I fed the cats.  It tasted good, but it would have been even better poured over ice.  Maybe tomorrow I'll bring two tea bags and make double-strength tea...