The "No Matter How You Make It, I Just Won't Drink It Anymore!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to decide what I'll have to drink with my lunch.  Water?  Soda?  Orange juice?  Or, perhaps a cold ice tea.  For years I drank the local brand of iced tea, Turkey Hill Ice Tea.  My son had a kidney stone a year or so ago and he was told to stop drinking Turkey Hill Ice Tea since it wasn't good for him.  Could cause kidney stones.  Well, I didn't think much about it until I too had a kidney stone.  Actually had two that were connected together.  Doctor said it looked like a dumbbell.  Haven't had a glass of the stuff since, though I really loved the stuff and no one other than his doctor said it caused kidney stones.  I just didn't want to go through the pain I encountered with the stone I had again.  Now, my wife drinks her own concoction that she makes and has never had any problems.  And, she drinks PLENTY of the stuff. She uses Crystal Light Lemon Decaf Iced Tea packages.  Places one 2 quart package in her plastic container, adds a bunch of mint she grows in her garden (grows it indoors in the winter), adds a cup of boiling tap water to dissolve the tea crystals and then fills the plastic container to the top with water that she has filtered.  

Add mint to the container

Add a packet of Crystal Light Decaf Iced Tea mix

Add boiling water to dissolve the mix

Add filtered water to make 2 quarts

She can drink that mixture every day of the year.  Takes her two days to empty the container.  Since I don't like the taste of mint, she knows I won't touch it.  Seems that so many people drink iced tea that it led to an addition of the iced tea spoon to cutlery sets.  It is a teaspoon with a long handle which is suitable for stirring sugar into your iced tea.  Carol has been making her brew for over twenty years now, but it pales in comparison to printed recipes for iced tea that date back to the 1870s.  The beverage started to appear in the USA in the 1860s, but was first considered a novelty until recipes began to appear in print and was offered on hotel menus.  Was even sold at railroad stations.  The Buckeye Cookbook by Estelle Woods Wilcox, first published in 1876, and Housekeeping In Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree, published in 1877, both featured recipes for iced tea.  Then in  1904 Richard Rlechynden introduced it to everyone during that year's World's Fair in St. Louis.  Iced tea can be made plain or can be mixed with flavored syrup with common flavors such as lemon, raspberry, lime, passion fruit, peach, orange, strawberry or cherry.   You may have heard about the sweet tea that is popular in Southeastern United States.  The beverage in usually sold with a lemon slice as a garnish which is placed on the rim of the glass.  My favorite, when I used to drink the beverage, was Turkey Hill Orange Ice Tea.  Tasted so good that you couldn't stop after one glass of it.  I will admit that I now drink Turkey Hill Lemonade all the time.  Can that also be bad for me?  I haven't heard any reports yet and I hope I never do.  Now, if you mix iced tea and lemonade together you come up with what is called "half and half."  Also known as an "Arnold Palmer" since Arnold was known to drink the combination together all the time.  Another variation of the drink, known as a "John Daly" mixes sweet tea, lemonade and vodka together.  I guess I should drink more of what my wife makes, but I still associate those two words, iced and tea, with the terrible pain I suffered in the past and it's going to be hard to block that out of my mind.  Hey, I actually tried a drink made with watermelon.  Tasted great.  Has to be something wrong with that, don't you think?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - You just have to watch this hilarious video I found about the drink called the Arnold Palmer.