It’s (Iced) Tea Time!

By Laura Longley

Whew! You step out on the deck and that first blast of hot, humid air hits you. What wouldn’t you give for a long, cool quaff of iced tea right now?

Sure, you can hustle over to the grocery store and grab a jug of Arnold Palmer Half & Half Tea and Lemonade. Then cruise to the coffee/tea and soft drink aisles to fill your basket with pricey AriZona, Lipton Brisk, Turkey Hill Lemon, Tazo Lemon Ginger teas, and, of course, Snapple. 

But we have a better idea for you. Save money, make tastier teas, and learn a few tea tales as we begin National Iced Tea Month in June by stopping in Purcellville’s own Dominion Tea.

David and Hillary Coley, who founded this innovative business just nine years ago out of a small storefront on 21^st Street, now have a tasting room as well as a production facility a few steps from there. It’s located at 210 N. 21^st St., Suite 4, next to Cabinet Showplace, down a hill a few feet north of the historic W&OD train station. 

There you’ll discover nearly 100 loose leaf teas for tasting, most of them from small estates in India, Sri Lanka, China, and South Africa, The Coleys sell their teas wholesale and retail; you’ll find them offered in many restaurants and shops in Purcellville and throughout the region. Their teas are also available online.

Whenever you visit the Purcellville Tasting Room, give yourself at least 30 to 45 minutes to explore the varieties (black, green, oolong) and flavors of their loose leaf teas. Be sure to take home enough for your summer servings—especially because they’ve got some easy ways for you to brew tasty teas this summer.

Cold Brew Iced Tea

“Yes, you can cold brew iced tea,” says Hillary Coley, and explains how.

“It’s super easy. You just need a pitcher and water. The ratio is roughly 7 teaspoons of loose tea to 750 ml of water.  Put the loose tea and water into the pitcher and put it in the refrigerator for about 6 to 8 hours and see what happens. The trick behind cold brewed iced tea is getting the liquid out at the end of brewing without the tea leaves.  That’s a piece of cake if you find one of the pitchers with mesh infusers at your local big box store. Or if you happen to have two pitchers and a fine mesh strainer, you can strain the contents of your brewing pitcher through the strainer into the other pitcher and then discard your teas leaves, hopefully as compost for one of your favorite plants. Play with the amount of tea versus water and your steeping time until you find the combination that works for you.”

Iced Tea for Crowds

Hillary also has the answer for that gang of family and friends getting together for the Fourth of July.

You’ll need a pitcher with a lid, but you can do this with an open pitcher. You’ll also need a large pot to boil water in,” she advises. “It should hold at least 4 quarts, plus a thermometer to measure water temperature, and a fine wire mesh strainer.”

From here on, just follow Hillary’s steps for creating that iced tea all your guests will love:

Add 8-1/4 cups of water, a little over 1/2 gallon of water, to your pot and turn the burner on to high.

Allow the water to come to a boil and then add 1 cup of loose-leaf tea. Turn the burner off.

If you’re brewing a white, green, or oolong tea, turn off the burner and remove the pot from the burner. Allow it to cool for about 3 minutes and then put in your thermometer. You are looking for 190 degrees before adding the tea. If you’re using voluminous white tea, make this 1-1/3 to 2 cups.

For black or tisane (herbal) tea, allow it to steep for 5 minutes. For an oolong tea, allow it to steep for 4 minutes. For a green or white tea, allow it to steep for 3 minutes.

Pour the tea through the strainer into your pitcher and leave the pitcher on the counter.

Serve the tea directly over ice…and enjoy!

Meanwhile, this is a good time to remember our hot-tea-drinking cousins across the pond: As Tom Holt, an English author known for his comic fantasy books, explains: “American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It’s never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957.”

Dominion Tea’s Purcellville Tasting Room is open Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 10 to 6, and Sunday noon to 5. Dominiontea.com 540-999-8327.