Easy as Iced Tea

Now, I love iced tea and I even went so far as to buy a certain *cough - Joe DiMaggio* iced tea maker, but both iced tea pitchers provided soon broke, resulting in annoying leaks on my counter tops. Amazingly enough, it was my dear husband who gave me the answer to my problem. "Use your coffee maker!" he said. And what do you know? That very, very dim, nearly dead light bulb came on over my head.

When I recently had to buy a new coffee maker, I also got an extra carafe and filter.

My particular coffee maker has a 12 cup capacity. I fill the carafe and add the water to the coffee maker. I also have a one gallon pitcher that I fill to the brim with ice. Four family size tea bags are at the ready. For personal reasons, I prefer decaffeinated iced tea.

At this point, I secure the tea bags in the coffee carafe.

Set the carafe in place and allow the cycle to run. As the hot water runs into the carafe, the tea bags go to work.

After the cycle has run, carefully pour the concentrated tea mixture into the ice-filled pitcher. The ice will melt, thus diluting the mixture to the right consistency.

Now, this is important: Do not squeeze the tea bags. Doing so will release bitter compounds into the mixture. Just drain and toss. Trust me.

And at this point you can either add fresh lemon juice or peppermint extract (one teaspoon extract per one gallon of iced tea). I would not recommend adding both, but that's just me.

All that is left at this point is for you to enjoy your freshly brewed iced tea.