Iced tea ideas? (& agave nectar)

[Diana Cda]

I never was a tea drinker but ever since I discovered agave nectar, I've found something very, very interesting. Agave nectar neutralizes the tannins in tea (which I just found out after a _lifetime_ is not the same as tannic acid! Tea tannins are similar but not the same: http://www.veetea.com/site/articles/Tea-and-Iron/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin. I gave up drinking tea when I gave up dairy as only milk neutralized the bitterness in tea for me. But I've also found that agave nectar has this property. I don't drink black tea much, it's mostly the herbals and fruit teas that I'm drinking. It just makes things so much easier, I find. One gets tired of the really health alternatives of water and water and lemon. So for the last couple of days, I've been bringing an apple/cranberry "iced tea" made with an apple/cranberry fruit tea with agave.

My question is this, I'd rather make something from scratch myself. I have a bag of cranberries in the freezer and was wondering if dehydrating and grinding wouldn't be a better way to go than using tea, as easy as brewing is!! I imagine not just cranberries alone would work but wondering what else to put in. I've tried chai and egyptian spices teas but I'm finding that spice teas are not something that I like terrible much, so cinnamon and other spices may probably be out if they're a predominant ingredient.

Anyway, has anyone experimented at all with making punches and other watery fruit drinks at all? All the raw "iced tea" and punch recipes seem to call for juicing things and I'm trying to make an easy yet inexpensive alternative that still somewhat follows living food principles. Teas are not raw, they're dried and most likely at high temperatures. Though still better than soft drinks, of course!

Any ideas welcome.

[maui_butterfly]

i slice ginger root and pour warm water over it and let it steep to make a tea. i wonder if that would be good with your cranberry/agave...?? would sure be good for you! what a tonic!

[eachpeachpearplum]

Yes I LOVE the combo of grated ginger, lemon & agave and either very warm water or sparkling water (winter/summer). I had the summer version in a raw restaurant and was made for it.

They made up a suyrp of the first three ingredients so that it is always ready at hand just to add to water.

YUM!

[Diana Cda]

You guys are the best! This has given me ideas. I don't know why I never thought of all this before. My grandmother, in Mexico, used to make tea out of lemon leaves that she'd just go outside and pick from the tree. So why not make tea of other edible leaves/fruits, etc.

I got to thinking that I betcha it would be easy to wash and cut up the cranberries then dehydrate them and grind them up to a powder and keep in the fridge. I could have various small jars of the stuff and then put in water overnight, as I've been doing with the cranberry/apple and a berry zinger tea bags that I have. Then in the morning would just have to strain and add agave nectar. Not as good as juice and all, but easy and very inexpensive, and much, much healthier than anything I could buy. What a great idea this all is!

Cheers. :)