Not a plastic bottle, but waiting overnight. My way of making "frustratingly good" tea.

Good evening, this is Kanon. Recently, when I looked up at the sky on my way home, it was still as blue as midday despite it being evening, and I thought, "Ah, it's summer."
I was born in late summer and I'm a huge fan of midsummer (*´艸｀)

A five-minute walk from the station under a sun that beats down mercilessly even in the evening.

My thirst is at its limit, and I want to jump into the convenience store in front of me
and grab an ice-cold plastic bottle—

But today, I'll hold back.

Because at home, "that tea" I prepared last night is waiting for me.

To resist the temptation of 150 yen

By "that tea," I meanLupicia's "White Sangria"cold-brewed tea.

It's a tea scented with "White Sangria," which is made by soaking fruits like oranges and lemons in white wine. When cold-brewed, the sweetness of the fruit really comes to the forefront, making it very easy to drink.

It's delicious brewed hot, and I also like iced tea made from hot tea, but
on days when I "really want to feel the sweetness of the fruit," cold-brewing is definitely the way to go.

Don't you feel that cold-brewed tea (and tea in general) cools your body more gently than tea that was brewed hot and then iced?
Pouring iced tea down a parched throat is refreshing, but
tilting a glass of cold-brewed tea feels more like my body is being filled with moisture.

Iced tea makes me want to drink cup after cup, while cold-brewed tea satisfies me with just one.
There's that "feeling of satisfaction" with cold-brewing. It's mysterious (´-ω-`)

The secret of the cold-brew pot

By the way, my cold-brew bottle at home is a Hario cold-brew coffee pot (1L).

……Yes, a coffee pot.

I bought it on a whim back when I was a coffee person,
and it had been dormant ever since I switched to being a tea person,
but once I realized, "Oh, I can use this for cold-brewing tea too," it has been a staple every summer.

I wrote about how I fell into the tea swamp from coffee in a previous article.

My own balance of laziness and pickiness

This pot comes with a long tea strainer, but
I don't use it; instead, I pack the tea leaves into 100-yen shop tea bags to cold-brew them.

Because—when you wash a tall tea strainer, the tea leaves get stuck in the mesh.
Do you know that subtle stress? (laughs)

With tea bags, you just toss them away once the brewing is done. It's easy.

However, I don't want to compromise on the tea leaves, so I use loose leaf tea instead of tea bags.

Convenience is subtraction, deliciousness is addition.
This is the realistic balance of my cold-brewed tea.

The moment the sweat dries, something troublesome happens

I pour it gently into a glass filled with solid ice and take a sip.

Delicious...! (*´ω`*)

I feel like the fatigue from the sweltering walk home just melts away.
It's a moment where I indulge in a bit of self-satisfaction, thinking it was worth the impatient wait overnight.

But—

The moment the sweat dries, the air conditioning in the room suddenly feels cold.

I feel chilly. Even though it was so hot just a moment ago.

This is why poor circulation is such a nuisance.

In a summer with poor circulation, hot tea is a savior

Every year, I am at the mercy of the temperature difference between the scorching heat outside and the air conditioning inside.

In a summer where everyone is shouting 'Ice! Something cold!',
I quietly turn up the air conditioner setting a little,
and brew hot tea.

It might be strange, but this is what makes me feel most relieved.

I have the type of poor circulation where my whole body gets cold,
so a little bit of warmth is very soothing.

Feeling the warmth of a mug filled with hot tea in my palms, or feeling the warmth of my cat's paws resting on my thighs.
The sense of security I feel in a slightly cool space—this is unbearably happy.

Just because it's summer, you don't have to choose only cold things.
You can choose the temperature that makes you feel most relieved at that moment.

—I plan to talk about that over the course of four installments this month.

Surviving the heat on my own terms, "My personal summer selection menu".

The July Summer Tea Series begins now.

☕️ Today's Margin Recipe

• Tea leaves: Lupicia "White Sangria"

• Time: 7 hours of slow steeping in the refrigerator

• Accompaniment:
  [If drinking cold] Citrus jelly or smooth pudding
  [If drinking hot] Imo-kenpi (The crisp sound echoing on a summer night and the simple sweetness. It's high in calories so I can't eat it all the time, but that's part of the charm (laughs))

• A word: It's great to soothe your overheated body with cold-brewed tea, or to brew it with hot water once your sweat has dried and enjoy it with imo-kenpi. Please enjoy it at the temperature that makes you feel most relieved tonight.

Editor's Note

Next week, I will deliver "Fumbling ways to cool down a flushed head."
If you're interested, please follow me and wait for the next opening.

Please come and peek into this back-alley shop again.
I'm always waiting for you, brewing a little "margin" into your daily life☕️🐾