ICED LEMON JASMINE TEA

Iced Lemon Tea is definitely a craze islandwide ...... specially this flavour. This icy-icy cooler is a hot favourite with the junior and his mumma. The son thingi needs a full stock in the refrigerator and he has it even at 10 pm. Mumma loves to buy one her way back from the walk and sip through. We are tea connoisseurs who love to keep a few variety of flavours at home. The senior loves them normal hot.... our weekend pleasure is watching movies accompanied by tea and jhalmuri or different kinds of pakoras / fritters. Come over if you wish to experience unadulterated happiness, supply of antacid is free at this home. Life need not be calculative 24/7. Weekend is the perfect time to set yourself free and we do that. Ever since I have started consuming less amount of sugar, I was planning to prepare my own iced tea either without sugar or with an artificial sweetener. Yesterday I happened to land at the Indian market for a different reason, saw these fresh jasmine and got a packet full of for a dollar. Back home I did not take much time to prepare this Lemon Jasmine Tea with ice.... a perfect, healthy cooler packed with flavour. Over the weekend I will prepare a hot cuppa with same flavours for the senior at home.

My association with jasmine dates back to the 70's. A little girl playing at her maternal grandparent's garden full of trees starting from bael, coconut, lemon, litchi, mango, jackfruit to even pomelo and star fruit is still afresh on my mind. Then there was this flowering plants.... rose, jasmine, "kamini", "juthika", "rajanigandha" and a couple of others. From the evening till sunrise the next day, the garden and the entire house was filled with fragrance of these flowers. The fragrance still lingers on, perhaps so I never could take artificial fragrances, flavours. I am kind of allergic to artificial flavours, fragrances and have to be cautious while buying any thing from floor cleaners to perfume to lipstick. Many of you may have the same condition as mine, try such natural products, keeping such things say a potful of water with fragrant flowers is way better than a room spray. My mother perhaps inherited her love for gardening from  her  father. I am pathetic at it... feels disgusted.... neither can I get jealous with people around who do it  beautifully with an expertise. Being jealous is not in my nature and I am not patting my back saying it. You will see a a big bunch of weirdness in me that will irritate you. Take the example of a person who told me few years back that my persistent nature is a thing of irritation and makes me totally unfit to mingle. I was taken aback for a moment, when did  persistence become a negative trait in one's nature. I told ok fine do not mingle if it is a problem...... though I long for it I will not beg for it or change myself to seek any kind of attention.

Today's post of Iced Lemon Jasmine Tea is a much loved one and it has been a long standing wish to blog about it. If I have decided to go up with an agenda I will go ahead with it. I will not listen to anyone unless I feel it is demeaning anyone or a community or group. I know I have ample time to sooth their irritation in future. I was part of a large food group till last month which got me a considerable amount of readers. One fine morning I see they removed me because I failed to follow their newly formed guidelines. Come on, I did not even see those posts among 500 other posts shared each day.What is the fuss over? Is it a governmental organization that you will set guidelines every other day, it is just a food group with perhaps some more members which does not affect Narendra Modi's office anyway. I did not spare anytime to remove their widget from my blog neither did I mail them to beg for my inclusion.... that would have probably satisfy their ego. I decide who I give that much of importance.... I cannot call eccentric, hot heads as sir / madam because this mouth has uttered Sir for some noted dignitaries in Kolkata or even a cab guide in this island .... you can say a 75 year old cab guide who took me to a race ground in 10 minutes one day when I got late. We should respect people for their behaviour, deeds and attributes..... it has nothing to do with one's power or financial status.The group administrators should have understood some of us missed it and had no intention to break the rules. So far as I am concerned I know I will listen and show love to people in turns .... to the ones who mean to me off course..... even if I no longer remain a part of a single group, my blog remains as long as I wish. I expect that from my people too, do what you think is right, I will follow you from time to time.

With menopause approaching near, I think I am getting irritated every now and then. To get relief from it, I prepare my own coolers. I am taking a lot of interest in various infusions too. They help me get rid of headache and manage sleep disorders to some extent. This island is a great place or even the entire South East Asia offers you a huge variety of tea and infusion. I wish to taste all of them at least for once or try my hands on a couple of them and keep sharing the recipes with you all. One advantage of  preparing them on your own is that you do them as per your preferences with fresh ingredients.... no sugar, less sugar... whatever. Before I get busy with preparing snacks and hot cuppa for some visiting guests in the evening, I felt like rehearsing with you all the entire process of preparing an Iced Lemon Tea. 

I wish to prepare it with the jasmine in my mom's garden as I am visiting next week only if she promises she will through away her 25-30 years old antic, already broken utensils. I am too prejudiced and once heard that using broken utensils bring bad luck to the family. I kept on telling the poor lady you see now my father passed away forgetting he was 75 already and it can happen. She would always tell me " ami jotoi kori toder jonyo, babakei beshi bhalobashis."..... How much I do for you... you love your daddy more. I have not measured, neither do I address him as baba, papa or daddy.... something else that I do not wish to go public with anymore.... creating wrong connections is not a wise thing I feel, it can embarrass others. 

I remember our father as a partner at the Book Fair or at the Eden Gardens even if it was for watching the girl's cricket .... one who has a collection of some fairly exclusive pens... Japanese pens mainly; one whose cell phone numbers I am yet to delete. No, he never had tea, coffee or cigarette..... yet did not live till 90..... Have everything guys and dolls.... but in moderation. Those who associate flowers to any particular community, I beg to say I cannot kiss on your lips, cheek or forehead because I am our daddy's daughter and husband's wife .... neither am I an anti - Indian , anti - Hindu or someone who couple of people wish to shoot at point blank range once seen in an Indian airport ..... I am just averse to any kind of communally abusive posts or speeches coming from any side.... I can talk only of my side because I have grown up in that environment ...... thats when I lament... I loved you a lot 'Arnab'... how could you? .... I wish to withdraw myself from this social world when a personality like Arundhati Roy is tagged as an anti- national and deserves to be "kicked out of the nation"... exactly this was the language used..... freedom of speech yeah.....

INGREDIENTS :

TEA : 2-3 TSP 
FRESH JASMINE : A HANDFUL
SUGAR : 2-4 TSP [ I USED ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER]
LEMON JUICE : 1/4 SMALL CUP
WATER 1 1/2 COFFEE MUG + 1 MEDIUM SIZED BOWL
ICE CUBE : 3-4 FOR EACH GLASS

METHOD :

Soak the jasmines in a bowlful of water.

Cover with a plate and keep aside for an hour. Remove the cover.

Microwave the bowl at high for a minute.

Take out and add the tea. Stir and cover. Remove the cover after 5 minutes and add sugar and lemon juice. Stir well.

Pass through a strainer on to a teapot or bowl.

Fill half of the serving glasses with ice-cubes. Top the glasses with lemon jasmine tea and decor with lemon slices if you wish to! Serve immediately and enjoy.