Nothing beats iced tea on a hot summer day no matter how you brew it

As a native of Louisiana, Lola Pokorny knows a thing or two about iced tea.

"It's got to be done proportionately, obviously," said Pokorny, owner of Lola's A Louisiana Kitchen. "Also, the sugar has to be added when the tea is hot."

And: "It's got to be strong enough."

And: "Everybody and their brother can come in here and tell me I'm stupid, but Lipton tea is the best tea for iced tea."

As assistant manager of Teavana at Town Square, Carol Narney knows a thing or two about iced tea as well.

"Make sure you get the right temperature when brewing it," she said. "Make sure you're doing it for the right time. Some teas are very temperamental; there are teas that are 45 seconds and there are teas that are 6 minutes."

And, she said, make sure you use the right tea. If you go the Lipton route, "you're going to the store and you're buying a box and it's wrapped in cellophane," Narney said. "It's not airtight and it's not going to hurt you, but you're not getting the health benefits."

Commercial tea bags, she said, are "all just very small bits and pieces of tea leaves. You want the whole leaf, more of a golden color, instead of that dark crusty tea."

Well, bless their hearts.

So we'll turn to Pamela Schaefer, founder of the Royal Tea Society and owner of the online Special Tea Shoppe (www.SpecialTeaShoppe.com).

"Usually you just brew it double the strength and then pour over ice," Schaefer said. "And then you add sweetener, if you like sweetener."

Well, all right, then.

Summer is rapidly approaching, which means it's time for iced tea, whose bracing austerity can provide a dose of real refreshment.

And there's another plus, Schaefer said: "A lot of teas, if they have any kind of fruit or they're hibiscus-based, it's kind of naturally sweet. It's a nice low-calorie alternative to soda in the summer."

Schaefer recommends black tea with coconut, green tea with cherry or any kind of hibiscus-based tea with fruit (such as strawberry, pineapple, mango or other tropical fruits). Most of them, she said, are available at her website and through other online sources, and she said The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf carries green tea with cherries.

"Some of them are good just from the grocery store," Schaefer said. "A lot of the Celestial Seasonings are good iced. Whole Foods has a very good selection."

Narney said which of the shop's 98 teas she would recommend depends on the tea drinker. For somebody who's not very adventurous, she'd suggest a straight green tea such as Gyokuro Imperial or Golden Jade; for black tea, Golden Monkey or Black Dragon Pearl, which are full-bodied.

But she said these more exotic teas can be surprising to someone who's used to the supermarket stuff.

"They have more of a smell about them that people actually like," she said, while some may be "too earthy or vegetable-smelling" to appeal to everyone.

Any of the other teas could be used.

"Our Pineapple Kona Pop is actually really popular," she said. "Peach Tranquility and Orange Blossom make great iced tea."

Narney said Teavana recommends a cast-iron pot because it holds the heat. Brew the tea, then pour it over ice.

At Lola's, Pokorny said they go through 10 gallons of iced tea in a shift, and the sweetened tea is particularly popular. They make 2½ gallons at a time in a commercial brewer with "a ton of tea" and 6 cups of sugar.

"It's not for the faint of heart," she said.

If you do it at home, she suggested boiling water, adding tea bags and letting the tea boil gently for 3 or 4 minutes. Then cover, remove from heat and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Then remove the tea bags; otherwise, the tea will be bitter. (Narney suggested not using tea bags at all, but if you do, not squeezing them, which releases tannins.)

"I put a little water in my pitcher at home, put sugar in it and let it start dissolving," Pokorny said. Then add the hot tea, mix, and add ice only when the tea is in the glasses, to avoid watering it down.

Oh, and Schaefer has one caveat if you're thinking about making sun tea.

"A lot of people enjoy sun tea," she said, "but there's an opportunity for bacteria to enter the water, so usually we recommend that they use boiling-hot water."

MINT ICED TEA

1 quart water

4 family-size Luzianne tea bags

2 cups sugar

1 bunch mint

1 lemon, sliced, for garnish Bring 1 quart water to a boil in a large pot. Remove from heat, add the tea bags, cover with a lid and allow to steep for 20 minutes. Pour the sugar into a 1-gallon jug and cover with hot tap water. Stir the sugar to dissolve while the tea is steeping. Once the tea has steeped, remove the lid and the tea bags, reserving bags. Pour the tea into the jug and stir; place the tea bags back into the jug and run them under hot tap water to release any additional flavors. Stir the tea well, making sure the sugar dissolves. Fill the jug with cold water to yield 1 gallon.

Garnish each glass with a slice of lemon and mint leaves.

Makes 1 gallon.

-- Recipe from "Paula's Home Cooking" by Paula Deen

SWEET APPLE ICED TEA

6 sweet apple tea bags (Celestial Seasonings Sweet Apple Chamomile recommended)

1 1/3 cups vanilla simple syrup (recipe follows)

1 small apple, thinly sliced

½ lemon, thinly sliced

In a medium saucepan, bring 6 cups water to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and stir in the tea bags. Allow to cool mixture to room temperature, about 1 hour. Remove tea bags and discard. Add vanilla simple syrup and stir. Pour into a glass pitcher. Add the apple and lemon slices and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Pour the tea into ice-filled glasses and serve.

Vanilla simple syrup: Combine 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup water and 1 vanilla bean (halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out and included). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool, about 20 minutes. Strain before using.

Serves 4 to 6.

-- Recipe from the Food Network

EARL GREY ICED TEA

1 cup sugar

5 Earl Grey tea bags

4 dried or fresh lemon slices, plus extra for garnish

Sparkling water

To make syrup, combine 1 cup water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool, about 20 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, bring 5 cups water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the tea bags and lemon slices. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Remove the tea bags and discard.

Pour the syrup and tea mixture into an ice-filled pitcher. Pour into glasses and add a splash of sparkling water. Garnish with lemon slices and serve.

Serves 4.

-- Recipe from the Food Network

BERRY QUICK CITRUS ICED TEA

2 cups boiling water

2 family-sized iced-tea bags

1 12-ounce bag frozen mixed berries

1 cup orange juice

2 cups chilled seltzer

Additional berries and orange slices for garnish (optional)

Pour boiling water over tea bags; cover and brew 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and squeeze.

Process tea, berries and orange juice in blender. Pour into serving pitcher; add seltzer. Garnish, if desired, with additional berries and orange slices.

Serves 8.

-- Recipe from Lipton

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.