Iced Tea

Nothing beats a frosty glass of home-brewed iced tea. And now there's no excuse not to enjoy it year-round, with everything from classics to infusions to spritzers to offbeat and cocktail teas.

In Iced Tea, author Fred Thompson serves up 50 vibrant variations on "the house wine of the South," using black, green, and oolong teas ("considered by some to be the Lafite Rothschild of teas") as well as tisanes, which are teas made not from tea leaves but from flowers, herbs, and spices. Recipes range from Southern-Style Iced Tea--a basic formula of tea, water, and sugar--to Teatotaler's Sangria, which combines chilled green tea with peaches, oranges, and other fresh fruits. Other notable concoctions include the tropically tinged Bimini Island Iced Tea; Cha Yen, or Thai Iced Tea, which uses condensed and evaporated milk; and the classic Sweet Tea, whose main ingredient is sugar--and lots of it. ("A visitor to the South once said that it made his teeth hurt," writes the author.) There's also a section of mixed alcoholic drinks.

"Tea is the world's second most popular beverage, after water," says Thompson, and it has noted health benefits; its consumption has been linked to lower instances of cancer and strokes. Iced Tea should help readers pursue good health--and have a delicious time doing it. --Andy Boynton