Best When Iced

It’s August, and the heat and humidity are finally starting to wear me down.

The subway platforms leave me drenched in sweat, and a morning coffee is about as unappealing as a hot shower. As much as I enjoy iced coffee at a certain time and place, this humidity begs for a summery, sweet, fruity drink with still enough caffeine to get me through my day.

That is why this week’s Top Five is all about iced teas; Sweet teas, fruit teas, herbal teas, you name it. Bed-Stuy offers more variations on iced tea than you might expect, and you can find a refreshing tea for any mood only steps away from your apartment.

So here are my choices for the five best iced teas in the neighborhood:

5. Wally’s Square Root Café
This café serves a ginger sweet tea, which, although a little sugary for my liking, has a strong, spicy ginger flavor that I enjoy, and is a unique addition for an iced tea. If you are a fan of ginger teas, this is definitely worth trying.

4. Saraghina
Saraghina’s tea is light, lemony, and filled with mint leaves, adding a refreshing taste without overpowering the other flavors in the tea. Different baristas at Saraghina make the tea each day, and one confessed that although the ingredients are the same, some batches are superior to others, so ask ahead before buying.

3. Pilar Cuban Eatery
Pilar has a mint green tea that is much more mellow than the other teas in this list. I am a big fan of green tea when I am in a mood for a mild tea flavor, and the mint is a fresh spark. The tea is served unsweetened, which I often prefer, but you can sweeten it with simple syrup if you want to.

2. Peaches
Peaches wins my vote for the best sweet tea. A perfect complement to any southern dish, this tea is both bitter and dark, while being deliciously sweet. Some sweet teas just taste like sugar water, but Peaches has perfected a sweet tea that still tastes like, well, tea. Based from a black tea, you can tell your getting the caffeine you need, and a slice of lemon keeps it fresh.

1.Daily Press
Daily Press makes a delicious plum oolong iced tea, that is cold brewed for a richer flavor and sweetened with simple syrup. The plum flavor adds a fruity taste that I love, and makes the drink all the more refreshing. They also offer an Arnold Palmer style drink, with half iced tea, and half mint lemonade. The tartness of the lemonade goes surprisingly well with the plum. A wonderful, although not as caffeinated, treat!