In spring, we break out all of our light things: light colors, light clothes, lighter moods, and especially light drinks. And I don’t mean zero-calorie, diet-something. I mean the plethora of fizzy, fruity, colorful and flavorful beverages that warm weather is made for. Some beverages you have to buy, but others are easy DIYs to get you through your classes.
Let’s cover the basics first: coffee and tea
Hot and humid mornings should not impede you from a daily caffeine fix. We’re college students — our blood is at least 65% coffee. Enter your new best friend, cold brew coffee. You might have seen this odd little drink, sitting in bottles or more often cans in a Whole Foods – like store, and thought isn’t that the same thing as bottles Starbucks?Yes, and no. Cold brew is like the iced tea of coffee. It’s made to be cold, strong, and kept as far away from cream and sugar as Penn State students from South Oakland. There are a few simple to follow recipes for how to make cold brew in even your tiny dorm room, but is a relatively fast find if you aren’t in to that. There’s even a brand that comes packaged in mini-milk cartons, just like elementary school lunches.
Why should you pick yourself up some if you don’t drink black coffee? It’s the fastest life hack to a perfectly customized iced coffee. With the amount of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks iced coffees floating around campus every day, it’s safe to say that Pitt students love the stuff.
Being from a predominantly southern family, iced tea is a must have 365 days a year. It’s easy to make but even easier to mess up. A less than fantastic brew is borderline shameful. The biggest culprits: cloudy tea and bitter tea. Rest assured, these aren’t things a little proper treatment from the low country can’t fix. Feel free to get creative too: use different flavored teas, mix in a little lemonade for an Arnold Palmer, or use frozen fruit instead of ice cubes.
Pro Tips:
First, always use nice tea, and use a lot. Unless you’re making a cup for yourself, use two to three tea bags of good tea.
Second, make sure your water is legitimately boiling and that you brew your tea for exactly what the box says. If the box says five minutes and you let it sit for seven, your tea will be too strong and taste burnt. Not good eats.
Third, if you like your tea sweet, dissolve your honey or sugar in the hot water as you’re brewing the tea. This will prevent the cloudiness.
Fourth, let your tea cool all the way to room temperature before you bottle it up for your fridge. Letting hot liquid get too cold too fast could ruin your bottle — or worse, let mold grow inside it.
Are you a touch adventurous? Do crave fizzy, sparkling things that aren’t too-sweet soda? Do you like things that come in delightfully-hipster glass bottles?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of those questions, then it sounds like you need kombucha in your life. Kombucha is a “lacto-fermented” tea — a category that essentially means it self-carbonates without making alcohol – that originated in India, Nepal, and other regions around the Himalayas. They are made from tea and any other combination of fruits, and sometimes herbs.
I recommend buying this one — unless you have a laboratory-clean room and a sterilizing dishwasher at your disposal. When done incorrectly, kombucha making can turn into a DIY poison session in a hurry. One of the easiest-to-find brands is Kombucha Wonder Drink. You may be familiar with it if you are a fan of Portlandia or if you frequent the Bakery in the Schenley Quad. It’s not as sweet as expected and definitely should be cold.
Spring is full of new beginnings and the season of getting worked up for summer. It should be anything but boring – a new weekly treat is a low risk, low stress way to branch out.