“Remember our McDonald’s iced tea runs,” Amanda, a good friend from New York who now lives in Ohio, recently asked me via email.

“The best summer of my life,” I wrote back. Because it was, in fact, one of the best summers of my life. We were young, and single, and living in New York City. How much better could it get? And we spent a good portion of that wonderful summer driving through the McDonald’s drive thru for iced tea. Every single day. We couldn’t get enough of the stuff.

“McDonald’s changed their tea. Now Wendy’s has the best iced tea,” she wrote back, which of course made me jump in the car and take a drive to Wendy’s. And she was right. Wendy’s, by far, now has the best iced tea. Which is why I don’t mind flying out of La Guardia these days.

I’m from Texas, which means I drink a lot of iced tea, and I mean A LOT of iced tea! In fact, as I sit at the computer typing, I have a big cup of iced green tea sitting right beside me. And there’s always a pitcher full of the stuff in the fridge. You get the picture. So anyway, the other day my good friend Veronica, and fellow coworker, stopped by the house on her way home from the airport. She’d just flown in from El Salvador, and was exhausted, and hungry, so I took her to my favorite spot (hint hint) in Hermosa Beach, where we had the most scrumptious glass of iced tea I’ve ever had. Trust me, I know my tea, and it was fantastic tea. So good, in fact, that the poor young waitress had to keep coming back to the table to refill our drinks.

Finally Veronica asked the one question I’ve been dying to ask, as she held up her glass, “What kind of tea is this?”

Not only did the waitress tell us what kind of tea it was, she told us exactly how to make it. Oh you’re going to thank me later. And now, I bring to you, the recipe…

1 bag of Celestial Seasonings lemon zinger

1 bag of Celestial Seasonings apple spice

1 bag of Celestial Seasonings chamomile

Hot water

Ice

Enjoy!