Recipe: Iced Hibiscus Tea Splash

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• pour :

  to cause liquid, granules, or powder to stream from one container into another.

• squeeze :

  to firmly press or twist a food with fingers, hands, or a device to remove its liquid, like shredded potatoes, frozen and thawed spinach, or tofu.

• steep :

  to soak a food, like tea, in water or other liquid so as to bring out its flavor.

• stir :

  to mix together two or more ingredients with a spoon or spatula, usually in a circle pattern, or figure eight, or in whatever direction you like!

History of Iced Tea!

• The first mention of iced tea was in 1823, when Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, an Irish journalist and novelist, wrote about sipping iced tea in Naples, Italy.
• The oldest recipes for iced tea were in cookbooks printed in the 1870s. 
• Iced tea is hot tea that has been chilled, and then ice is added. It can be made with any flavor of caffeinated, decaffeinated, or herbal tea. 
• Black tea is used in many varieties of iced tea. In the Southern United States, heavily sweetened iced tea or "sweet tea" is popular. Lemon juice is often added to iced tea. At Thai restaurants, you can order Thai iced tea made with Ceylon black tea sweetened with condensed milk and sugar. 
• Iced tea can be made by steeping tea bags in boiling water for a few minutes and then chilling the tea. "Sun tea" is steeped for a longer period in the sun. However, this method may not kill potential bacteria. "Refrigerator tea," brewed in the refrigerator overnight, avoids this problem and has the added benefit of already being chilled.
• An "Arnold Palmer" or "half-and-half" is a popular drink that the golfer Arnold Palmer created, consisting of half iced tea and half lemonade. A "Boston iced tea" is half tea and half cranberry juice.

Let's Learn About Puerto Rico!

• Puerto Rico is a beautiful island located directly east of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea. Miami, Florida, is about 1,000 miles northwest of Puerto Rico!
• In 1917 Puerto Rico became an unincorporated territory of the United States, and Puerto Ricans became US citizens. 
• As a US territory, Puerto Rico is not a sovereign nation. Eligible voters can vote in presidential primaries but not in the final national election for president or vice-president. Puerto Rico is one of five unincorporated US territories with permanent populations. The other four are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.
• Puerto Rico is officially a bilingual nation: Spanish and English are the official languages. The capital of Puerto Rico is San Juan. 
• Puerto Rico translates to "Rich Port" in English and was named that because Christopher Columbus found gold in the rivers and streams when he landed on the island! 
• The streets in Old San Juan are paved with blue cobblestones! The cobblestones came from the waste or "slag" from iron ore refining and then were shaped into blocks as ballast for Spanish ships. They used these blocks to pave the streets, and when the slag aged, the cobblestones turned blue.
• Barceloneta is a town in Puerto Rico famous for its black sand beaches. The sand is black from the high amount of iron present in it.
• Until December 2020, Puerto Rico had one of the largest working telescopes in the world at the Arecibo Observatory. It had been the largest for 53 years until China built a bigger telescope in 2016. Before the Arecibo telescope's sudden collapse caused by broken cables, it was instrumental in several astronomical discoveries. The telescope, built into a natural limestone sinkhole, was made up of nearly 40,000 perforated aluminum panels and covered an area of about twenty acres. 
• The third-largest underground river in the world is called the Rio Camuy in Puerto Rico. 
• The world's largest living reptile, the leatherback sea turtle, makes it home on the island!  
• Baseball, basketball, and boxing are the most popular sports in Puerto Rico.
• Sixty percent of Puerto Rico is covered with mountains.
• The El Yunque National Forest is the only tropical rainforest in the US, although there are several temperate rainforests as well.
• The "coquí" is a frog species found only in Puerto Rico and is its unofficial territorial symbol. It produces a distinct, high-pitched sound: "ko-kee, ko-kee." Unfortunately, depending on the type of coquí, the frog is either a threatened or endangered species.
• The hibiscus is Puerto Rico's national flower! Hibiscus flowers are red and can be dried to use as tea!
• A well-known dish in Puerto Rico is "arroz con pollo," or chicken with rice. Puerto Ricans believe they created it, but Spaniards also claim it as their creation. Another popular dish is "asopao," the national soup which is actually more like a stew. You can make it with chicken, pork, beef, seafood, vegetables, or a combo of these. Salted codfish fritters, "Bacalaítos," are a popular snack. "Adobo" is a seasoning and "sofrito" a sauce or flavor base added to many Puerto Rican dishes.

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Puerto Rico?

• At school in Puerto Rico, kids learn in Spanish, with English taught as a required second language. 
• Kids like to play baseball, basketball, soccer, and American football. They also like to swim and go to the beach. On the playground, kids might play a song game called "El Gato y El Ratón" (the cat and the rat).
• There's also a fun children's museum to visit, Museo del Niño Carolina, about 13 miles from the capital, San Juan. 
• Among the snacks Puerto Rican kids enjoy are "tostones" or fried plantains, "cainitos" or star apples, and "besitos de coco" (coconut kisses) or coconut macaroons. And we already know that they like to eat Sorullitos as an after-school snack!