Memory Monday: Our Family and Tea

My mother

OUR FAMILY AND TEA
One of my strongest growing-up memories is the iced tea my mother loved. She would make up a batch of loose leaf tea, strain it, and pour it into a gallon glass jar (restaurants used to get mayo and mustard in these and my mother would ask for them when they were empty) which she had filled with water and two cups of sugar. After she had that mixed, she would add a 6 oz. container of frozen lemonade and stir again. For as long as I can remember, Mother loved this tea. But in her later years, she had to stop drinking it—after she was diagnosed with diabetes.
This memory lead me to find some recipes from the “olden days.” These would be older than my mother’s time, more like her grandmother’s day (or her great-grandmother’s)
Practical American Cooker and Domestic Economy 1860
TEA.
Scald the teapot, and if the tea is a strong kind, a teaspoon full for a pint of water is sufficient; if it is a weak kind, more will be required. Pour on just enough boiling water to cover the tea, and let it steep. Green tea should not steep more than five or six minutes before drinking; if steeped longer, it will not be lively. Black tea requires steeping ten or twelve minutes to extract the strength.
TEA CREAM.
Boil two drachms or more of good green tea in a quart of milk; in A few minutes strain it; add three yolks of eggs, well beaten, a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar; set it on the fire, and reduce it to half then strain it again; when cold, serve it.
TEA ICE.
Take two drachms of the best tea; tie it in a bit of muslin, and boil it in two quarts of cream; when the infusion is sufficiently strong, take out the muslin, squeeze it well, and mix the cream with the eggs and sugar.

Now for me, I didn’t like Mother’s sweet tea with lemonade, but I do love unsweetened herbal tea, especially mint tea. And I love teapots and mugs. Here is picture of some of my collection in my library (just above my Keurig and my mini-fridge—a writer needs her refreshments to sustain all that hard work).

 My daughter loves tea, also. But she is a bit more adventuresome in teas and in preparations as can be seen in the picture below of some of her tea stuff.

What memories do you have of things your mother, grandmother, or daughter loved (or loves) to drink? Do you like the same thing or have you developed different tastes?