It’s an iced green tea afternoon in San Francisco, where summer has made its usual fashionably late appearance. My grandmother, who lived in Key West in the early 1950s, talked about how it would get so hot all she and her friends could do could do was drink iced green tea.

These days I’m making loose teas in my French press pot and they’re delightful. I use about 1/4 cup of jasmine green tea. Green tea can scorch and get a bitter taste, so cool the water a bit after boiling and strain out the tea leaves after no more than 30 seconds. Pour over ice and then more ice. Put the leftovers in the fridge because as any tea drinker will tell you, a cup of tea molds quickly.

I’m not a sweet tea or sweetened tea drinker. I’ve heard agave and honey are both good for sweetening iced tea without the swirling crystal effect of undisolved sugar. If you want to go and wreck it like that, go on ahead.