Glop in my sun-brew iced tea?!
Glop in my sun-brew iced tea?
I make sun-tea, using a 1-gallon pitcher with a faucet on the bottom. After it brews, I add 3 tablespoons of sugar. (I'm a yankee.) After about 12 hours, I start seeing stringy brown glop in the bottom of my pitcher. I've disassembled the valve and cleaned it thoroughly, yet I still get glop. I don't get glop if I just put water in the pitcher and let it sit.
It's kinda disgusting. What's causing it and what can I do to get rid of it?
23 hours ago
I just experimented. Made another batch, but left it out only 2 hours instead of 6, and didn't add sugar. (I pour a glass and sugar that.) After 20 hours, no glop whatsoever, clear as glass. This lends credence to the yeast or bacteria theory.
Answers:
It's bacteria. Water, when boiled on the stove or in the microwave, reaches a temperature high enough to kill most bacteria. Sun tea cannot reach those safe temperatures, and letting the water simply sit out in the sun is basically like breeding bacteria and then drinking it.
The snopes.com article on this has the best ways to keep yourself safe, and explains the reasons that sun-tea should be brewed very carefully better than any other article I've read.