Powdered Drink

I was a Girl Scout. I earned sewing, camping, and few other badges. I also sold cookies. I was not very good at the cookie selling. Upon reflection, I believe I simply did not care enough about selling cookies and winning the prize to try very hard.

Being a Girl Scout means participating in all sorts of crazy projects. One project involved making Spiced Tea as presents. I do not remember if the beverage was supposed to be for Christmas or Mother's Day, but it was definitely a present for a woman.

We mixed all of the ingredients in a big jar, put them in a glass jar, and tied a pretty ribbon around the jar. We affixed a tag with instructions on how to make the Spiced Tea. The hot drink wasn't too bad.

One of the main ingredients in Spiced Tea is Tang. At the time I was a Girl Scout, I thought the addition of Tang was an amazing and wonderful idea. Tang! Tang was the drink of astronauts. It was tasty and it was orange. Tang was fabulous.

New Tang came out in 2007. I don't drink it anymore, but seeing the commercials on television made me chuckle and think of Spiced Tea.

Recently I was saddened to see that Tang is now being used to harm people instead of bringing joy to their breakfast table. Tang can be used as an ingredient in bombs. Bombs! To paraphrase Ghostbusters, Tang was a childhood favorite. Tang never hurt anybody. That is until now. Thanks potential bombers for ruining this for me.

This article made me smile. Nice use of Tang in the title, and explanation of how astronauts will have enough drinking water. Tang was originally created to make the water more palatable for astronauts during space travel. I do not know if NASA could get enough Tang on the space station for me to be a successful astronaut.

Recipe for Spiced Tea/Tang Tea

1 1/2 cups instant tea powder
2 cups Tang or orange flavored instant breakfast powder
1 (3-ounce) package lemonade mix
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Combine all ingredients until well blended. Store mix in an airtight container.

To make 1 cup of spiced tea: Place 2 teaspoons tea mix in a cup, add boiling water, stir and enjoy!

Makes 64 servings or 3 1/2 cups mix.