It's one of the few things I can actually cook well and now you're telling me it can make you sick? How could something as pure and innocent like sun tea dare harbor any ill will toward me, the sun tea lover?

It's not really the sun tea that doesn't like me it's those amazing creatures known as bacteria that don't like me. They don't like you either and if you're making sun tea chances are you're giving millions of those bacteria a great place to grow up and have babies.

I had heard the rumors in the past that making sun tea was in fact not sanitary. It wasn't safe. It wasn't what right thinking people did for themselves or their guests. I figured that this was an urban legend or old wives tale. Thank goodness I have the internet. I looked up the sun tea rumor on the foremost myth buster of the world wide web, Snopes.com.

There it was in moderately plain English, bacteria thrive in sun tea. I wonder how many people I have killed over my lifetime?

Before you send me to Angola for the Summer let me explain. I make sun tea like everyone else. I drink the sun tea that I make. How come I am not dead? It seems the bacteria that form and thrive in the warm Gulf of Mexico like waters of my sun tea jar don't really get the chance to get a foothold like they would if you were making sun chicken or sun pork chops.

The caffeine in the tea actually inhibits the growth of bacteria. Now, if you're a hipster and you're making some of that Fred Mills' herbal tea, you might want to be even more careful with the washing and cleaning of your tea jug.

The truth is sun tea does pose a danger but not a great danger. If you follow basic hygiene guidelines you should be okay. You should also use your tea as soon as possible. If you notice ropy strands or a syrupy consistency to your sun tea throw it out because that goo is actually the bacteria.

So now that you know about sun tea, I am guessing that ice cold beer sounds a lot better doesn't it?

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