Iced Tea How To Make

What Is White Tea

So what is considered as white tea? Many teas out there have a pale color so what makes true white tea? White tea is made from the camellia sinensis plant. The leaves and buds of the plant are picked before they are completely opened so they are quite delicate. When the plant is young like this, it is completely covered in small white hairs which is how the tea gets its name.

White tea is much lighter and more delicate than other types of tea. It is naturally sweet and is not at all bitter. Many people find white tea to be very easy to drink.

Sweet Tea Or Unsweetened Tea

If youve ever been to the South, you know that when ordering tea, its not really necessary to specify iced. Or sweet. Few tea traditionalists complain of tea thats too sweet!

Expert tea-makers put the sugar in while the tea is still hot, as this allows for improved sweetness saturation throughout. When sugar is added, swirl the tea in the pitcher several times. For a glass of tea, put in sugar first, swirl several times, and then drop in ice cubes.

Here are some ideas for non-traditionalists with a sweet tooth:

• For an unorthodox approach to sweetening tea, add a spoonful of your favorite jelly or preserves to a cup of hot tea, then pour over ice.
• Sugared glasses add a sweet touch just dip the rim in lemon juice, then in sugar.
• Serve tea in a watermelon-boat punch bowl. After making the boat, fill it with a delicious drink by blending the watermelon pulp with a pitcher of iced tea brewed double-strength. Add lemon juice to taste.
• Chill tea with frozen cubes made from your favorite fruit juices such as guava, apple, mango, and green grape.
• For fruity tea pops, fill plastic ice molds two-thirds full with cut-up berries, melon, or citrus fruit. Pour in sweetened tea to cover pops. Place holder in pops. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

What Is Iced Tea

Ice tea is a chilled drink made from orange pekoe black tea that is sometimes flavored with lemon and served sweet or unsweetened. Iced tea can be made with a coffee maker, stockpot, or water kettle. Although an ice tea maker can be used to cold brew ice tea, hot brewing is the traditional way to make tea.

Making iced tea can be fast! Im sharing all the shortcuts and tips to make the Best Iced Tea! You can brew tea, the old-fashioned way with a pot, or even quicker way by running your tea bags through a coffee maker! The ice cube vs iced tea technique is genius! You can serve ice tea instantly by filling a pitcher full of ice and then pouring the hot concentrate over it to chill immediately. Typically, you would have to cool down the concentrate with cold water and chill in order to serve so this is a HUGE shortcut to serving iced tea instantly instead of waiting for it to cool down!

This iced tea recipe is perfect for summer gatherings or as a supper drink to complete your meal! Here in Southern South Carolina, youll see this sweet drink around many eateries. Enjoy it with Cheese Burgers on Homemade Hamburger Buns or with a side of a hearty Grilled Chicken Sandwich! Everyone loves iced tea and you can buy them decaffeinated or with caffeine! Its so easy to make and my daughter can make ice tea any time of day! Once you make sweet tea a few times, youll be a pro!

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Delicious Iced Tea Add

Honey Instead of grainy sugar, choose a smooth and natural sweetener like honey

Simple Syrup If you dont want the sugar to sink at the bottom of the glass, use simple syrup instead

Lemon Squeezing some lemon juice over or adding fresh lemon slices can add a refreshing kick to your tea

Lemonade Also known as half-and-half or Arnold Palmer, lemonade and iced tea match perfectly

Berries A colorful and tasty fruity taste boost

Herbs Want to up the freshness? Just add a few mint leaves, some lavender, or rosemary sprigs to your tea

Frozen Fruit Extra chilly and extra fruity, frozen chunks of fruit such as mango, melon, pineapple, peaches can really transform the taste

Extracts Vanilla is not the only extract for tea. You can also choose rum, almond, coconut, or even a fruity flavor

Coconut Milk Nutty, creamy, and naturally sweet, coconut milk is an excellent addition to any kind of tea

Spirits Yup! Add some booze to the mix and make it a real party, people. Gin, rum, and bourbon are some great boozy add-ons

Best Tea For Iced Tea

Now we know that all teas can be iced, which teas are the most delicious iced? Black tea is the iced tea go-to because its sturdy enough to hold up when poured over ice. However, we also recommend trying an iced oolong green tea or fruity iced tea. Oolong tea falls between green tea and black tea in character, giving it a lightly floral taste when iced. Also, a fruit-infused tea like a peach tea or mango tea will add a naturally sweet note to a cool cup of iced tea. An iced mint tea can bring some minty freshness to your cup. If you want to try out several different types of iced tea to discover what you like best, try this Iced Tea Box. For those who fall in love with fruity iced tea, we recommend the Peach Tea Collection so you can make the perfect pitcher of iced tea all summer long.

Try more refreshing teas for iced tea with your own Sips by Box.

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What To Know About Tea Bags Versus Loose Leaf Tea

The difference between tea bag tea and loose tea is the leafs size and shape. According to Goggi, tea bags provide convenience and reproducibility while loose tea allows you to try individual teas or blend your own.

However, Goggi warned against falling into the trap of believing that all loose teas are great or that all tea bags are not, and he has found that some of the most expensive teas in the world are smaller-sized. You should judge a tea by your own desires some like it smoky , some like it light and bright , some like it thick and strong tea that is red and clear for iced tea , he said. You need to try different teas to both explore the many varieties as well as to find your favorite.

When shopping for both loose leaf and tea bags, smell is the biggest indicator of whether the leaf has gone bad or not, according to Formicola. More smell equals more flavor, she explained, noting that it can be really challenging to pick a good tea, mostly because they are packaged in colored and sealed bags to preserve their quality, so you might not be able to see these things.

Iced White Tea Recipe

We recently had iced white tea at a pretty fancy restaurant and we were blown away. It was delicious! Then, we started seeing white iced teas everywhere. They are definitely a new trend and we wanted to jump on board.

We created a tropical iced white tea recipe that is made with guava juice and lemonade. It is almost like a fruity white Arnold Palmer. It is an incredible drink to help you cool down in the summer and definitely a perfect drink to serve at a brunch or party. You absolutely must try it!

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What You Will Need To Make Iced Tea

Teabags: this doesnt have to be anything fancy, everyday regular black tea bags should be fine

Sugar syrup: I have a vanilla sugar syrup recipe on the blog for how you can make yours at home. If not then opt for caster sugar, it is finer and would dissolve quicker in the water than granulated sugar.

Lemon slices: you can use any citrus of choice for this recipe

Cold water

Baking soda: This is optional but it helps eliminate bitterness from the tea and also produces a smooth tasting tea. There is also a theory that it makes the tea clear and not cloudy. Although, this can be simply achieved by not using scalding hot water. The best water temperature for brewing black tea is around 96C/204F

Which Tea Do You Use

A classic base for iced tea is regular tea bags. They allow you to be freer with your flavourings. You can also easily experiment with different teas once you know the basic recipe. Other teas that work well include earl grey, lady grey, chamomile, green tea and lemon verbena. Fruit teas are also tasty when chilled.

A good ratio to go by is 6 tea bags to 1.5 litres of boiling water.

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The Science Of Sweetening

Solid sugar such as brown sugar or cane sugar does not dissolve well in cold water. If you are cold brewing tea or want to add a sweetener once the tea mixture has cooled, you’ll need to use simple syrup or liquid sugar syrup. To use solid sugar, add the sweetener to the mixture when the tea is still hot. This ensures the sugar dissolves completely and won’t settle to the bottom.

Tips For The Best Strawberry Lemonade

Weve all been there, youre desperately thirsty and want to gulp down that strawberry lemonade but theres a strawberry lodged in the straw. If you are going to be drinking through a straw or using a drink dispenser, you will want to:

• Blend strawberries really well so they dont get stuck in your straw and wont clog up the spout on a drink dispenser.
• Strain if desired if you want a super smooth and pulp-free lemonade, you can strain the strawberry puree before adding it to the lemonade. We love the pulp so we never strain it.
• Add ice to the glasses so you dont dilute your lemonade

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Iced Tea Brewing Methods

When it comes to making homemade iced tea, you have three brewing methods to choose from, according to Christina Musgrave, a food blogger and recipe developer:

• Hot Brewed: This type of iced tea is brewed hot and then cooled down to enjoy as iced tea. Its very easy to make you just need to let the tea chill, though this wait time can also be seen as a con.
• Cold Brewed: This method involves steeping tea in the fridge and then straining before serving. There is less of a wait time with this method and this iced tea has significantly less bitterness than other methods.
• Sun Tea: Sun tea involves steeping tea bags in already warmed or cold water and placing it outside in the sun, or indoors by a sunny window. Its super easy you just gather ingredients and forget about it, Musgrave said. However, this method also involves a long wait time.

How To Make Iced White Tea

Our guava iced white tea lemonade is truly amazing. It is also pretty simple to make. Here are the ingredients you need for iced white tea with guava and lemonade:

• Water– Hot water is needed to brew the white tea
• White Tea bag– Be sure to get 100% white tea. Organic white tea is best. There are many different brands and types of white tea to choose from but Twinings 100% White Tea is pretty easy to find and very good.
• Sugar- A little sugar makes this iced white tea perfectly sweet. You can skip the sugar if you like unsweetened tea or use stevia for a low carb version.
• Guava Juice– You can find cans of guava juice in the Mexican food section of your grocery store. Sometimes there is guava puree in the freezer section of the grocery store as well. Look for pure guava juice without any sweeteners. If all you can find is sweetened juice, just be sure to give it a taste and adjust or eliminate the sugar in the recipe as needed.
• Lemonade– A little bit of lemonade helps brighten the tea and really brings it to life. Look for lemonde that is low sugar or try making your own with our super easy lemonade recipe.

Once you have all the ingredients you need, here is what you need to do next:

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Milk And Cream Options

Cold foamInstead of pouring in milk into your iced tea, top your drink with cold foam! Its super easy to make at home. Take cold milk or half & half, and put it in a French press and move the plunger up and down 40 times. Yup, it really works!

Cream frothThis is a decadent topping and tastes great with matcha or black tea. Cream froth is basically lightly whipped cream. Whisk together heavy cream and sweetener, using a handheld milk frother until it thickens. Use flavored syrups to make the cream froth even tastier.

Sweetened condensed milkThis is my shortcut to making iced lattes quick since sweetened condensed milk is sugar and milk in one. Its also a canned pantry item so its great if you run out of milk and want to add something creamy to your coffee or tea.

Half & halfHalf & half is half heavy cream and half milk. It makes for a creamier milk option.

MilkAny kind of milk that you like can be used in iced tea.

How To Flavour Iced Tea

Herbs

A simple but effective way to add extra aromatics to your iced tea. Herbs that work well include mint, basil and lemon thyme. You could also try kaffir lime leaves. Just avoid herbs that are solely savoury, such as coriander and chives.

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Elderflower

A fresh sprig of elderflower can pep up a simple iced tea. Submerge a large handful into your iced tea and leave it to infuse as the tea cools down. Alternatively, add a good glug of elderflower cordial to the tea before you add any sweetener.

Fruits

Sliced peaches and apricots, fresh berries and citrus fruits all compliment tea well. You could also add chopped cucumber for a refreshing taste.

Alcohol

For an adults-only version of iced tea, add some shots of your choice of alcohol. A spiced rum, Pimm’s or gin would all work well. Simply add to your iced tea after it’s been chilled.

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Sweetening Your Iced Tea

The best time to sweeten iced tea is while it’s still hot . This allows the sugar or honey to dissolve completely. But if your iced tea drinkers prefer different levels of sweetness or you are using the eco-friendly cold brew method, your best bet is to offer simple syrup. Simple syrup is easy to make, and ideal for cold drinks because it distributes evenly throughout the drink.

Simple Syrup Recipe

Bring 2 cups of cold water to a boil. Stir in 2 cups sugar. Reduce heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves. Add flavorings , if desired. We recommend about one teaspoon of any liquid extract. Let the syrup cool to room temperature, then pour into a clean glass jar and store in the refrigerator.

For a fun variation, infuse peppermint leaves in the syrup to make a Minty Simple Syrup — perfect for adding to iced tea and/or for making a mint julep on Derby Day! We also love cardamom seeds and ginger for an even spicier iced chai!

Why This Recipe Works:

• The hot brew of the tea helps to give a robust quality.
• The fresh lemon juice gives a fresh vibrant flavor you just cant get with store-bought.

I adore iced tea. Back home in New Jersey, I drank it all year round. They dont sell mixes here in England and although I find the occasional bottle of ready-made in the grocery stores, its really hard to come by.

After so many summers of craving iced tea, I decided to try my hand at making my own, and ever since, I make it all the time.

You can never have too many iced tea recipes right? If you love iced tea, you can also check out my recipe for Sweet Peach Iced Tea Its delicious!

This Fresh homemade iced tea recipe is so easy to make, the only tedious part is getting all the juice out of those lemons but, please use fresh juice it is so worth it in the end!

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Why You Should Be Making Yours

It is amazingly easy and I mean EASY to make!!! If you make and drink tea regularly then you will understand my emphasis on the word EASY. How hard can making a cup of tea be especially if it doesnt need milk?

While sweet iced tea is readily available in stores for convenience, it should be noted that those ones are filled with preservatives and can be overly sweet too. Making yours at home would allow you to control what goes into the drink especially if you would like it less sweetened or without any sugar at all.

It is affordable!

This drink is perfect all year round and not in summer alone. Concentrated cold brew tea can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days, so no reason not to have some in your fridge all year round.