What Is Iced Tea Made Out Of

How Do You Sweeten Iced Tea

Prefer your iced tea with a bit of extra sweetness? There many ways you can satisfy that sweet tooth.

Honey and sugar

Regular sugar and honey are popular options for most people. They dissolve best in warm or hot water so the best time to add these is just after youve finished brewing while the water is still hot. Adding it to cold tea can leave you with grains of sugar collecting at the bottom of the glass, or honey floating around.

If you need to sweeten your tea after its already cooled down, then try using sugar syrup. You can make your own at home, or it can be bought cheaply enough at stores. You can also try using light agave syrup, its super sweet though so only add a little at first and build up to your desired taste.

Coconut sugar is also a good choice if the flavor compliments the tea you have chosen.

Herbs and spices

Your spice cupboard is a treasure trove of flavor that you can experiment with in your iced tea. Try using lemongrass, nutmeg, star anise, cinnamon, or ginger to perfect your flavor. Warming spices work best with black teas. Their flavors are contained within their oils so for best results, add when the tea is hot.

Fruit

The fruit is a natural sweetener, and good for you too. You can add a little fruit juice or syrup to your tea to give it a little flavor alongside the sweetness. Chopped fruit, left to steep in the tea while it cools can add new depths of flavor, simply remove it before serving.

Sweeteners

History Of The Long Island Iced Tea

There are many assertions about when the Long Island Iced Tea was invented, spanning different decades. But the most famous claimant is Robert Rosebud Butt. The drink was created in 1972 when Butt was a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn Hotel in Long Island, New York. He participated in a cocktail contest in which contestants had to come up with a new cocktail using Triple Sec.

50 years prior to this, a similar cocktail was invented: the Old Man Bishop. This was during the turbulent times of the prohibition in 1920s America. In a neighbourhood called Long Island in Kingsport, Tennessee, an old man with the nickname Old Man Bishop invented a drink containing whiskey, maple syrup, gin, vodka, tequila, and rum. In the 1960s, the first recipe published under the name of Long Island Iced Tea appeared in Betty Crockers New Picture Cook Book .

The recipe that is now made and consumed worldwide is based on Robert Rosebud Butts recipe and combines equal parts Triple Sec, gin, rum, vodka, and tequila with lime juice, sugar syrup and a splash of cola.

Is Hot Tea Better Than Cold Tea

So, personal taste aside, are there any benefits of drinking either hot or cold tea? Studies have shown that brewed ice tea has exactly the same levels of flavonoids, antioxidants, and catechins as hot tea.

If youre a fan of a cold brew iced tea, there may be certain benefits to be had over hot tea or hot brewed iced tea. Cold-brew ice tea can have higher levels of antioxidants and other healthy substances which can be destroyed by hotter water.

Iced tea can benefit your health in other ways too. A study showed that people who drank cold, non-caffeinated, unsweetened tea experienced a greater level of thermogenic and fat oxidation than those drinking hot tea. Thanks to this effect, some people use it alongside diet and exercise to lose or maintain weight.

If youre watching your caffeine intake, its usually a good idea to switch to a decaffeinated brand of tea. However, it has been found that iced tea contained less caffeine than hot tea, even when using the same type of tea to make it. If youre looking for a caffeine hit with your iced tea, use a hot brewed black or green tea before cooling and adding ice.

Don’t Miss: How To Make My Own Tea

Why As Southern As Sweet Tea Isn’t Very Southern At All

In July of 2016, Adrian Miller wrote an insightful piece for First We Feast called “Why Sweet Tea Is the South’s Quintessential Drink.” Its subtitle reads: “Bicker all you want about its regional varieties, or where to draw a geographical lineno drink represents Southern culture like sweet tea.”

As Miller notes, you hear this sort of thing a lot from Southern food writers. He cites Allison Glock in Garden & Gun“Sweet tea isn’t a drink, really. It’s culture in a glass”and food historian John T. Edge, who muses that sweet tea is “a kind of culinary-cultural Global Positioning System, an indicator of where we are and, yes, who we are.”

And, sure enough, there is something undeniably iconic in the South about icy, sugar-laden sweet tea. People write songs about it . They plaster emphatic slogans about it on bumper stickers and T-shirts . Forget Mason and Dixon: One geographer even mapped out the Sweet Tea Line to limn the real border between the North and the South.

It hasn’t always been this way, though. The history of sweet tea is a prime example of the process I call “Southernization”namely, the way in which certain foods and other cultural trappings come to be associated with the region. Some of those associations become so powerful and so prevalent that many Southerners begin to internalize them as integral parts of their identities.

“The notion that something can be “as Southern as sweet tea” is a very recent one.”

Top Tips For Perfect Iced Tea:

• To avoid potential dangers, if youre not sure if your pitcher is heatproof, prepare the tea in a saucepan and transfer once cooled.

• Make it to your taste: Iced tea recipes are easily adaptable. You can brew it strong or light or make it unsweetened or sweetened. Once get the basics, you can make it according to your taste.
• Dont skip on steep time: Iced tea gets diluted so you really want to extract the maximum amount of flavor from your tea. Steeping long enough to get the most flavor is vital to a quality brew.
• Control the sweetness according to taste: Try adding the sugar in stages and taste as you go to adapt the recipe to your taste.
• To keep the tea from being watered down, add the ice to your glass instead of the pitcher.
• To keep the fruit from breaking down, add the sliced lemons to the glasses instead of the pitcher.

You May Like: What Is Green Tea Made Out Of

What About Packaged Iced Tea

The growing popularity of iced tea has led to various brands of bottled ice tea being introduced. These are great if youre looking for refreshment on the go. But should you be drinking them and are they good quality?

While theres no substitute for freshly brewed iced tea, its still tempting to just grab and go when youre on the move. As with most things, there are good and bad bottled ice teas out there. In order to keep them from spoiling, there are often a lot of preservatives and additives used in the production process.

If youre watching your sugar levels, bottled ice tea can contain high levels of refined sugar.

Check the ingredients on the bottle of the company website before you buy. There are some brands that use organic and ethically sourced ingredients in their teas.

With cold brew tea bags now available, you can keep a few in your bag and just buy yourself some water when youre out. Five minutes and youve got the best iced tea going.

Can You Make Iced Tea With Regular Tea Bags

Theres no one way to brew iced tea, and technically any type of tea or teabag can be used. It is often black tea that is used in iced tea but you can use any type. Fruit tea bags lend themselves very well to making iced tea too.

Making it is simple too. Simply add 1 teabag per four cups of water into a pitcher and let the tea bags steep. If you are using hot water, steep for between 4-8 minutes.

Read Also: Where Can I Buy Kombucha Tea

Why Make Iced Tea At Home

Yes, you can simply buy pre-made iced tea, but theres something to be said for making it at home beyond the long-term financial savings.

Special Tea Bags For Iced Tea

Taking advantage of iced tea’s popularity, some producers sell special blends designed for convenience. For instance, Lipton has a “Southern Sweet Tea,” which adds sucralose and pectin to the tea bag, producing a sweetened tea. This tea is useful for people who don’t want to take the extra step of sweetening brewed tea to their own personal taste by adding simple syrup, honey, or other sweetener.

Lipton also has “Cold Brew” tea, and this one is more useful. According to the company, it adds the extracted essence of fresh tea leaves to its signature black tea blend. The concept is that you can brew a single cup of tea in cold water within a few minutes . It works out rather well and produces a nice-tasting iced tea, though you are limited to that particular tea.

Read Also: How Much Caffeine In Snapple Iced Tea

How To Make Iced Tea

Homemade iced tea only requires a few simple steps and ingredients. Follow the process below and youll be sipping tea on the porch in no time.

• Brew the Tea: In a saucepan, bring half the water to boil and remove it from heat. Add in the tea bags and allow them to steep for 10 minutes.
• Remove the Tea Bags: Remove the tea bags from the hot water. If you want sweet tea, add the sugar and whisk until its completely dissolved.
• Add the Cold Water: Add the remaining cold water to the hot tea and whisk. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or until chilled.
• Serve: Serve the tea over ice with lemon slices and fresh mint.

Okay Smart Guy How Should I Make Iced Tea Instead

I follow one of these two methods when making iced tea.

Use 8 to 10 grams of tea for every liter of cold or room temperature water. Let the tea steep for an hour on the counter, then chill it down in the fridge. You can strain the leaves or keep them in your container unlike hot brewed tea, this cold method wont over-extract those bitter and astringent compounds. I brew mine in an old cocktail shaker with a filter on the pour spout a French press also works well.

Read Also: What Are Used Tea Bags Good For

Strain Dilute And Chill

Remove the tea bags or strain out the loose-leaf tea. If youre adding sweetener, stir it into the hot tea before diluting the concentrated tea mixture with the remaining water. Refrigerate until chilled.

Editors tip: If you dont want to fuss with temperatures, Instant Pot iced tea is a good shortcut route to take. Simply add tea bags to the Instant Pot, fill with water and pressure cook on high for four minutes. Remove the tea bags and enjoy.

Drinking Iced Tea Every Day May Be Good For Your Heart

Can a glass of iced tea a day keep the cardiologist away?

According to Dr. Chris Norris at Sleep Standards, the answer is yes. He told The List, “Unsweetened iced tea contains flavonoids that play a vital role in protecting the heart from a number of diseases and keeps your heart healthy and in good shape.” He explained that these flavonoids are antioxidants that protect arteries from inflammation and atherosclerosis .

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists heart disease as the No. 1 killer in the United States, responsible for 25 percent of all deaths. What you may not realize is that heart disease is actually an umbrella term for a number of different conditions, as noted by Medical News Today. These include coronary artery disease, congenital heart disease, arrhythmia, congestive heart failure, and heart attack. While some forms of heart disease are caused by structural or physiological problems , other forms, including coronary artery disease, are closely linked to inflammation and atherosclerosis. So, if you drink iced tea every day, you could be helping your heart.

Don’t Miss: Does Green Tea Curb Appetite

How Many Calories Does Thai Iced Tea Have

Unfortunately, Thai iced tea contains more creamer and sugar than traditional boba flavors. This makes it generally less healthy than other drinks.

The exact calorie range of Thai iced tea can vary greatly depending on how much sugar and cream are used. To put it into perspective, usually, Thai iced tea will have more calories than a can of Coca Cola. The number of calories per serving can get even higher if youre drinking Thai iced tea with boba pearls.

So if youre thinking about achieving that summer body soon Thai iced tea might not be so friendly.

Other Tips For Making Homemade Iced Tea

When Goggi makes iced tea, he said he always goes by the four golden rules in order to achieve delicious results:

Then, just simply pour your tea over ice cubes , and garnish and sweeten to taste for a delicious glass of iced tea. And Formicola recommended, if you have the time, allowing the temperature to reduce slowly and naturally first. Add the hot water and let it sit for up to an hour to cool on its own before placing in the fridge to ice, she said.

To prevent watering down your tea, she also suggested freezing some of the tea in ice cube trays. Add cubed ice tea to your glass to keep it icy cold instead of regular ice cubes which will water down the flavor you worked so hard on, she said.

For large quantities of iced tea, Goggi advised bringing 1 quart of cold water to a rolling boil and adding 8-10 tea bags per quart of brewed teas as desired.

Read Also: Where To Buy Japanese Matcha Green Tea Powder

Coconut Lime Iced Tea

Have you ever tried making your own iced tea with coconut water? Since coconut water is naturally sweet, adding some fresh lime slices is the perfect addition to balance out the flavor. Add in a tea bag or two and youve got a great iced tea recipe.

Four different ways to stay hydrated this summer. Which one will you choose first?

Long Island Iced Teas You Should Know How To Make

Ahhhh, the Long Island Iced Tea.

As long as people have enjoyed vomiting in the bushes outside their neighborhood watering hole, theyve enjoyed sucking down Long Island Iced Teas.

Just ordering a Long Island sort of defines your night right from the start and makes a declaration to everyone around you: Im going to go from zero to humiliating just as quickly as I can.

Now, if you think people get excited by the Long Island, wait until you offer them a spin-off of the original and watch them jump around like a chimpanzee who got stung by a bee. Ive been serving these variations for years, and if you want to be loved as a bartender, learn to diversify your Long Islands and watch them clutch at their drink excitedly like a child clutches an Otter Pop on a hot summer day.

If youre not a bartender yet, and you want to learn how, you can check out TheRealBarCourse here, even if you have no experience or have no idea where to start.

But enough of that. What kind of teacher would I be if I didnt educate you on the beginnings of the Long Island and where it came from?

HISTORY OF THE LONG ISLAND

As with practically every cocktail with some time under its belt, the Long Island comes with debatable and uncertain beginnings. At first glance it appears as if it might have been inspired by the fruitcake: just throw anything you have in your cupboards into a container, mix it up and then ask yourself why in the hell you would ever ingest such a thing.

Whats up with that, Bob?

Also Check: How To Make Iced Tea Easy

Hot Brew And Chill Iced Tea

The hot brewing method is the preferred way to make iced tea. It produces a bold iced tea, takes a few minutes to brew, and is ready to drink within the hour.

With this method, the trick is to brew a strong tea base with a small portion of hot water, let it cool a bit, then dilute it to taste with cold water. If you chill the tea too fast , it releases more astringent tannins that turn the tea cloudy and produce a more bitter-dry taste.