How to Brew Iced Tea
Iced tea now comes in the very convenient form of sugary powdered drinks, but once upon a time, iced tea was made from real tea mixed with ice. Here’s how you can make real iced tea as a healthier and more genuine tea experience. Read on to learn more.
Ingredients
Makes eight servings.
2 cups water
3 tea bags of your choice
Sugar, syrup or any substitute (How to Substitute Sugar)
Pinch of baking soda (optional)
Lemon slices (optional)
Fresh mint leaves (optional)
Procedure
This iced tea recipe is a concentrated version of the drink. You can mix it later on with more water to make more servings. You can mix more or less water, depending on how strong you want the iced tea to be.
Put two cups of fresh, cold water in pan with a pinch of baking soda and heat it until it comes into a rolling boil. Using fresh, cold water helps with the flavor and the baking soda helps absorb any bitterness from the tea. However, if you don’t want to have baking soda in your tea, that’s acceptable. You can choose to have the baking soda removed.
Snip off the strings on your tea bags using a pair of scissors.
Turn off the heat and steep the tea bags in the hot water. If you want a more concentrated tea, add one more bag to the mix.
Steep the tea in the water for five minutes. Keep your eye on the clock as the tea is steeping. Leaving the tea bags in the water for too long can result in a bitter tea mix.
Take out the tea bags and dispose of them responsibly. The tea leaves can make for a healthy fertilizer for your plants.
Let the tea brew cool for a bit.
Get a two-litre container and pour the concentrated tea brew in it. You can then add water and add sugar into the mixture. Sugar syrup is easier to mix with the iced tea and won’t settle at the bottom like sugar does.
Put your iced tea in the refrigerator for a few hours to chill. You can also squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the top for more flavor.
If you want literal iced tea, pour half a glass of concentrated iced tea in your glass and top with ice before serving.
Garnish with mint leaves or lemon slices.
There are a lot of tea flavors out there that you can try when making iced tea. From the traditional black tea to the fruit-flavored teas, you won’t ever be bored with experimenting with iced tea. Have fun.