Hot Brew Iced Tea
To make a hot brew iced tea, boil your tea and chill it. If you’re using loose leaf tea, use 2 grams of tea per 6 to 8 ounces of boiling water. If you’re using a tea bag, use 1 tea bag per 6 to 8 ounces of hot or boiling water. In both cases, steep according to the instructions on the package. And then put the tea into the fridge to chill it overnight.
If you like to sweeten your iced tea, you can sweeten it before putting it in the fridge so the flavours to really integrate.
Fast Method Hot Brew Iced Tea
For those with a bit less patience, use the exact same method described except create a concentrate.
Rather than use the regular instructions on your package, double the dosage to end up with a stronger brew and then dilute that brew with a pile of ice cubes. You can also mix in fruit juice. This will integrate additional fruit characteristics with the tea flavours. When adding juice, you could leave out any sweeteners you might otherwise add.
And the best part is you don’t have to wait for the tea to be chilled!
Cold Brew Iced Tea
As the name suggest, this means brewing your tea in cold water.
If you’re going to use loose leaf tea, use 2 teaspoons for 6 to 8 ounces of cold water or 3 to 4 tea bags per litre of cold water.
Let the tea steep in the pitcher of cold water for about 30 minutes before removing the tea, then pop the pitcher in the fridge overnight.
Tips and Tricks
HOW TO SWEETEN ICED TEA
- Regular sugar, white or brown
- Agave
- Honey
- Or make a simple syrup which is equal parts sugar melted into equal amount of water
ADD GARNISH
Garnish with fruit according to whichever flavour iced tea you’ve made.
Citrus and mint make a lovely combination both in taste because it looks pretty.
FLAVOUR WITH FRUIT JUICE
To add that extra little flavour and interest to your teas, dilute a concentrated brew with fruit juice and chill them together so the flavours have time to combine. Which fruit juice? Completely up to you. Experiment with different combinations of fruit juices. Or try pure cranberry or pure orange juice. Another option to get the citrus flavour into the tea is by adding lemonade, nothing too sweet mind you.
FLAVOURED ICE CUBES
Make ice cubes out of your tea.
It sounds fancy, but it’s very easy and your guests are going to love it.
Take the tea you’ve just made, pour it in an ice tray, and now serve your iced tea over those ice cubes. Not only is it beautiful, you’re also not going to dilute the beautiful tea you’ve made with regular water.
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