Iced Tea

Anyone have a recipe for Ice Tea?

tea bag, hot water, ice?

I go for sun tea. Big glass jar, water, bunch of teabags, stick the whole lot outside in the sun for the afternoon. Chill, serve.

If I am using the regular sized (not Family) tea bags, I will cut the number of tea bags in half that they recommend. Usually, it calls for 8 bags, but I will use 4.

It tastes much better and does not have as much bitter flavor as the 8 bag rate.

Honey, lemon and lots of sugar goes well with it!

Mum used to freeze some of the tea into Ice Cubes so that it would'nt water down the tea.

on the topic of tea, what makes tea go bad so fast if you let it sit out at room temp?

z987k said:

on the topic of tea, what makes tea go bad so fast if you let it sit out at room temp?

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diacetyl? autolysis?

AZ_IPA said:

diacetyl? autolysis?

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Nah...hot side aeration.

I used to make sun tea. Then one day, I forgot to put it out in the sun and left it on the kitchen counter. Hey, it still turned into tea!

Later I started putting it straight in the fridge. Guess what, while it took longer, it still made tea. Smoother too, less tannins.

AZ_IPA said:

tea bag, hot water, ice?

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How about the ice, got a recipe for that?

Boil about a quart of water, remove from heat, add 6 regular-sized tea bags (I like Luzianne best; Lipton is good too), steep for 5 minutes, remove bags, pour into a half-gallon pitcher, add 2/3 cup of sugar, stir well, top up with cold water to make 1.75 quarts. Pour over 1/2 teaspoon or so of fresh lemon juice and ice.

-Don't squeeze the tea bags
-Don't add the tea bags until the water is removed from heat
-For stronger or weaker tea, either use more or less tea bags or add more or less cold water rather than varying steep time

BlindLemonLars said:

Later I started putting it straight in the fridge. Guess what, while it took longer, it still made tea. Smoother too, less tannins.

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yeah, I drink iced tea every morning -- used to fumble around with boiling water and ice; then upgraded to an iced tea maching. Now I just put a tea bag in a gatorade bottle full of warm water and it's tea in about 30 minutes. Chill in the fridge and ready to go in the morning.

but - if you do want to get serious about tea, I recommend the black raspberry blend from adagio.com

3 regular size tea bags (Lipton, because I can't find Luzianne at my local store), 1 peppermint tea bag. Steep in a quart of water off the boil for 5 minutes. Mix steeped tea, 1/2 cup of sugar in 1/2 gallon pitcher. Top off with cold water, ice.

That's my slightly less-sweet pseudo Southern iced tea that I drink every day. Sweet enough to make me miss NC without bringing on diabetes.