Iced Tea for the Summer
Summer heat makes me crave anything cold. I often turn to iced coffee, but last week I was craving tea. I decided to give making iced tea a try. It was remarkably simple, and I recommend you giving it a go!
There are a few different ways of doing this, but because I’m impatient and wanted iced tea right now, I brewed tea hot and cooled it down with ice.
1. Brew a strong Tea concentrate.
I used some loose leaf black tea that I bought last time I was in Borough Market.
The packet recommended one teaspoon of tea per serving, so I roughly tripled that.
You want to make a very strong concentrated tea because later you'll dilute it down with ice, and then again with cold water when serving.
Don't worry if it's too strong, you can always water it down to taste.
I use a cafetière to brew tea because it fits a lot in and because I'm heathen.
2. Cool the Tea
I strained the brewed tea into a jug with ice, which cooled and diluted the strong tea. If you do this, the tea may become cloudy within a few days. This is normal and shouldn't impact taste.
When quickly cooling brewed tea down, tannins and caffeine extracted from the tea can precipitate out of the mixture. These stick together, making the tea go cloudy over time. This isn't harmful in any way, and it doesn't affect taste.
If you want to avoid the tea turning cloudy, allow it to cool to room temperature slowly over hours. Better yet, brew the tea in cold water overnight.
3. Season and Serve
Pour some of your concentrate into a glass, add ice, and top up with cold water according to how strong you like it. I used about ⅓ tea to ⅔ water.
Next, season to taste! Experiment with adding different flavours.
I added about 15ml of Elderflower Cordial I bought at Sainsbury's Local for making cocktails. Amazingly, the drink tasted just like Lipton's Iced Tea. Brilliant!
I also experimented with Vanilla syrup, but even with a tiny amount though it was too sweet. But try it out and see what works for you!
4. Store the Rest
Pop that concentrate in a bottle and keep it in the fridge for future sunny days!
