Iced Tea for Winter

Saturday, October 11, 2008

I admit, I'm cheap. Making your own ice tea is not only cost effective, but tasty as well.

Step 0: Materials

Take an old [clean] juice container and the appropriate number of tea bags:
1.75 L (59 Fl oz) = 6-7 tea bags
2 L (64 Fl oz) = 7-8 tea bags(Ocean Spray bottles are typically 64 Fl oz while Simply Orange orange juice bottles are typically 59 Fl oz)

Flavors: I've tried (1) Black Tea (2) Earl Gray Tea (3) Jasmine Green Tea (4) Green Tea with Lemon (5) 6 Black Tea Bags + 2 Mint Tea Bags and (6) 6 Black Tea Bags + 2 Celestial Seasons Herbal Tea Bags. Experiment.


Step 1: Put tea bags into container, hold tags, and fill with water.


Step 2: Let sit in the fridge for 8 hours (no more than 12!), then remove tea bags and serve!
Brewing in the fridge helps prevent bacteria from growing, an occasional problem with "sun tea."


Other Brewing Options.
(1) Sun tea: Same as the above instructions for fridge tea, but you put the tea and water in a sunny location during the morning (instead of the refrigerator), and 8 hours later you remove it from the sun and put it in the fridge to cool down. More likely to attract bacteria this way.

(2) Iced Hot Tea: Make hot tea, remove the tea bags, and then let it sit in the fridge until it cools. The ratio should be about the same as that of the other recipes.

And, optionally, simple syrup to sweeten up your iced tea quickly: 1 part sugar to 1 part water, boiled until sugar is dissolved.