Iced Tea

[cricketwings]

Hi!
I would love to hear everyone's favorite recipes for iced tea. What kind of tea do you use, herbal, black, green? Do you sweeten it? With what?
Do you add anything?
What's your process, in the sun, hot water?
It's summer and I'd love to try making some and would like to hear some ideas!

Thanks!
jodie

[nutmeg]

i don't have a specific process. i use what's handy and if it's hot and sunny i make sun tea, but if not, the stove.

lots of raspberry leaf and lemon balm lately.

i use black or green tea as a base and then add herbs if we're having guests, but not usually for us. i'm super-sensitive to caffeine, so i water it way down if i share it. we sweeten it lightly with honey if we've been working really hard physically or if it's super-hot and we're drinking a lot more than we're eating, but usually not.

how about you?

[cricketwings]

Thanks for answering! I've never really made it, only ever had the powder stuff and would like to do the real deal!

[nutmeg]

So if you're totally new to making tea from leaves, I should have said that you generally use the well-dried ones. How much you use depends on how strong you like your tea, but it's easy to dilute a tea that's too strong, while vice versa is a lot more work.

If you're using green or black tea, oversteeping can cause bitterness, but I don't usually have that problem when I use the sun. Green tea tastes best when it's brewed in less than boiling water (about a minute before it boils, or hot sun).

Good luck!

[Lady Alinor]

Straight Spearmint tea is my all time favorite, in fact Spearmint was my very first herb aquaintance I prefer my tea unsweetened.

I also like Thai Iced tea, I'd share the ingredients but I can't read Thai

[Sashamarts]

oooh Thai iced tea! does it have cream on top where you get it?? how do they do that?!? it never works for me now i'm gonna go search for a recipe

edit* - i found out it's evaporated milk, and i also found out that gorgeous orange color is from food coloring
i found a recipe that looks good, but it's on a blog from a tea company and i dunno if it would be ok to copy it here??

[nutmeg]

You can substitute coconut milk in the Thai iced tea. I would guess that's originally what was used there, due to the shortage of cows!

[slyst]

When I make green or black iced tea, I use grocery store tea bags because that's what I have access to. I use 1 big bag for every quart of water. For1 gal of black tea I pour two quarts of boiling water over 4 big tea bags and let it steep for 5 mins. If it's green then I steep 3 mins. Strain.So I now have a 2 qt pitcher of concentrated tea. I add ice, enough to fill up my gallon jug the rest of the way. Viola. Iced tea. I put this in the fridge after about an hour. I like to put lime in my green tea and lemon in my black tea. If I'm making an herbal tea, then I usually only make a quart at a time and play with the amount of herbs that i use depending on what kind of flavor I want.
I used to make 15 20 gal of tea a day this way and it always turned out really well, never cloudy.

[Movlin]

oats.

best tasting sun "tea" i've ever had. nothing added. my kids love it and my 15 month old granddaughter can't get enough. the benefits are obvious

[Lady Alinor]

We use plain milk in our Thai Tea.
I do have a recipe somewhere that isn't Orange from food coloring..hmm, I go check my favorite Thai Import site.

[Sashamarts]

whenever I put regular milk in it never seems to just sit on top... maybe i'm just pouring too fast?
i'd love to have your recipe if you can find it

[katidid]

I just made a really nice iced tea with a little elderberry syrup (that I made myself-elderberries, cardamon, cinnamon, a little honey and ginger) honey, fresh lemon, fresh mint and rooibos tea. It is a riff off of a friend's recipe that had organic unsweetened cranberry juice, sugar, lemon, mint and black tea.

[nutmeg]

sounds yummy!

[IndiraCiobanul]

A favorite of mine has been oatstraw with a bit of muddled mint (muddled with agave nectar or honey, not symple syrup).
It's cool, light, refreshing, and goes by the gallon here!

[Marlene]

In trying to find ways to cut energy consumption (and $$) out of the budget, I read about making tea in the fridge. We use black and orange tea from the store. I put 6 bags (for a gallon of tea) into a mason jar, fill with water and put the lid(s) on and put in the fridge. I usually do this when I see that the tea is running low to give it a chance to steep really well. Although in a pinch, 30 minutes usually does the trick. We mix the sugar in water and let it dissolve and then add the tea. It's going to be cold anyway and this doesn't use any more power than is already being used.

It's your standard, southern iced tea.