Ice tea recipes
I've started experimenting with making my own Ice Tea. Current fav is woolies Vanilla Chai but I'm struggling to get the strength/sweetness ratio exactly right.
Anyone care to share their fav ice tea recipes? Methods, ratios, use of sugar/sweetner etc?
I'd rather you serve some up. I love ice tea. Haven't had some in a looong time.
Will keep an eye on this thread.
What is psoriasis?
I'm currently drinking Lipton peach ice tea lite, but it's damn expensive so I'll keep my eye here too!
Most of these iced teas are made with tea flavouring these days. Check the ingredients list of that Lipton - probably the same story.Originally Posted by Freaksta
OP, best way to sort out the sweetness is to make a simple syrup instead of adding sugar, as sugar doesn't dissolve easily in cold liquids. Best to make the tea to your preferred strength, then squeeze in syrup, splash by splash and taste, then add fruit to your heart's content.
Simple syrup is made by heating equal parts water and sugar over high heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Cook for about 2 minutes then remove from the heat and store. It will store for years. It really is the best way to get the sweetness ratio right...
I like to freeze grapes instead of using ice-cubes. This prevents watering down of your drink. Works for wine and cold drinks and when they start to soften, you can squeeze them into the drink as well. You can also make flavoured ice-cubes to melt into the iced-tea using fruit juices...
I've finally hit upon the perfect method for iced tea, or at least the one I like most from those I have tried.
Cold-brewing is the way to go. 1 teabag per cup of water (I've tried rooibos and something else, and both have turned out great), put it into water (don't bother heating) and in to the fridge for about 5 hours. Remove teabags, add simple syrup and any other flavourings you may like (I usually end up squeezing a lemon in there), and you're good.
As for the simple syrup, DJ... indicated how it's done. You will have to judge for yourself how much to use based on how sweet you like it. I have tried out a honey simple syrup once, but need to fiddle around with that a bit more before I'm happy with it.
And you can also add in flavourings too. My go-to thus far is honey and ginger - the hot simple syrup is poured over lemon peel/zest and slivers of ginger and left to steep for a while, and strained and put in to the brewed iced tea (with the lemon as mentioned above) when done. But I will play around with a few more flavours when I get back.
I haven't tried the WW vanilla iced tea, so can't tell you how to recreate it, but I could give you an idea of how I would make it...
WYGIWYGAINGW
Wow, didn't know about the cold method will give it a try. Also read about sun tea over the weekend - same idea as cold brewing but leave out in the sun for 4-5 hours to brew. Cool.
I usually soak 4-6 tea bags in about 2 cups of boiled water for 10 minutes, don't squeeze the bags when removing apparently it just ads bitterness. Disolve sugar into the mixture while still hot, then add this syrup to about 2 litres of cold water. I like adding fresh lemon juice per glass just before serving.
Like I said woolies Vanilla chai tea bags is a fav, 'specially as the kids like it too. Also try Earl Grey with a dash of fresh orange juice. I've been playing around with honey and stevia as sweetner as I'm trying to avoid too much sugar.
ps. Current fav of store bought iced tea is Manhattan Green Ruby Grapefruit and Strawberry. Very addictive.
Last edited by evilstebunny; 20-08-2012 at 10:31 AM.
The problem with the cold method is that it won't extract many of the flavour compounds in tea that require higher heat. Extraction of flavour takes place at varying temperatures and the problem is very high temps will extract bitter compounds, which is why you probably prefer the cold method. I'd much rather use hot water, but far off the boil, for extracting tea flavour. And yes, never squeeze the tea bags.
The major problem with tea bags is that they are made with the lowest quality teas, which is why it is so easy to extract awful flavours from them, and they are always a hit-and-miss - even from the same supplier. Tea grades are determined by colour and size and unfortunately tea bags utilise the lowest possible tea grades as the bags themselves cannot extract flavour from larger tea grades. They use grades call tea dust and tea fanning. As you can imagine, the dust is simply a byproduct of actual tea making and this is what they use in those bags. It really is awful quality, regardless of how they try to market it to you.
If you want great tea, then try to buy the stuff from an actual tea supplier, even if it's just to test it out. Try to get Darjeeling tea, with a grading of at least BOP (broken orange pekoe) or OP (orange pekoe, which is better quality). And never brew tea with boiling water...
Earl Grey works well with orange because it is seasoned with really acidic oranges in the first place. And regarding your sugar avoidance, try to go the natural route as much as possible, but remember that fruit and honey sugars are still not all that great for you. Fructose and glucose are both monosaccharides which are better for you than disaccharide sugars like sucrose (ordinary sugar) as they are metabolised differently, but they still result in all the same sugar related problems in excess. Which is why fruit juices are hardly as healthy as they're made out to be. They are far more nutritious, as is honey, but don't be fooled into believing the hyped-up health benefits.
Artificial sweeteners on the other hand are really safe at the quantities we consume them at. Find one that you enjoy and stick with it if you're trying to cut out sugar...
I use red espresso and add apple juice to it. The recipe is on the back of the packet
Last edited by Roxi_B4b3; 20-08-2012 at 10:43 AM.
Oddly enough rooibos isn't an actual tea - it is however brewed using the same method. Oh and that ground up instant nonsense is disgusting - it is nothing short of tea-sacrilege...
I prefer buying tea leaves anyway as the kids love a mix of half/half normal and rooibos when brewing a cup, but I've never noticed the different gradings as I just buy from the local store.
Where does one source the better quality teas from?
Last edited by evilstebunny; 20-08-2012 at 10:52 AM.
I'm really not sure. I was exposed to tea gradings and quality in Asia so it's still a new eye-opener for me. It puts tea bags to shame. I found this from a quick google - http://www.teabox.co.za/index.html
The gradings you can judge for yourself though based on colour, texture and size. A good way to educate yourself on the gradings is Alton Brown's God Eats tea episode which I found after doing a little digging around. He discusses the best ways to make tea and has an iced-tea recipe at the end of the show too. IIRC he does use tea bags for that though - can't be sure.
I prefer boiling 4 teabags in about 2-cups of water, add in a cup of sugar and boil until strong. When cooled add a cup of lime cordial. Use this as a base syrup.
Then mix to taste with a Sprite Zero or Lemonade
Check some of my posts above. Boiling tea bags extracts some of the worst flavours possible. I'm not saying yours tastes bad - there's enough sugar there to mask a lot of flavour, but it could be made better, if you'd like...
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