Make Real Ice Tea

Flavoured water with 2% ‘tea extract’ is a poor substitute for real brewed ice tea. Here’s how you can impress customers during the warmer months:

Brewing Method

Instructions below are for making 3L of ice tea. Vary the instructions proportionately if you want to make different amounts*.

1. Make a x3 strength tea concentrate as follows:
1. Place 15 teaspoons of tea into a large saucepan
2. Add 1L of hotwater
3. Allow to steep for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Pour concentrate into a jug, straining the leaves with a large sift
5. Allow the concentrate to cool at room temp then place in fridge
2. Once the concentrate is cooled, add 2L of chilled water to it, thereby making 3L of ice tea.
3. To serve, pour into individual tall glasses and garnish using the following suggestions:

• Mint sprigs for ice herbal and green teas
• Citrus fruit slices and summer fruit (e.g. peaches, mango) pieces for ice black teas
• Dry lemon myrtle – not so much a garnish but something that can be steeped with the tea leaves. This will add a bright, fruity note without tartness.

4. Serve with rock sugar syrup on the side.

*Notes on making other amounts: Alwaysremember your ice tea should end up with the same ratio of tea leaf to water as you would when making a normal pot of hot tea. We normally do ½ teaspoon of leaf per 100ml of hot water. To make a concentrate, simply add multiple parts of tea leaves for the one part hot water. Then to make the actual ice tea, bring the ratio of tea to water back to normal by topping the concentrate up with chilled water. E.g. to make a x3 concentrate using a 600ml large teapot, brew 9 teaspoons of tea in the teapot. Add 2 more teapot’s worth of chilled water to the concentrate so that in the end, you should end up with 1.8L of ice tea.

Good ones, iced

Most of our range would do well iced. Some particularly good ones are:

Good Morning, Silver Jasmine, Dragon Well, Organic Peppermint, Organic Chamomile, Peace & Quiet, Heal, Digestif, Iron Goddess, Karavan and Moroccan Mint.