Iced Tea

This is Anna’s favorite cold drink for a hot summer’s day: Homemade Iced Tea.

Anna’s basic recipe is easy to modify and quick to make. Just be sure to include cooling time!

I’ve included my comments in Italics.

The Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make 2 quarts—or 2 liters; the two are close enough that you can use the same recipe—of delicious iced tea:

Because I used loose leaf green tea, I boiled the water in the water kettle, then poured the hot water over the leaves in Anna’s French Press. Remember to let the water cool down a bit if you’re using green tea.

 

Ingredients

–  1 quart/1 liter of boiled water

– 5 teabags of your choice OR 5 tablespoons of loose leaf tea of your choice; I made my iced tea with loose leaf organic green tea

– sugar, raw sugar, or honey, or Stevia to taste

– Ice cubes

– Optional: Lemons, frozen berries, mint, or other tasty additions of your choice

Here’s some of my favorite sweeteners: local honey, whole cane sugar and Stevia. Additional flavorings: lemon and lemon balm. Often I include frozen raspberries or fruit.

 

Other

– Container to boil water that you can put the teabags in

– 2 quart/2 liter pitcher

– Metal spoon for mixing

The tea steeping for 2 minutes. With the French Press it’s easy to press down the leaves and pour the tea into the pitcher. When pouring hot water into a glass pitcher, you better warm up the pitcher with hot tap water and place a metal spoon into it.

Instructions

1. After your water comes to a boil, steep your tea for 1-3 minutes in the hot water, according to your taste and the instructions of your tea sort.

2. Remove the tea bags or leaves. The easiest way to remove the leaves is by straining the tea into another container.

3. Mix your sugar with the still hot water. Stir well.

4. Cover your sweetened tea and leave it at room temperature until it cools down.

5. Once your tea is lukewarm, it’s time to mix it into the pitcher. Pour your tea into the pitcher and then add 1 quart/liter of cold water. Check the sugar and add more if needed. Remember that the tea will have a sweeter bite to it once it’s ice cold.

6. Refrigerate until ice cold. Serves four to six.

Enjoy!

If you’re craving an extra bite of flavor, add a couple lemon slices or use frozen berries instead of ice cubes in individual glasses. I love using frozen raspberries (Anna’s favorite!) to flavor iced tea. It works great for plain water, too!

What’s your favorite way to stay refreshed during summer?