Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Keys to a great iced tea
- The first step, steeping your tea
- How strong to make your iced tea
- Making a strong iced tea recipe
- Tea of the month club in Canada
- Conclusion
Introduction
Although the thought of tea in the summer might send you into a sweating frenzy right away you should always remember that, just like everything in life, there are more than one way to enjoy the age-old glass of tea. It doesn’t even need to be Tea for that matter and can be a nice mix of herbal inclusions, as long as you make it with a bit of a twist.
Keys to a great iced tea
While tea is generally thought of as a piping hot drink the reality is that it lends itself really well to being served ice cold. A nice brewed tea can really hit the spot on a day when the sun is out and water just isn’t appealing to your taste buds. Don’t worry as there is not really much that you have to do differently to brew a nice cup of tea up for those hot days, just a couple of things to keep in mind.
The first step, steeping your tea
The first is that it takes a while to get to that perfect spot, and I am not talking about stepping here, but rather the time it takes to get ready. With hot tea you boil your water, steep the leaves, remove the leaves and enjoy. With iced tea you will need to brew the tea, let it steep, and then let it cool which can take a decent amount of time. There are some people that will argue that you can steep and then pour over ice to get that time down, but that brings up the second aspect of brewing the perfect iced tea.
How strong to make your iced tea
Which is the dilution issue… dun dun dunnnnn. When you make hot tea your cup is just water and tea leaves; while when you make iced tea you generally have ice cubes in it. this is why I whole hardheartedly recommend that you make your tea 1.5 to 2 times stronger than you normally would.
Personally, I don’t like to wait around while the tea is cooling as I am a bit restless when it comes to my tea, so I brew up a super dark mix. If you are using tea bags, I would triple the amount of bags you use as the water movement does not always suck up as much of the tasty flavor as opposed to loose-leaf tea. This leaves you with a dark nectar of tea which you can pour directly over ice and ( although the ice melts a bit into the hot tea) you will not lose as much flavor as you are diluting twice as much tea.
Making a strong iced tea recipe
The final thing to keep in mind is that when you brew up your extra tea you don’t want to steep it for too long. This is a mistake that many people make when you ask for stronger tea. To get stronger tea you ADD MORE TEA you do not over-steep. If you steep the tea for too long you will find out that you are left with a bitter taste in most cases. This is especially true of real tea, and not always the case with tisanes. So remember to keep an eye on your brewing time as there is nothing worse than putting in the work for your perfect cup of tea to realize that a couple of minutes has ruined your drink.
Tea of the month club in Canada
The main thing of all tea creation and tasting is to keep it fun. Try out different mixes and see how blends turn out. Keep track of what you have mixed together as many times you can stumble upon a great flavor only to forget what portions of your mix where needed to achieve that masterful cup. The easiest way to ensure that you always have a fresh rotation of tea is to take a look at our tea of the month club, which is aimed at Canadians buying tea, and can be found here tea of the month club in Canada.
Conclusion
If you sign up for this tea of the month club you will get a great mix of teas that will always come to your house and let you experiment with the different flavors that you can create. Take a look and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to give us an email.