How to Make Iced Tea

Are you wondering how to make easy iced tea at home with loose tea? For making real homemade iced tea you don’t need a complicated recipe.

There are three simple methods for making your own healthy iced tea:

(Cold brewing tea takes longer, but develops more delicate flavours that make a beautiful iced tea)

(Quick brewing time, but needs to cool down)

 

Cold-brewing Tea:

Cold brewed tea is our personal favourite type of iced tea, as we find the flavours to come out more delicate. Follow the recipe below to infuse tea in cold water.

How to make cold brew iced tea

  1. Add 1 to 2 heaped tablespoons of your favourite loose leaf tea to a litre of room temperature water.
  2. Leave to infuse for a minimum of 1-2 hours and occasionally stir. Taste test every 30 minutes until flavour is developed enough and to your liking.
    Sometimes we leave everything sitting for 6 or even 12 hours, depending on the blend we choose to make. Black and green tea blends usually infuse quicker than herbal or fruit teas.
  3. When the taste is to your liking, strain the beverage through a fine mesh and serve with ice and a squeeze of lemon.
  4. OPTIONAL: Depending on the loose leaf iced tea blend you choose, it might not be sweet enough for your liking. In that case we recommend dissolving a teaspoon of organic honey in 20ml of hot water, and adding it to the iced tea, after it has been strained.

If brewed correctly, cold brewed tea has a very smooth mouthfeel and delicate soft notes, compared to making it hot. In case the tea tastes bitter, try using less leaves and infusing it for a shorter time.

 

How to make iced tea using hot water?

  1. Add a litre of freshly boiled water to 1 to 2 heaped tablespoons of loose leaf tea and let it rest for around 5-30 minutes, depending on how full bodied you prefer the flavour. Note: Watch out with blends containing green or black tea, as these might release bitters when steeped for too long or when too many leaves are used. Give it a taste to see how well developed the aroma is every couple minutes.
  2. Allow to cool down naturally or enjoy directly served over ice cubes for instant iced tea.
  3. Can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

How to speed up the cooling process? 

When making homemade iced tea, you can speed up the cooling process by stirring in some ice cubes until melted or putting your homemade iced tea in your fridge or freezer for a while. But watch out to not store the hot beverage in there directly as it might heat up the fridge. We recommend to let it reach room temperature before storing it.

Our iced tea recipes are fantastic as a cocktail mixer or non-alcoholic mocktail base. Check out our iced tea cocktail recipes, as an inspiration for some sugar free afternoon high tea celebrations.Serve in an iced tea jug with freshly cut lemon slices or a couple of mint leaves to give it the final touch to your liking. Jazz it up however you like to create your own version for the next pitcher.

How to make fizzy iced tea with hot water and soda water

  1. Use 1-2 heaped tablespoons of loose leaf tea per litre of (normal) water to brew a strong infusion, the basis for sparkling iced tea. Let it infuse for a minimum of 1-2 hours before straining.
    Note: Be careful to not let it sit too long with black, green or white tea blends. For those kind of teas you might prefer following our cold-brewing method.
  2. After straining you can either let it cool down a bit more, or just straight up mix it with soda water. The ratio we recommend is 1 to 1, but depends on your personal preferences.
  3. Serve the fizzy iced tea over ice cubes and with some fresh mint.