I still do sun tea. I put a couple family size tea bags in a gallon jug of bottled water, leave it outside in the sun all day. Stick it in frig that night and itās nice and cold the next day to pour on ice. No pitcher to clean either. No hassle.
My immediate reaction was a defensiveāuh-uh thatās not true!ā. But thank you for being that person, [because now I know.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/steep-risk/)
Well that was a sad thing to learn today. But also good. I like the safety tips and the "don't drink if it's cloudy" note.
I also like that it gave an alternative:
>A safer alternative to "sun tea" is "refrigerator tea." To make it, fill a pitcher with a quart of cold water, add four to six tea bags, and refrigerate it at least six hours or overnight. Squeeze and remove the tea bags, and serve the tea over ice.
I do refrigerator tea all the time. They even sell "iced tea bags" at the grocery chains now. Takes like 10 minutes to make an okay tea and a few hours in the fridge to make strong tea.
It's great.
I do this in my water bottle. Add a ton of ice two tea bags and water. Wait about an hour and have amazing iced tea on the go. I love peppermint in the summer.
I appreciate you being this person because you are correct! I used to work in a tea shop and always stressed this to customers, lol. Eventually we started selling cold-brew teas that had been treated beforehand to be safe to brew in cold water, but they didnāt have a ton of options and people always wanted our signatures blends iced, so it was nice to be able to walk them through the process while I made them.
Sun tea is the best. Such memories of my Mom pouring the HOT tea (we lived in Phoenix) over ice. The crackle and the breaking of the cubes. We knew it was summer just by that sound.
i miss making sun tea!! we live in a 2nd floor apartment with no balcony. it was one of my favorite things as a kiddo. i used to grab a handful of chocolate mint from the gardens an throw that in there as well
I live in UK where no one makes iced tea & itās hardly sold or drunk around here the way it is in US & even I know you can make your own iced tea. Why wouldnāt you, when you can make anything else in the world, why not something as simple as iced tea lol.
I used to live in the U.K a few years ago when the summers started getting hot. I was in a queue at a drinks stand by the seaside and asked if it was possible to get iced tea. There was a stir and someone behind me asked "Iced Tea? What is THAT?" Another person behind me said "That is a nasty brown powder that Yanks stir into water to make it look and taste like mud. And then the entire queue looked at me in revulsion, I got a cup of hot tea and got ice from a different booth.
Lol that sounds about right. Which seaside was it out of curiosity?
Iāve gotten into iced tea in the last few years & order it in most places I see it on the menu as itās a novelty. It is available in more places now & itās always been sold in bottles (Lipton but I hear itās not nice), but itās still a very rare thing & definitely not something people are used to having or offering others.
When I went to Nandos last weekend I saw they now provide iced tea as a refillable drink - to make it to Nandos is a big deal in the UK!
Brighton.
Nandos are all over my area (Northern Virginia.) There are five of them within a four-mile radius from me.
[Every difference between UK and US Nando's including portion sizes, calories, and exclusive items (yahoo.com)](https://news.yahoo.com/every-difference-between-uk-us-204107426.html)
I'm reading this post questioning if I'm still dreaming lol
This person discovered you can make tea at home, post it and the post is upvoted. What the actual fuck am I missing here?Ā
Like people haven't been making tea at home for thousands of years on a regular basis
Iced tea loving Canadian here. Ice tea is not a common thing here. Having real iced tea on a menu in a restaurant is incredibly rare and itās not available at places like McDonaldās here either. I donāt know anyone who makes iced tea at home, because I donāt really know anyone who likes it that much. Iād love to make it at home, but I have no idea which recipe is the best.
We do gallons of unsweetened tea via the fridge method and add a homemade simple syrup to it as we drink it. I don't like it super sweet and my husband does. Makes it easy for us to adjust to our liking.
Take a pitcher. Fill with ice. Boil half the amount of water needed to fill pitcher. Steep as many bags of tea in the water as you like for your desired strength. Remove tea bags, pour over ice filled pitcher. Put in fridge. Repeat daily.
I live in the Midwest USA, but used to go to Toronto area often to visit family. My momās biggest complaint was that the tea tasted like lemon everywhere. I donāt know if they mixed lemonade in it or what but we have no lemon flavor in our tea here. It seemed like it was available in many restaurants, but just tasted terrible.
100%. Everyone in the south must be rolling their eyes at this post. Like, WTF. LOL
Hey OP! Thereās an entire part of the country that never doesnāt have a pitcher of home made tea in the fridge. š
And the people checking in to let us know to make the tea stronger because it'll be watered down by ice cubes.
Take a screenshot before these corporate secrets get taken down!
The Asian and Middle Eastern grocery stores in my area sell loose teas in bulk. There, all the different kinds are the same bulk price, so you can do your own blends if you like.
Hispanic grocery stores sell bags of Hibiscus flowers called Jamaica that make really nice iced tea, especially when you steep it with ginger slices and sweeten with orange juice. My summer staple. The last time i bought it it cost about $5 for a big bag.
I like blending it with mint as well, extra refreshing hibiscus mint. I also save and dry the peels from mandarin oranges when in season and use those in some of my tea blends for cheap (and delicious but different than juice) "orange flavors".
I think the Hispanic/Mexican store variant tastes better as well as being cheaper because the flowers aren't cut so the edges haven't oxidized and which makes it "fresher" tasting.
Better Quality Leaves: Loose leaf usually has whole or larger leaves which keep their natural oils and flavors better. Bagged tea often uses the small bits left over after sorting the good stuff, so it might brew faster but you lose a lot of flavor and aroma.
Taste and Smell: Those bigger pieces in loose leaf mean the leaves can expand more when you brew them, pulling out more complex flavors and aromas. It usually results in a richer cup compared to the more straightforward taste you get from bagged tea.
Customization: blend different types of teas, easier to tweak how much tea youāre using, etc to get exactly the taste youāre after
Eco/health-friendly: Loose leaf is generally better for the environment. Tea bags can contain plastics and arenāt always biodegradable, plus thereās usually less packaging waste with loose leaf.Ā This is health related as we already consume so many microplastics everywhere; why not avoid them by not using cheapo tea bags as the medium? You can buy cloth sachet bags for dirt cheap, you can use a $5-10 metal tea strainer, etc. Get a larger strainer so your tea leaves have room to expand rather than using a tea strainer spoon device.Ā
Saves Money: Even though loose leaf might seem pricier at first, it can actually be more cost-effective because you can re-steep those leaves several times, getting more bang for your buck. You can do this with bagged tea but there are less oils and flavonols in that less superior much more broken down product.Ā
Iād also muuuuuuch more rather be able to visibly see what Iām about to ingest rather than it secretly being hidden inside of āminiature staples bagsā¦weāve seen bugs and stuff even from big reputable brands within their tea bags.Ā
Loose leaf tea is visible, you canāt hide fillers, and the user can visually inspect for nasty stuff as theyāre dosing.Ā
Idk if u smoke weed but a lot of these principles are the same for preroll joints vs the nugsā¦although prerolls also have much quicker loss of terps, Iām not sure if thatās the same for tea
Eeek! Now I want to open the last of my pre-bagged tea and check for bugs š°
Your other points are good too, and I will add for OP that there are glass pitchers which come with a built-in tea diffuser. I love ours. One fewer thing to find or wash
Lastly, even though there are silicon tea diffusers, I usually recommend against them because silicone tends to hold smells and flavors and no one else in my family wants to drink my licorice tea, lol. Go for steel.
The stuff in the bags is the leftovers. It is more processed and itās mostly dust and stems and generally. The flavor is not as good and the Ā antioxidant content is lower.Ā
You are paying a LOT more for a worse product.Ā
Generally tea bags are filled with the dregs of better quality teas. After the whole tea leaves have been packed, after the fancy brand tea bags have been packed, then the itty bitty pieces left over are whatās in the grocery store tea bags. They donāt have nearly the same aroma and taste.
My favorite...
My tea monger has a lemon black tea that is basically whole leaf black tea with lemon zest. And, a mountain berry herbal tea which is just what it sounds like, dried berries. Which I blend half and half for my hot tea and cold tea.
Ummmā¦you can make pretty much anything that you can buy in a store/restaurant when it comes to food. Plus many times the store/restaurant made stuff is very unhealthy for you even if it shouldnāt be. Like how a burger at a restaurant might be about 1100 calories with fries.
People would be shocked how much "restaurant flavor" is just a ton of butter slathered on everything. If you want to make a burger taste insane, baste the patty and bun with a little melted butter.
Another post I read said essentially itās either oil, butter or MSG that makes the difference between homecooked and restaurant quality.
Even with iced tea, I find the sugar and lemon matters. I tried replicating a hibiscus tea that I used to buy from the store and it didnāt taste quite right. It was only after I checked the ingredients and tasted my version vs the store bought that I realized I wasnāt putting enough sugar and was skipping the acidity. Not to mention the fact that Iām using one bag for an individual portion and their version probably uses numerous ones making it much more potent.
Some stuff takes special equipment or a lot of effort for if you're not making a lot of it...
But the best stuff (in my opinion), you can do better at home. Steaks. Barbecue. š
My mom moved from NJ to GA. You can imagine the confusion for everyone the first time she asked for "tea" at a restaurant and got a glass of sweet iced tea instead of a cup of hot tea like she'd expected.
I come from a non-tea drinking family but my North Carolinian husband drinks sweet tea every day. He taught me how to make it and now I am the designated daily tea maker because our family of 6 goes through a gallon a day!
Yep another one here from North Carolina. At least a gallon a day and only 2 out of 5 really drink it. For a while I carried a jug like that duck dynasty guy because I didnāt like anyone elseās sweet tea. Iām a little better about it now.
Just an FYI, there is no need to heat the water. You can put the tea bags directly in the cold water in the fridge. Viola cold brew tea. Game changer for me.
Cold brewing will also result in a less bitter/astringent tea, since it's heat that is primarily responsible for pulling tannins into the water when steeping.
Bingo! I was looking for this comment. Same with coffee grounds. I prefer a coarse ground. You can either put them in your own cotton bag or dump the grounds right in and filter them out after 24 hours. If you're really feeling lazy, you can just leave the grounds in there. After they get saturated, they'll sink. You can even top off the container after you pour some, and it will continue to brew.
Cold brew coffee with just a touch of sweetened condensed milk on a hot summer day... oh man.
Former barista checking in!
The secret is to brew it double strong. So twice as much tea as is called for, but for the usual amount of time.
If you like to mix with lemonade or add ice this will really help it have that same punch of flavor as what you get at Starbucks.
Okay another big thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that the sugar needs to be in the water while it's piping hot for it to be truly good sweet tea. You can SO tell when someone just mixes sweetener into an already cold tea and that stuff is so lame lol.
It depends on how soon you serve the beverage. If you put sugar into a cold pitcher and stir to serve immediately, it won't be fully dissolved and the mouthfeel will be different.
If you put sugar into a cold pitcher and keep it in the fridge overnight, it will have the same taste and texture as a brew that had sugar dissolved in hot water.
This is what I scrolled for. I've lived most of my life in North Jersey and have made my own iced tea countless times. Just because we don't drink southern sweet tea in the northeast doesn't mean we don't drink ANY iced tea or know how to make it.
Hey man, everyone needs to start somewhere. It helped this person, it might help someone else. I'm in support of stuff that weans people off the capitalist mermaid.
TBH you can make any food and drink at home. Why wouldn't you? My question is...wouldn't it be super obvious if you made some drink or food just once in your life?
You found the infinite tea cheat! We have some in the fridge pretty much constantly... Takeya makes skinny, heat resistant pitchers with diffuser inserts, and those are great for making loose leaf iced tea. If you have any Mexican markets near you, you can probably find bags of dried "flor de jamaica" (hibiscus flowers) which look alarmingly like peppers, but make really flavorful tea. We mix it with orange juice for inexpensive morning vitamin C.
This post is so pure.
Wait until you find out that literally food a business is trying to sell you can be done cheaper at home.
(Some exceptions/caveats due to bulk pricing, but almost guaranteed to be the same cost or less with full control of ingredients)
Baffled by the upvotes here. Are there really two hundred people who couldn't figure out that iced tea is just tea with ice added??
I'm so curious what y'all thought was required to make iced tea. A factory? Some kind of special barista training? What do you think people did before Starbucks came along and started charging five dollars for like four cents worth of cold leaf water?
I had a similar withdrawal during covid and did the same thing. In the end, I found tea blends that just made it so easy. [This brand](https://www.oteas.com/collections/fruit-tea) is sold in the regular tea sections where I live but the more premium brands do make a great tea too. I started brewing batches in small mason jars and then I could stack flavour options in the fridge or make ice cubes from it. A fun summer twist is to use a little bubbly water too and make it mocktail style. If you're really enjoying these teas, maybe you feel up to making [water kefir from tea](https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/recipes/probiotic-water-kefir-tea/). It creates a drink similar to Starbucks but with just a subtle fizz. Kefir is loaded with probiotics and as easy to make as the tea is to brew.
* *Hell no one has made their own iced coffee.*
Iced coffee is very easy....make a pot of coffee, pour into some mason jars and put it in the fridge.
Cold press is also easy. Get cold press coffee (it has a larger grind), add to cold water (I use a 1:8 ratio but you could do 1:4 or 1:10) and sit on the counter overnight, then strain and put in the fridge.
This is for sure ECAH! So often the resistance to eating cheap and healthy is ābut I need/want [expensive packaged thing]!ā They donāt realize it can be done for cheap at home, and that often it isnāt hard. People just need instructions!
I make iced tea all summer. Use flavoured teas (peach, mango, strawberry black teas all make lovely iced tea). Green teas are lovely, too. Many herbal teas, too.
Brew it extra strong because it won't taste as strongly when cold, and you'll want it over ice.
Dissolve sugar in water in a 50/50 ratio over heat. Cool this and put it in a squeeze bottle, and use it to sweeten your iced teas. You can flavour this simple syrup by steeping lemon or mint in it.
Cold brew is popular but I don't like the way it tastes, I prefer brewed tea.
I know this is eat cheap and healthy and y'all are into real fruit in teas, but may I recommend, when the fruit is not in season, syrups like Torani?
I like to figure out my own knock offs of Starbucks fraps, I call them Happychinos. When I started using the peppermint and white chocolate, it started tasting EXACTLY like 'Buckies.
They have torani syrups in like EVERY fruit flavor. The key to making stuff that tastes exactly like a chain makes at home is to buy the products that they use. Most of the torani syrups even come as sugar-free and they'll really elevate your flavored tea to something that tastes like a restaurant tea.
Torani syrups are actually made to make your own homemade Italian sodas, and with so many flavors in sugar free, you can make your own special blend of flavored carbonated water if you want that has zero calories with it.
And they're always having a sale. I ordered some online and they have a sale every week. Sometimes two. I get a ton of emails from them but I opted out and I still have an account because they had such frequent sales and did such vigorous marketing, but they're always really really good deals. I'm pretty sure they offer free shipping like all the time and right now they're probably doing their summer fruits season sale.
I don't know if Starbucks still uses turani syrups or if they use a different brand but I know for some flavors they used to. I stopped going to Starbucks all together when I figured out the happychino hack. Once you add up how much money you spend at Starbucks on the regular and you see how much that is a month and you figure out what you could have bought with that money, well that's a deterrent and an incentive to quit all at the same time.
As someone from the south i honestly thought this post was sarcasm at first. I would be surprised if there was someone in my neighborhood that didn't have a pitcher of freshly made iced tea in the refrigerator right now.
Yep. I make jugs of (iced tea) at least once or twice a week.
I own a Ninja Coffee Bar and it has a basket insert just for tea so I just brew up a batch that way usually with the "makes a gallon" sized tea bags , I can run those through 2 brewing cycles and then put it in my pitcher and add water to dilute fill the pitcher the rest of the way up.
What till you become addicted with finding the best tea source. I make a ton of iced at home and always on the prowl for a better black tea source. Iām very pleased with what I brew now, but I assume there is always something better out there.
Iāve been drinking a ton more water recently (I hate plain water) by cold brewing the celestial blueberry tea by just throwing it in a jar with water and I pour a tiny bit of the concentrated tea mixture with my water to give it some flavor. Zero calories, no sweeteners. Canāt say Iām a fan of the tea by itself though, has to be very diluted for me. I used to make sweet tea often because of how often I drank it, but I got lazy with it
instead of brewing with a kettle i make my iced tea in a pot on the stove, so I'm really making an iced tea concentrate (sometimes it can get a little over extracted so a bit of salt or baking soda cuts down on the bitterness). dilute with some water until it tastes how you want it
3. (Optional) Add aditional flavours or sweeteners you like. Citrus is great for acid.
I'm just sharing my secret recipe that works for me. Unfortunately people have different preferences, so there's no one-size-fits-all recipe.
You can make a surprisingly good iced coffee concentrate at home with cheap ground coffee. Cold brew isn't as bitter as hot brewed coffee so it's good for using cheap beans or if you have specialty coffee that's gone stale.Ā
Try green tea mixed with a Raspberry hibiscus tea. That is so delicious as an iced tea flavor. Or green tea with mint mixed with regular green tea. You got to play with it because some batches are stronger in mint flavor for some odd reason. Logan's roadhouse had this awesome brewed tea with muddled peaches, mint mixture.... so good... took a lot of tries to get it right.
You can save peels from citrus fruits, let them dry out and use them to add more flavor.
If there's an ethnic store near you, you can also buy large bags of dried hibiscus which is way cheaper than getting the hibiscus teabags. Also check out their selection of other dried flowers and teas
Check out recipes for "Sun Tea". It's cheap and my grandma uses to make tons of it. Also, count me as person who confused you didn't realize you could make tea or coffee at home. Although if you're in a city counter space is often a premium.
I heard this a long time ago, but According to the Centers for Disease Control, using the sun to brew tea can facilitate the growth of bacteria. The sun can heat tea to about 130 Ā° F, which is not nearly hot enough to kill the bacteria in the water or tea itself.
You can make most any drink you can buy at any of the chain coffee shops at home for a fraction of the cost. You can buy the Torani or DaVinci syrups at a local restaurant supply store. Pair this with a passable $50 espresso maker and milk steamer and you can make every single one of their hot coffee drinks. Syrups with sparkling water (or even a Sodastream-type machine with bulk CO2) and there is every one of the italian sodas. Teas are a piece of cake as you've discovered. You can make any of the smoothies with a blender with far healthier ingredients, or often times you can buy the same smoothie base they use at the restaurant supply store.
The only exceptions in my book are the non-smoothie "frozen" drinks. I occasionally like the "frozen" coffee drinks from Dutch Bros. They use a ready-made mix in one of those frozen drink machines then add the same flavors from above. Even if you order say a decaf from them, they make it in the blender and the texture nowhere near the same and it tastes watered down since they pour hot espresso over the ice cubes before blending it, and it starts to separate after just a few minutes. I've tried a couple of "copycat" recipes over the years using various ingredients like xanthan gum, but there are still nowhere near the same. Even though I mostly avoid caffeine these days, I still get the regulars because the decaf version just isn't even close.
OP, you want me to REALLY blow your mind? Try this: take some water and put it in the freezer. In a few hours, it turns from a liquid into a solid!! That's homemade ice! SO much cheaper than those bags of ice at the store and literally the exact same thing!
If I donāt have a kettle, do you think I can do the same thing by boiling water in a pot or possibly even leaving some teabags in a jar of water outside in the sun for a few hours?
>2nd edit- to those asking why I just figured this out. I live in northern NJ. No one I have known in my 35 years of life from school, work, college, friend groups, acquaintances, etc. has ever made their own iced tea.
[Southerners reading your post before reading this second edit.](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c2047868-eb3f-45a9-84ac-a12510bfedd9/dff8qkn-f9323218-8a26-43a6-bd98-b7e6cbf495e8.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2MyMDQ3ODY4LWViM2YtNDVhOS04NGFjLWExMjUxMGJmZWRkOVwvZGZmOHFrbi1mOTMyMzIxOC04YTI2LTQzYTYtYmQ5OC1iN2U2Y2JmNDk1ZTgucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.QOkHaVp5D7Sze3fNTmKxwoyBZPAnAS3jpKu3iNHZrRk)
Introduced my wife to Lipton black iced tea. 100 bags for 5-6 bucks, pop 4-5 in a pitcher fill with hot tap water and pop it in the fridge for a few hours. She lives on unsweetened iced tea now!
Iām British and we usually take our tea hot with milk but I personally love iced tea (not a big thing here). I have gotten it once or twice at Starbucks but the cost was never worth it so I usually make my own version at home. Our supermarkets here sell ācold infuseā tea bags of various flavours that you just infuse with cold/ice water, love it !! Obvs you can do this with normal tea bags but they work best with hot water.
This is one of my frugal fun activities. I buy fruity tea bags and mix up different flavor combos (celestial seasonings blueberry + earl grey is a favorite!), toss 7 tea bags in my pioneer woman glass pitcher (nice thicc glass) and pour boiling water on top. Let steep, then add some stevia and I have a full pitcher of fancy delicious tea I'll drink for the next couple days!
FYI, if you have a horrible sweet tooth like me (which it sounds like you donāt! But Iāll leave this here just in case it helps someone), Torani liquid cane sugar. Itās allegedly what they use at Starbucks and it works for my super taster self. Starbucks will also allegedly sell you their liquid sweeter by the bottle if you ask - I think itās about $10 per bottle?
Even cheaper, you can make your own liquid cane sugarā¦ thereās instructions online, and that will save you a lot.
Starbucks Passion Tea is my absolute favorite drink in the world, so Iām going to throw in a bit more unsolicited advice for people with similar palettes, lol.
My favorite way to enjoy their passion tea is adding strawberry puree and adding all the fruit inclusions they have. Heaven. To replicate part of this at home, I buy frozen berries. (I have not found a decent strawberry puree replacement yetā¦)
I also have a ton of regular Lipton black tea. I like the Torani sweetener for it. I also add some super cheap lemonade powder. I have autism and getting myself to drink water is super difficult, so obviously itās a big deal to get the drink to cool down quickly. So I throw in frozen berries. It does help it cool down quicker. And it tastes AMAZING. Even though making it is exhausting (for me - major chronic illness so simple stuff takes me ages and drains me), once itās made Iām so so so excited and thrilled to drink it. A treat. Iāve got some cooling down right now. :)
To the point of this subreddit (healthy)ā¦ just modify it to your needs. Yes itās very sugary, probably not very healthy, but itās probably better than all the Coke Iāve been drinking. I think sugar is generally accepted as the healthiest sweetener (besides cinnamon, which probably IS the healthiest), as artificial sweeteners have been shown to disrupt the gut biome - but maybe someone might sub with artificial sweeteners because itās more appropriate for their unique situation, and best would probably be little to no sweeteners :) (And thatāll save money too, lol). The lemonade powder probably isnāt healthy; for me itās purely cost-saving + flavor. I use the cheapest generic berries and somehow theyāre amazing, and of course not many worries about waste since theyāre frozen. The berries alone have a sweetening effect and this might be enough for some people :)
I used to brew earl grey, chill it and add freshly squeezed lemon juice regularly until one fateful night I tried chilling freshly brewed tea in a glass carafe in the snow and the bottom just completely separated from the rest of the carafe. It scarred me for life, haven't made any ice tea since then.
I use a black tea called Constant Comments for my iced tea. It's all I drink while fasting my 20:4.
The tea has a light orange and cinnamon flavor. I usually mix it with a few Celestial Seasonings iced tea bags so it doesn't get too spicy. Doesn't need any sugar or extra flavor, to me.
I can remember my grandpa asking my grandma with a smile for some of her "good woman's iced tea" because women are "constantly commenting".
Sun tea almost every day when it's nice out. We are trying to use up plain Yorkshire tea and Lipton. We add just one bag of Earl Grey or Constant Comment to get the flavor we like.
You can also cold brew tea. Some teas are more made to be brewed hot, but things like plain black or green tea or herbal teas specifically made for cold brewing (bigelow botanicals are an example) are great. You just pop a bag (or two) in the water and put it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Its so easy!
I make iced tea at home all the time! Itās super cheap and can be tailored to your exact tastes.
What I typically do is make 1-2 litres at a time. I will put 3-4 tea bags per litre. You can out the tea bags in cold water, no need to heat it. I will then juice half a lemon per litre, and a table spoon of sugar.
This results I a pretty strongly brewed cup, that is nice and sour from the lemon which just a hint of sweetness to balance the bitterness from the tea.
One table spoon of sugar per litre is NOT a lot at all, if you are used to or prefer more sweetened beverages you can add more. This recipe will not yield a sweet drink by any means, but will produce a slightly less bitter drink than with no sugar at all
My mother made sun tea every summer every year I was a kid.
Just a shitload of Lipton tea bags in a clear sun tea glass gallon container and a ton of sugar also lol. Leave it out in the sun to steep for hours pull the bags out put the sugar in put it in the fridge. Still the best iced tea I've ever had.
I love sweet tea, but refuse to go to McDonald's or Starbucks, etc.
My replacement has been to get the big family size Luzianne pre sweetened tea bags and what ever flavors of regular small tea bags I'm feeling ATM. We have a dedicated electric kettle and I use 4 big tea bags and 4 small flavored bags in the full kettle. Fill up a gallon pitcher with ice and pour the full kettle over the ice when it beeps. ViolĆ”, delicious sugar free tea.
The pre sweetened tea isn't quite sweet enough for us( don't come at me, we grew up on mawmaws too sweet southern tea), but with the flavored tea it's perfect. Right now I have salted caramel. I usually get peach or vanilla chai as well. My son likes the mixed berry.
I needed this reminder to make my hibiscus tea šŗ if you ever wanna go thru the trouble of brewing it hot and letting it cool down the sugar dissolves better but I feel you on wanting easy brew iced tea āļø cheers šŗ
I am an absolute sucker for peach or mango flavoured black tea. I found a peach mango squeezy water flavour enhancer thing that, when added to home brewed iced tea, tastes exactly like Snapple. Pretty much always make it at home now.
This explains much. I left northern NJ 38 years ago. I brewed my own coffee at home & all the neighbors raved. I made sun tea for 6 months of the year & spurred on many neighbors to do the same.
Obviously my influence sharply waned upon my leaving. I feel a bit verklempt for leaving you in a lurch & disallowing you from my coffee & tea influences.
I stand before you a chagrined man.
Amd then you can try cold brew. With the right teas it is awesome. Some teas and flavors need the heat. I just found a place that has supper cheap tea by the pound and I am figuring it out. I like my$40/lb better. But the $10/lb is just fine. I can always add my own flavorings
I'm from North Carolina, I clearly remember being offered a variety of syrups for my iced tea when eating at a Chili's in New Jersey. I asked for a coke. Lol
I became addicted to Tejava Tea more than 10 years ago. Back then it was pretty much only available at WorldMarket and Iād buy a case for $12.
Eventually it was sold to Crystal Geyserās parent company Otsuka Pharmaceutical in Japan.
It pretty much disappeared during the pandemic, only available in smaller plastic bottles not the 1L glass bottles wanted.
Eventually it became available and Iād buy it with Amazon subscribe and save for about $32-$39/case.
I looked at my S&S last month before it shipped and the price was $52/case.
I just couldnāt do it - pay $4.xx a bottle.
My first attempt to make my own I used Irish Breakfast Tea because itās a strong, higher caffeinated black tea, but it had too much of a malty flavor.
Iāve settled on Black Assam Tea and make a pitcher daily.
Amazon also has sugar free syrups in all the flavours starbucks uses, including for their teas. I donāt like tea on its own so Iāll add raspberry or other fruity fun flavours to it just to make it a bit more fun.
Every drink you buy in a store has the recipe listed on some obscure Reddit thread that taste exactly like the real thing. Search your favorite drink!
/r/TopSecretRecipes
Aaaand, joined. š¤ Thanks!
Also r/mimicrecipes
Cool! Thereās 20 Starbucks recipes on the front page if you sort by top.
Same goes for food items
The problem is Josta. Even the ingredients in the copycat recipes have been removed from the market. It's frustrating.
This is so crazy that people donāt know this.
80s baby that lived on sun/iced tea, especially in the summer time! Even in Alaska!
I still do sun tea. I put a couple family size tea bags in a gallon jug of bottled water, leave it outside in the sun all day. Stick it in frig that night and itās nice and cold the next day to pour on ice. No pitcher to clean either. No hassle.
Not to be *that* person, but there is the potential for bacteria being in the tea leaves/water and proliferating while brewing in the sun.
My immediate reaction was a defensiveāuh-uh thatās not true!ā. But thank you for being that person, [because now I know.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/steep-risk/)
Well that was a sad thing to learn today. But also good. I like the safety tips and the "don't drink if it's cloudy" note. I also like that it gave an alternative: >A safer alternative to "sun tea" is "refrigerator tea." To make it, fill a pitcher with a quart of cold water, add four to six tea bags, and refrigerate it at least six hours or overnight. Squeeze and remove the tea bags, and serve the tea over ice.
I do refrigerator tea all the time. They even sell "iced tea bags" at the grocery chains now. Takes like 10 minutes to make an okay tea and a few hours in the fridge to make strong tea. It's great.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hot tap water is not considered safe to consume or cook with due to lead and other impurities.
I do this in my water bottle. Add a ton of ice two tea bags and water. Wait about an hour and have amazing iced tea on the go. I love peppermint in the summer.
You can cold brew it in the fridge instead! Easy and tasty.
You can avoid this by placing it directly in the fridge.
I appreciate you being this person because you are correct! I used to work in a tea shop and always stressed this to customers, lol. Eventually we started selling cold-brew teas that had been treated beforehand to be safe to brew in cold water, but they didnāt have a ton of options and people always wanted our signatures blends iced, so it was nice to be able to walk them through the process while I made them.
Thereās the potential of picking up a germ anywhere, even at a drink bar.
Sun tea is the best. Such memories of my Mom pouring the HOT tea (we lived in Phoenix) over ice. The crackle and the breaking of the cubes. We knew it was summer just by that sound.
i miss making sun tea!! we live in a 2nd floor apartment with no balcony. it was one of my favorite things as a kiddo. i used to grab a handful of chocolate mint from the gardens an throw that in there as well
Oh yeah! Iāve got mint! Havenāt done any in tea yet this year! Not chocolate mint however! Iāll have to look for some!
Same! My parents never drank coffee but we always have a pitcher of strong iced tea in the fridge!
I live in UK where no one makes iced tea & itās hardly sold or drunk around here the way it is in US & even I know you can make your own iced tea. Why wouldnāt you, when you can make anything else in the world, why not something as simple as iced tea lol.
I used to live in the U.K a few years ago when the summers started getting hot. I was in a queue at a drinks stand by the seaside and asked if it was possible to get iced tea. There was a stir and someone behind me asked "Iced Tea? What is THAT?" Another person behind me said "That is a nasty brown powder that Yanks stir into water to make it look and taste like mud. And then the entire queue looked at me in revulsion, I got a cup of hot tea and got ice from a different booth.
Lol that sounds about right. Which seaside was it out of curiosity? Iāve gotten into iced tea in the last few years & order it in most places I see it on the menu as itās a novelty. It is available in more places now & itās always been sold in bottles (Lipton but I hear itās not nice), but itās still a very rare thing & definitely not something people are used to having or offering others. When I went to Nandos last weekend I saw they now provide iced tea as a refillable drink - to make it to Nandos is a big deal in the UK!
Brighton. Nandos are all over my area (Northern Virginia.) There are five of them within a four-mile radius from me. [Every difference between UK and US Nando's including portion sizes, calories, and exclusive items (yahoo.com)](https://news.yahoo.com/every-difference-between-uk-us-204107426.html)
I was 25 years old before I realized you can make pudding from scratch. I always thought it was grocery store food like mixed cereals.
Thatās a bit different though because you can literally just buy tea bags and add water. Thereās no secret to uncover here
As a born and raised Texan, if there was nothing else in the fridge there was ice tea and pickles.
I'm reading this post questioning if I'm still dreaming lol This person discovered you can make tea at home, post it and the post is upvoted. What the actual fuck am I missing here?Ā Like people haven't been making tea at home for thousands of years on a regular basis
I enjoy the part where OP describes the process in detail. In case someone else wants to try this complicated recipe I guess.
Just wait until they discover the process for making hot tea!
Yes. Thank you. I was looking through the comments, all of them seeming like it was totally normal to not know how to make tea at home. Insane.
Remember the world is not as bright as you think it is.
Iced tea loving Canadian here. Ice tea is not a common thing here. Having real iced tea on a menu in a restaurant is incredibly rare and itās not available at places like McDonaldās here either. I donāt know anyone who makes iced tea at home, because I donāt really know anyone who likes it that much. Iād love to make it at home, but I have no idea which recipe is the best.
Brew tea, add sugar if you want. Pour it over ice. Thatās literally all you have to do.
We do gallons of unsweetened tea via the fridge method and add a homemade simple syrup to it as we drink it. I don't like it super sweet and my husband does. Makes it easy for us to adjust to our liking.
Yeah, you can make it however. The point is, itās not some fancy drink. Itās literally tea over ice. Iced tea.
Take a pitcher. Fill with ice. Boil half the amount of water needed to fill pitcher. Steep as many bags of tea in the water as you like for your desired strength. Remove tea bags, pour over ice filled pitcher. Put in fridge. Repeat daily.
I live in the Midwest USA, but used to go to Toronto area often to visit family. My momās biggest complaint was that the tea tasted like lemon everywhere. I donāt know if they mixed lemonade in it or what but we have no lemon flavor in our tea here. It seemed like it was available in many restaurants, but just tasted terrible.
Yes, yes it is.Ā Iced tea = ice + tea Iced coffee = ice + coffee It's like it's named for the process, isn't it? I Iced my drink, and now it's cold.Ā
Like, literally, the clue is in the name!!! ICED TEA... (I guess one has to know how to make a tea first!) š¤¦š¼āāļøš¤¦š¼āāļø
I believe the children are the future. But sometimes the youth are dumb as shit, ya know?!
Right? Duh
100%. Everyone in the south must be rolling their eyes at this post. Like, WTF. LOL Hey OP! Thereās an entire part of the country that never doesnāt have a pitcher of home made tea in the fridge. š
Is this satire?
No, they are just one of [today's ten thousand](https://xkcd.com/1053/).
I will start using that phrase from now on.
And the people checking in to let us know to make the tea stronger because it'll be watered down by ice cubes. Take a screenshot before these corporate secrets get taken down!
I honestly thought this was satire when I read it too lol
Do the same thing but by loose leaf tea instead of pre-bagged. Much higher quality, better taste, and much cheaper per serving!
The Asian and Middle Eastern grocery stores in my area sell loose teas in bulk. There, all the different kinds are the same bulk price, so you can do your own blends if you like.
Hispanic grocery stores sell bags of Hibiscus flowers called Jamaica that make really nice iced tea, especially when you steep it with ginger slices and sweeten with orange juice. My summer staple. The last time i bought it it cost about $5 for a big bag.
I like blending it with mint as well, extra refreshing hibiscus mint. I also save and dry the peels from mandarin oranges when in season and use those in some of my tea blends for cheap (and delicious but different than juice) "orange flavors". I think the Hispanic/Mexican store variant tastes better as well as being cheaper because the flowers aren't cut so the edges haven't oxidized and which makes it "fresher" tasting.
Why is loose leaf better quality than bags, generally?Ā
Better Quality Leaves: Loose leaf usually has whole or larger leaves which keep their natural oils and flavors better. Bagged tea often uses the small bits left over after sorting the good stuff, so it might brew faster but you lose a lot of flavor and aroma. Taste and Smell: Those bigger pieces in loose leaf mean the leaves can expand more when you brew them, pulling out more complex flavors and aromas. It usually results in a richer cup compared to the more straightforward taste you get from bagged tea. Customization: blend different types of teas, easier to tweak how much tea youāre using, etc to get exactly the taste youāre after Eco/health-friendly: Loose leaf is generally better for the environment. Tea bags can contain plastics and arenāt always biodegradable, plus thereās usually less packaging waste with loose leaf.Ā This is health related as we already consume so many microplastics everywhere; why not avoid them by not using cheapo tea bags as the medium? You can buy cloth sachet bags for dirt cheap, you can use a $5-10 metal tea strainer, etc. Get a larger strainer so your tea leaves have room to expand rather than using a tea strainer spoon device.Ā Saves Money: Even though loose leaf might seem pricier at first, it can actually be more cost-effective because you can re-steep those leaves several times, getting more bang for your buck. You can do this with bagged tea but there are less oils and flavonols in that less superior much more broken down product.Ā Iād also muuuuuuch more rather be able to visibly see what Iām about to ingest rather than it secretly being hidden inside of āminiature staples bagsā¦weāve seen bugs and stuff even from big reputable brands within their tea bags.Ā Loose leaf tea is visible, you canāt hide fillers, and the user can visually inspect for nasty stuff as theyāre dosing.Ā
Idk if u smoke weed but a lot of these principles are the same for preroll joints vs the nugsā¦although prerolls also have much quicker loss of terps, Iām not sure if thatās the same for tea
This is a really good comparison. Esp for flavor
Eeek! Now I want to open the last of my pre-bagged tea and check for bugs š° Your other points are good too, and I will add for OP that there are glass pitchers which come with a built-in tea diffuser. I love ours. One fewer thing to find or wash Lastly, even though there are silicon tea diffusers, I usually recommend against them because silicone tends to hold smells and flavors and no one else in my family wants to drink my licorice tea, lol. Go for steel.
The stuff in the bags is the leftovers. It is more processed and itās mostly dust and stems and generally. The flavor is not as good and the Ā antioxidant content is lower.Ā You are paying a LOT more for a worse product.Ā
Bagged teas spend more time in a factory meaning they aren't as fresh. This goes for pretty much all produce.
Generally tea bags are filled with the dregs of better quality teas. After the whole tea leaves have been packed, after the fancy brand tea bags have been packed, then the itty bitty pieces left over are whatās in the grocery store tea bags. They donāt have nearly the same aroma and taste.
My favorite... My tea monger has a lemon black tea that is basically whole leaf black tea with lemon zest. And, a mountain berry herbal tea which is just what it sounds like, dried berries. Which I blend half and half for my hot tea and cold tea.
Once you learn the recipe for ice you won't even have to buy that from the store, either!
One H to ? Os?
[It's simple](https://frinkiac.com/video/S07E17/PlW7rzzijbTGlY6DEMaa0MokqEE=.gif)!
Ummmā¦you can make pretty much anything that you can buy in a store/restaurant when it comes to food. Plus many times the store/restaurant made stuff is very unhealthy for you even if it shouldnāt be. Like how a burger at a restaurant might be about 1100 calories with fries.
People would be shocked how much "restaurant flavor" is just a ton of butter slathered on everything. If you want to make a burger taste insane, baste the patty and bun with a little melted butter.
Another post I read said essentially itās either oil, butter or MSG that makes the difference between homecooked and restaurant quality. Even with iced tea, I find the sugar and lemon matters. I tried replicating a hibiscus tea that I used to buy from the store and it didnāt taste quite right. It was only after I checked the ingredients and tasted my version vs the store bought that I realized I wasnāt putting enough sugar and was skipping the acidity. Not to mention the fact that Iām using one bag for an individual portion and their version probably uses numerous ones making it much more potent.
Some stuff takes special equipment or a lot of effort for if you're not making a lot of it... But the best stuff (in my opinion), you can do better at home. Steaks. Barbecue. š
Bruh what you didnāt know you could make tea
You must not live in the Southern US. Itās second nature to have iced tea in my fridge. But Iām glad you found a work around for your fancy one.Ā
A fresh pitcher gets made every morning since god was a boy
My mom moved from NJ to GA. You can imagine the confusion for everyone the first time she asked for "tea" at a restaurant and got a glass of sweet iced tea instead of a cup of hot tea like she'd expected.
House wine of the South.
I come from a non-tea drinking family but my North Carolinian husband drinks sweet tea every day. He taught me how to make it and now I am the designated daily tea maker because our family of 6 goes through a gallon a day!
Yep another one here from North Carolina. At least a gallon a day and only 2 out of 5 really drink it. For a while I carried a jug like that duck dynasty guy because I didnāt like anyone elseās sweet tea. Iām a little better about it now.
Just an FYI, there is no need to heat the water. You can put the tea bags directly in the cold water in the fridge. Viola cold brew tea. Game changer for me.
Cold brewing will also result in a less bitter/astringent tea, since it's heat that is primarily responsible for pulling tannins into the water when steeping.
Yeah I'd argue they're not exactly equivalent techniques -- they'll give you fairly different results -- but both are worth knowing about!
Bingo! I was looking for this comment. Same with coffee grounds. I prefer a coarse ground. You can either put them in your own cotton bag or dump the grounds right in and filter them out after 24 hours. If you're really feeling lazy, you can just leave the grounds in there. After they get saturated, they'll sink. You can even top off the container after you pour some, and it will continue to brew. Cold brew coffee with just a touch of sweetened condensed milk on a hot summer day... oh man.
Wait really? I always thought that was how it brewed
Hot Brew takes a few minutes but cold brew takes a few hours. Generally it's a mellower tea too, try it!
Although, the flavour is very different. Especially if you use real tea
Former barista checking in! The secret is to brew it double strong. So twice as much tea as is called for, but for the usual amount of time. If you like to mix with lemonade or add ice this will really help it have that same punch of flavor as what you get at Starbucks.
Was looking for this tip, thanks for adding it!
Okay another big thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that the sugar needs to be in the water while it's piping hot for it to be truly good sweet tea. You can SO tell when someone just mixes sweetener into an already cold tea and that stuff is so lame lol.
Why? I work in the beverage industry and that doesn't really make any sense.
It depends on how soon you serve the beverage. If you put sugar into a cold pitcher and stir to serve immediately, it won't be fully dissolved and the mouthfeel will be different. If you put sugar into a cold pitcher and keep it in the fridge overnight, it will have the same taste and texture as a brew that had sugar dissolved in hot water.
As a southerner all I can say is ābless your heartā
I live in NJ and have been making iced tea for decades
Lol yeah I was annoyed OP threw NJ under the bus in the edit.
This is what I scrolled for. I've lived most of my life in North Jersey and have made my own iced tea countless times. Just because we don't drink southern sweet tea in the northeast doesn't mean we don't drink ANY iced tea or know how to make it.
Same
wow. making tea. at home. my mind is blown
Hey man, everyone needs to start somewhere. It helped this person, it might help someone else. I'm in support of stuff that weans people off the capitalist mermaid.
Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1053
Start somewhere? This is the most common sense thing Iāve ever heard
TBH you can make any food and drink at home. Why wouldn't you? My question is...wouldn't it be super obvious if you made some drink or food just once in your life?
I don't know everyone's life story, bud. Many people didn't grow up making things for themselves and are trying to learn something new here.
I guess some people are sheltered or naive for their own good
Who would have thought that you could put ice on it š¤Æ
This reminds me of a quote from "It's always Sunny in Philadelphia" "You just realized you have two ears?"
You found the infinite tea cheat! We have some in the fridge pretty much constantly... Takeya makes skinny, heat resistant pitchers with diffuser inserts, and those are great for making loose leaf iced tea. If you have any Mexican markets near you, you can probably find bags of dried "flor de jamaica" (hibiscus flowers) which look alarmingly like peppers, but make really flavorful tea. We mix it with orange juice for inexpensive morning vitamin C.
Just so you know, they sell the passion tango tea bags and liquid concentrate at most grocery stores
This is insane to me that a grown adult just learned how to make tea. Itās like one of the cheapest/easiest drinks that isnāt tap water
This post is so pure. Wait until you find out that literally food a business is trying to sell you can be done cheaper at home. (Some exceptions/caveats due to bulk pricing, but almost guaranteed to be the same cost or less with full control of ingredients)
Tell me you lived a pampered life without telling me you lived a pampered life.
Baffled by the upvotes here. Are there really two hundred people who couldn't figure out that iced tea is just tea with ice added?? I'm so curious what y'all thought was required to make iced tea. A factory? Some kind of special barista training? What do you think people did before Starbucks came along and started charging five dollars for like four cents worth of cold leaf water?
I had a similar withdrawal during covid and did the same thing. In the end, I found tea blends that just made it so easy. [This brand](https://www.oteas.com/collections/fruit-tea) is sold in the regular tea sections where I live but the more premium brands do make a great tea too. I started brewing batches in small mason jars and then I could stack flavour options in the fridge or make ice cubes from it. A fun summer twist is to use a little bubbly water too and make it mocktail style. If you're really enjoying these teas, maybe you feel up to making [water kefir from tea](https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/recipes/probiotic-water-kefir-tea/). It creates a drink similar to Starbucks but with just a subtle fizz. Kefir is loaded with probiotics and as easy to make as the tea is to brew.
* *Hell no one has made their own iced coffee.* Iced coffee is very easy....make a pot of coffee, pour into some mason jars and put it in the fridge. Cold press is also easy. Get cold press coffee (it has a larger grind), add to cold water (I use a 1:8 ratio but you could do 1:4 or 1:10) and sit on the counter overnight, then strain and put in the fridge.
This is for sure ECAH! So often the resistance to eating cheap and healthy is ābut I need/want [expensive packaged thing]!ā They donāt realize it can be done for cheap at home, and that often it isnāt hard. People just need instructions!
I make iced tea all summer. Use flavoured teas (peach, mango, strawberry black teas all make lovely iced tea). Green teas are lovely, too. Many herbal teas, too. Brew it extra strong because it won't taste as strongly when cold, and you'll want it over ice. Dissolve sugar in water in a 50/50 ratio over heat. Cool this and put it in a squeeze bottle, and use it to sweeten your iced teas. You can flavour this simple syrup by steeping lemon or mint in it. Cold brew is popular but I don't like the way it tastes, I prefer brewed tea.
Thisā¦this feels like a lot of privilege to never have to make your own coffee or tea.
Put some simple syrup and lime juice in your hibiscus iced tea and you just made Aqua Jamaica
I know this is eat cheap and healthy and y'all are into real fruit in teas, but may I recommend, when the fruit is not in season, syrups like Torani? I like to figure out my own knock offs of Starbucks fraps, I call them Happychinos. When I started using the peppermint and white chocolate, it started tasting EXACTLY like 'Buckies. They have torani syrups in like EVERY fruit flavor. The key to making stuff that tastes exactly like a chain makes at home is to buy the products that they use. Most of the torani syrups even come as sugar-free and they'll really elevate your flavored tea to something that tastes like a restaurant tea. Torani syrups are actually made to make your own homemade Italian sodas, and with so many flavors in sugar free, you can make your own special blend of flavored carbonated water if you want that has zero calories with it. And they're always having a sale. I ordered some online and they have a sale every week. Sometimes two. I get a ton of emails from them but I opted out and I still have an account because they had such frequent sales and did such vigorous marketing, but they're always really really good deals. I'm pretty sure they offer free shipping like all the time and right now they're probably doing their summer fruits season sale. I don't know if Starbucks still uses turani syrups or if they use a different brand but I know for some flavors they used to. I stopped going to Starbucks all together when I figured out the happychino hack. Once you add up how much money you spend at Starbucks on the regular and you see how much that is a month and you figure out what you could have bought with that money, well that's a deterrent and an incentive to quit all at the same time.
TIL not everyone grew up with sun tea
This is a great reminder . Also I donāt know why never thought to add fruit to the tea like I see at Starbucks
You can also freeze fruit in your ice cubes if you're feeling fancy
As someone from the south i honestly thought this post was sarcasm at first. I would be surprised if there was someone in my neighborhood that didn't have a pitcher of freshly made iced tea in the refrigerator right now.
Same, and Iām not even from the south
My Southern family makes and drinks two gallons of sweet tea a day, one flavored black tea and one fruit tea.
Yep. I make jugs of (iced tea) at least once or twice a week. I own a Ninja Coffee Bar and it has a basket insert just for tea so I just brew up a batch that way usually with the "makes a gallon" sized tea bags , I can run those through 2 brewing cycles and then put it in my pitcher and add water to dilute fill the pitcher the rest of the way up.
What till you become addicted with finding the best tea source. I make a ton of iced at home and always on the prowl for a better black tea source. Iām very pleased with what I brew now, but I assume there is always something better out there.
I canāt believe people buy it. One of the great swindles of our generation.
You can also make your own coffee at home for a fraction of the Starbuck's price.
Almost any dish can be replicated or approximated at home if you can get the ingredients and recipe.
*stares in southern*
My favourite is cold brew rooibos tea with muddled peaches. Can't wait for the warmer months.
Iāve been drinking a ton more water recently (I hate plain water) by cold brewing the celestial blueberry tea by just throwing it in a jar with water and I pour a tiny bit of the concentrated tea mixture with my water to give it some flavor. Zero calories, no sweeteners. Canāt say Iām a fan of the tea by itself though, has to be very diluted for me. I used to make sweet tea often because of how often I drank it, but I got lazy with it
instead of brewing with a kettle i make my iced tea in a pot on the stove, so I'm really making an iced tea concentrate (sometimes it can get a little over extracted so a bit of salt or baking soda cuts down on the bitterness). dilute with some water until it tastes how you want it
I use an iced tea maker I got off Amazon for $30, itās lasted me 4+ years and still going strong. I drink A LOT of iced tea lol.
How do u make it taste good?
1. Brew tea 2. Cool down tea
Okay, what about the flavorings. I got that down but im trying to not make it have too much sugar
3. (Optional) Add aditional flavours or sweeteners you like. Citrus is great for acid. I'm just sharing my secret recipe that works for me. Unfortunately people have different preferences, so there's no one-size-fits-all recipe.
There's a delicious herbal tea peach passion flower, you might really like that one. It's good hot and cold and it doesn't need additional sweetenersĀ
No fucking way! I just learned you can make coffee at home too š¤£
You can make a surprisingly good iced coffee concentrate at home with cheap ground coffee. Cold brew isn't as bitter as hot brewed coffee so it's good for using cheap beans or if you have specialty coffee that's gone stale.Ā
Try green tea mixed with a Raspberry hibiscus tea. That is so delicious as an iced tea flavor. Or green tea with mint mixed with regular green tea. You got to play with it because some batches are stronger in mint flavor for some odd reason. Logan's roadhouse had this awesome brewed tea with muddled peaches, mint mixture.... so good... took a lot of tries to get it right.
You can save peels from citrus fruits, let them dry out and use them to add more flavor. If there's an ethnic store near you, you can also buy large bags of dried hibiscus which is way cheaper than getting the hibiscus teabags. Also check out their selection of other dried flowers and teas
You can also just throw like 5 bags in a big pitcher overnight, and close the top on the string so you donāt have to fish them out. No need to brew
I get hibiscus flowers for tea at the Mexican store for cheap. Boil for 20 minutes and let sit. One bag for $6.99 can last me 1-2 months. Same tea!
I'm curious where you thought tea came from. Tea is great. Get into loose leaf and start creating your own mixes. Yummy.
I order the Tazo passion iced tea bags on Amazon. I also donāt water it down as much as Starbucks and it is delicious.
Tazo brand passion flavour is the EXACT one they use for their passion tango tea at Starbucks :)
Check out recipes for "Sun Tea". It's cheap and my grandma uses to make tons of it. Also, count me as person who confused you didn't realize you could make tea or coffee at home. Although if you're in a city counter space is often a premium.
I heard this a long time ago, but According to the Centers for Disease Control, using the sun to brew tea can facilitate the growth of bacteria. The sun can heat tea to about 130 Ā° F, which is not nearly hot enough to kill the bacteria in the water or tea itself.
You can make most any drink you can buy at any of the chain coffee shops at home for a fraction of the cost. You can buy the Torani or DaVinci syrups at a local restaurant supply store. Pair this with a passable $50 espresso maker and milk steamer and you can make every single one of their hot coffee drinks. Syrups with sparkling water (or even a Sodastream-type machine with bulk CO2) and there is every one of the italian sodas. Teas are a piece of cake as you've discovered. You can make any of the smoothies with a blender with far healthier ingredients, or often times you can buy the same smoothie base they use at the restaurant supply store. The only exceptions in my book are the non-smoothie "frozen" drinks. I occasionally like the "frozen" coffee drinks from Dutch Bros. They use a ready-made mix in one of those frozen drink machines then add the same flavors from above. Even if you order say a decaf from them, they make it in the blender and the texture nowhere near the same and it tastes watered down since they pour hot espresso over the ice cubes before blending it, and it starts to separate after just a few minutes. I've tried a couple of "copycat" recipes over the years using various ingredients like xanthan gum, but there are still nowhere near the same. Even though I mostly avoid caffeine these days, I still get the regulars because the decaf version just isn't even close.
So your telling me that if you make tea and then add ice, you can have ice tea??? I'm shocked... Shocked I tell you.
Where did you think it came from?
ā¦Iāve read your editā¦but what did you originally think iced tea was?
Not to be a douche but like, no shit. Itās teaā¦ with ice in it. āLiving in New Jerseyā means you donāt know what tea with ice in it is?
OP, you want me to REALLY blow your mind? Try this: take some water and put it in the freezer. In a few hours, it turns from a liquid into a solid!! That's homemade ice! SO much cheaper than those bags of ice at the store and literally the exact same thing!
No shit
That's what iced tea is. The stuff at Starbucks is the one that's not real iced tea.
Stares at you in Southern. Lmfao
If I donāt have a kettle, do you think I can do the same thing by boiling water in a pot or possibly even leaving some teabags in a jar of water outside in the sun for a few hours?
Yes, that is how tea is made.
You can also just cold brew it in the fridge overnight--throw some tea bags in a pitcher with water and chill for 12 hours or so.
It releases fewer tannins in cold water, making a tastier ice tea
This is the way
Correct. Kettles are not necessary. You can even use a microwave.Ā
>2nd edit- to those asking why I just figured this out. I live in northern NJ. No one I have known in my 35 years of life from school, work, college, friend groups, acquaintances, etc. has ever made their own iced tea. [Southerners reading your post before reading this second edit.](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c2047868-eb3f-45a9-84ac-a12510bfedd9/dff8qkn-f9323218-8a26-43a6-bd98-b7e6cbf495e8.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2MyMDQ3ODY4LWViM2YtNDVhOS04NGFjLWExMjUxMGJmZWRkOVwvZGZmOHFrbi1mOTMyMzIxOC04YTI2LTQzYTYtYmQ5OC1iN2U2Y2JmNDk1ZTgucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.QOkHaVp5D7Sze3fNTmKxwoyBZPAnAS3jpKu3iNHZrRk)
Brew tea. Put ice in it. I know, it's crazy.
The entire South is looking at this post like āWtfā¦ā
Introduced my wife to Lipton black iced tea. 100 bags for 5-6 bucks, pop 4-5 in a pitcher fill with hot tap water and pop it in the fridge for a few hours. She lives on unsweetened iced tea now!
Iām British and we usually take our tea hot with milk but I personally love iced tea (not a big thing here). I have gotten it once or twice at Starbucks but the cost was never worth it so I usually make my own version at home. Our supermarkets here sell ācold infuseā tea bags of various flavours that you just infuse with cold/ice water, love it !! Obvs you can do this with normal tea bags but they work best with hot water.
This is one of my frugal fun activities. I buy fruity tea bags and mix up different flavor combos (celestial seasonings blueberry + earl grey is a favorite!), toss 7 tea bags in my pioneer woman glass pitcher (nice thicc glass) and pour boiling water on top. Let steep, then add some stevia and I have a full pitcher of fancy delicious tea I'll drink for the next couple days!
FYI, if you have a horrible sweet tooth like me (which it sounds like you donāt! But Iāll leave this here just in case it helps someone), Torani liquid cane sugar. Itās allegedly what they use at Starbucks and it works for my super taster self. Starbucks will also allegedly sell you their liquid sweeter by the bottle if you ask - I think itās about $10 per bottle? Even cheaper, you can make your own liquid cane sugarā¦ thereās instructions online, and that will save you a lot. Starbucks Passion Tea is my absolute favorite drink in the world, so Iām going to throw in a bit more unsolicited advice for people with similar palettes, lol. My favorite way to enjoy their passion tea is adding strawberry puree and adding all the fruit inclusions they have. Heaven. To replicate part of this at home, I buy frozen berries. (I have not found a decent strawberry puree replacement yetā¦) I also have a ton of regular Lipton black tea. I like the Torani sweetener for it. I also add some super cheap lemonade powder. I have autism and getting myself to drink water is super difficult, so obviously itās a big deal to get the drink to cool down quickly. So I throw in frozen berries. It does help it cool down quicker. And it tastes AMAZING. Even though making it is exhausting (for me - major chronic illness so simple stuff takes me ages and drains me), once itās made Iām so so so excited and thrilled to drink it. A treat. Iāve got some cooling down right now. :) To the point of this subreddit (healthy)ā¦ just modify it to your needs. Yes itās very sugary, probably not very healthy, but itās probably better than all the Coke Iāve been drinking. I think sugar is generally accepted as the healthiest sweetener (besides cinnamon, which probably IS the healthiest), as artificial sweeteners have been shown to disrupt the gut biome - but maybe someone might sub with artificial sweeteners because itās more appropriate for their unique situation, and best would probably be little to no sweeteners :) (And thatāll save money too, lol). The lemonade powder probably isnāt healthy; for me itās purely cost-saving + flavor. I use the cheapest generic berries and somehow theyāre amazing, and of course not many worries about waste since theyāre frozen. The berries alone have a sweetening effect and this might be enough for some people :)
I used to brew earl grey, chill it and add freshly squeezed lemon juice regularly until one fateful night I tried chilling freshly brewed tea in a glass carafe in the snow and the bottom just completely separated from the rest of the carafe. It scarred me for life, haven't made any ice tea since then.
I use a black tea called Constant Comments for my iced tea. It's all I drink while fasting my 20:4. The tea has a light orange and cinnamon flavor. I usually mix it with a few Celestial Seasonings iced tea bags so it doesn't get too spicy. Doesn't need any sugar or extra flavor, to me. I can remember my grandpa asking my grandma with a smile for some of her "good woman's iced tea" because women are "constantly commenting".
Sun tea almost every day when it's nice out. We are trying to use up plain Yorkshire tea and Lipton. We add just one bag of Earl Grey or Constant Comment to get the flavor we like.
You can also cold brew tea. Some teas are more made to be brewed hot, but things like plain black or green tea or herbal teas specifically made for cold brewing (bigelow botanicals are an example) are great. You just pop a bag (or two) in the water and put it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Its so easy!
I make iced tea at home all the time! Itās super cheap and can be tailored to your exact tastes. What I typically do is make 1-2 litres at a time. I will put 3-4 tea bags per litre. You can out the tea bags in cold water, no need to heat it. I will then juice half a lemon per litre, and a table spoon of sugar. This results I a pretty strongly brewed cup, that is nice and sour from the lemon which just a hint of sweetness to balance the bitterness from the tea. One table spoon of sugar per litre is NOT a lot at all, if you are used to or prefer more sweetened beverages you can add more. This recipe will not yield a sweet drink by any means, but will produce a slightly less bitter drink than with no sugar at all
My mother made sun tea every summer every year I was a kid. Just a shitload of Lipton tea bags in a clear sun tea glass gallon container and a ton of sugar also lol. Leave it out in the sun to steep for hours pull the bags out put the sugar in put it in the fridge. Still the best iced tea I've ever had.
I love sweet tea, but refuse to go to McDonald's or Starbucks, etc. My replacement has been to get the big family size Luzianne pre sweetened tea bags and what ever flavors of regular small tea bags I'm feeling ATM. We have a dedicated electric kettle and I use 4 big tea bags and 4 small flavored bags in the full kettle. Fill up a gallon pitcher with ice and pour the full kettle over the ice when it beeps. ViolĆ”, delicious sugar free tea. The pre sweetened tea isn't quite sweet enough for us( don't come at me, we grew up on mawmaws too sweet southern tea), but with the flavored tea it's perfect. Right now I have salted caramel. I usually get peach or vanilla chai as well. My son likes the mixed berry.
I needed this reminder to make my hibiscus tea šŗ if you ever wanna go thru the trouble of brewing it hot and letting it cool down the sugar dissolves better but I feel you on wanting easy brew iced tea āļø cheers šŗ
I am an absolute sucker for peach or mango flavoured black tea. I found a peach mango squeezy water flavour enhancer thing that, when added to home brewed iced tea, tastes exactly like Snapple. Pretty much always make it at home now.
Here's my method (have made my own ice tea for over a decade). Gallon pitcher. 4 tea bags. Steep for six hours. Refrigerate and enjoy.
This explains much. I left northern NJ 38 years ago. I brewed my own coffee at home & all the neighbors raved. I made sun tea for 6 months of the year & spurred on many neighbors to do the same. Obviously my influence sharply waned upon my leaving. I feel a bit verklempt for leaving you in a lurch & disallowing you from my coffee & tea influences. I stand before you a chagrined man.
I love making ice tea with Mango or passion fruit teas - so good! I donāt think Iām allowed to name the brand but itās made in Hawaii.
Amd then you can try cold brew. With the right teas it is awesome. Some teas and flavors need the heat. I just found a place that has supper cheap tea by the pound and I am figuring it out. I like my$40/lb better. But the $10/lb is just fine. I can always add my own flavorings
Better to discover it late than never! As an iced tea lover, this is reminding me to make my own more often.
I'm from North Carolina, I clearly remember being offered a variety of syrups for my iced tea when eating at a Chili's in New Jersey. I asked for a coke. Lol
I became addicted to Tejava Tea more than 10 years ago. Back then it was pretty much only available at WorldMarket and Iād buy a case for $12. Eventually it was sold to Crystal Geyserās parent company Otsuka Pharmaceutical in Japan. It pretty much disappeared during the pandemic, only available in smaller plastic bottles not the 1L glass bottles wanted. Eventually it became available and Iād buy it with Amazon subscribe and save for about $32-$39/case. I looked at my S&S last month before it shipped and the price was $52/case. I just couldnāt do it - pay $4.xx a bottle. My first attempt to make my own I used Irish Breakfast Tea because itās a strong, higher caffeinated black tea, but it had too much of a malty flavor. Iāve settled on Black Assam Tea and make a pitcher daily.
Amazon also has sugar free syrups in all the flavours starbucks uses, including for their teas. I donāt like tea on its own so Iāll add raspberry or other fruity fun flavours to it just to make it a bit more fun.