My Thing 11

Iced tea is America's contribution to world tea culture. Because making iced tea is so easy, why not do it right?

Already by the 19th century iced tea recipes began to appear in cookbooks. But iced tea really took off in popularity when the tea merchant Richard Blechynden, unable to sell tea during a heat wave at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, decided to serve his tea over ice. It was a hit with visitors, and summer's haven't been the same since.

Today, iced tea is the most popular tea in America. Forget about instant iced tea from a jar; it's too sweet and lacks real tea flavor. Great iced tea can be made with any black tea as well as flavored teas, such as Peach Black Tea, Lemon Green Tea, or even Oolong or Japanese Sencha. If you like it sweet but don't want sugar at the bottom of your glass,  try using superfine or bartender's sugar available in the sugar section of the grocery store. You can also make a sugar syrup on the stove with a 1:1 ration of sugar to water, simmer for a few minutes, cool, and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. If you allow tea to cool down naturally before refrigerating, it won't cloud or "cream down."

Cold Steeping
In this method, place 2 tsp per cup of loose tea in a large tea ball or paper tea filter, place in a pitcher and fill with cold water. An 8 cup pitcher needs close to 16 tsp of loose tea. Let the infusion stand in the refrigerator overnight or for at least four hours. This is similar to sun tea, which also works, but experts fear that bacterial growth occurs in sun tea. 

Hot Steeping
Method 1: Pour strong, hot tea over double the amount of ice to get a regular strength iced tea. Steep 2 tsp of loose tea in 8 oz of hot water for 3 minutes (1 min. for green tea), pour over 16 oz glass packed with ice. The rapid cooling gives you crystal clear iced tea.

Method 2: Some recipes call for doubling the amount of tea leaf, steeping for 3-5 minutes, and then pouring into a container with an equal amount of cold water (1/2 strong hot tea and 1/2 cold water). This dilutes the strong tea and chills it quickly.

Iced Tea Concentrate To make large amounts of iced tea, prepare a tea concentrate (4 cups hot water, 8-10 tsp of loose tea, brew 3 minutes, strain), and pour over ice or ice & cold water to dilute.

Fruit Iced Tea Strong tea concentrates are especially great when mixed in a 1:1 ratio with lemonade or other fruit juices. Just be sure the juice doesn't overpower the tea flavor. If you shake this mix with some sugar in a cocktail shaker or in a blender, the aerated drink is wonderfully fresh and light tasting.

Recommended Iced Tea Blends: Tropical Black Tea (passionfruit, mango, peaches and black tea), Pomegranate Green