ICED TEA

 This is my summer thing......to discover how to brew thirst quenching Iced Tea.  I pulled up this information from the Canadian Living website and so far so good.

Here are their tips:

1. Use enough tea bags

When foods are served cold, the flavours become dull. A stronger tea - such as Darjeeling, Jasmine or green teas - is necessary to have a well-flavoured tea served cold. Use two tea bags for every 3 cups of water for best results. 

2. Don't oversteep 
If you prefer your tea stronger, use more tea bags rather than lengthening the steeping time. Allowing tea to overstep brings out the tannins in the tea and can make it bitter. For weaker tea, reduce the steeping time rather than taking away tea bags for better flavour. 

3. Add sugar to hot water
If you sweeten your tea, add the sugar to the hot tea in order to dissolve the grains. If you prefer to sweeten your tea afterwards as per each persons taste, use a simple syrup rather than granulated sugar which will leave sugar grains in your glass. 

4. Cool before refrigerating
Putting hot tea into a cold fridge will make your tea cloudy. Allow your tea to cool before you refrigerate.  If you do end up with cloudy tea, try adding a bit of boiling water to it – it will sometimes do the trick!

5. Keep it real
Don't use artificial lemon juice. Only use real fresh squeezed lemon juice from fresh lemons for the very best flavour.     

6. Fresh is best
Iced tea taste best when it is freshly made. Make only what you will drink in two or three days. It's easy to make, so don't worry about having to mix up another batch!

SUGAR SYRUP

Top secret iced tea ingredient: Sugar syrup

Keep this easy to make sugar syrup on hand to sweeten tea. It combines with cold tea much better than sugar. 

In a measuring cup, whisk together 1 cup (250 mL) each granulated sugar and boiling water until clear and the sugar is dissolved. Makes 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) 

BASIC ICED TEA

Easy to make and very good

Ingredients:

5 Tea Baga

2 TBSP Sugar Syrup

Method:

In large heatproof measure or bowl, steep tea in 8 cups (2 L) boiling water for 5 minutes. Discard bags. Stir in Sugar Syrup (if using). Let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours. Serve with ice cubes.  I also added sliced lemons.

EASY ICED TEA

This recipe IS easy but you have to start making it the night before you wish to serve it. This recipe says do not refrigerate as chilling will cloud tea but I steeped mine on the counter overnight, strained and refrigerated until cold and it did not cloud.

Also, I strained mine into a large pitcher and added the sugar and lemon slices to this before cooling in the fridge.  I served with extra lemon slices and sugar syrup on the side incase my guests wanted a sweeter drink.  

Ingredients:

6    Cups COLD water

1/3 Cup loose Tea (I used Buckingham Palace Garden Tea [how could you go wrong with a name like that???] which is a blend of black tea,Green tea, Jasmine + Cornflower petals)  It worked perfectly!

Ice  Cubes

Sugar Syrup to taste

6     Lemon Slices

Method:

Combine water and tea; let stand, covered, overnight. Strain and pour into glasses, adding ice cubes, about 1 tsp (5 mL) Sugar Syrup and 1 lemon slice per glass. Stir, bruising the lemon slice so it flavours the tea.

If you wish to try other flavours of Iced Tea (I haven't gotten around to others yet), here is the website that I found:

https://www.canadianliving.com/food/food-tips/article/six-rules-for-the-best-iced-tea-plus-recipes