Easy, quick, healthy iced tea made in the fridge!
Summer’s here and there is nothing like a tall glass of ice-cold tea to get one through the hot day. Refreshing, calorie free and full of anti-oxidants, iced tea may be one of the simplest and least expensive ways to look after yourself and your family. Although sun tea is a fun way to make a big jarful of iced tea, there are some concerns regarding bacterial contamination during the process. Regardless of the potential issues with sun tea we, at Tea and Chi, find that refrigerator tea is better tasting and easier to make.
The principles remain the same. You will need a big pitcher or glass jar that will fit into your refrigerator and, either a way to strain the tea leaves out or a way to contain them for easy removal. There are many gadgets on the market but I personally favour #4 t-sacs®, a large, unbleached paper empty tea bag, in combination with a tea-click®. If you are going for maximum flavour and health benefits use good quality loose leaf tea. Use 1 oz of tea leaves for 1 gallon of water and refrigerate overnight. In the morning remove the leaves and you will have the best tasting iced tea possible.
Here is another tip. Instead of sweetening your iced tea ahead of time forcing everyone in the family to drink tea with the same amount of sweetness make a simple syrup by boiling 1 cup of sugar with one cup of water for 3-4 minutes. Refrigerate the syrup and allow everyone to sweeten their tea to taste. The refrigerator tea method produces iced tea with very low astringency because the tea is never heated. Encourage everyone to use a tiny bit less sweetener every time they have tea and you might be surprised at how quickly you and your family become tea connoisseurs! You’ll learn to appreciate the natural taste of tea and you’ll get all the benefits without the chemicals or the calories of soft drinks and sweetened teas!
Some suggestions for teas suitable for icing are caffeine free rooibos and fruit based teas for children, lemony, fruity or minty green, black and oolong teas and practically any white tea, if you prefer a light taste. Heavy bodied black teas such as English and Irish breakfast and Assam type teas are typically best drunk hot. My favourite “plain” tea for icing is an organic FBOP Iyerpadi from South India. It makes a wonderful, bright, refreshing iced tea that goes with anything!
Maria Sparsis
Tea and Chi
Fine Tea Merchants
www.teaandchi.com
Tags: Add new tag, iced tea, refrigerator tea, sun tea, t-sacs, tea and health, tea antioxidants, tea-click
May 9th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I love iced tea!!! and will make the refridge style now for sure. I keep cherry rooibos in the fridge alot.Instead of sweetner, I squeeze a few lemons and keep the juice in a container adding some to my glass of tea everytime. Its refreshing for me and lemon is your friend…haha! I will see you soon and thanks for the tip on making tea in the fridge. Very cool! ( no pun intended)