How To Make Iced Tea With Loose Leaf Tea

When the sun comes out, iced tea is a must. Enjoy it southern sweet; with honey, agave, stevia; or perfectly unsweet, however you like. The better quality tea, the better it will taste, but really, any tea will do.

Once you get get started, you'll find that making iced tea at home is actually pretty easy—and most definitely worth the effort. Below we offer three methods to make iced tea, all beginner-level easy, with example recipes using loose leaf tea.

SO CAN I USE LOOSE LEAF TEA TO MAKE ICED TEA?

METHOD 1 FOR MAKING ICED TEA: HOT BREW & FLASH CHILL

This is the quickest way to make iced tea. And it's easy too. Simply brew your tea in half the amount of hot water as recommended by the directions on your tea packaging. Let sit for 5 to 6 minutes, uncovered. Strain into a pitcher, then add the other half of liquid as ice water and stir. Now your tea is ready to go!

Note: This method recommends brewing the hot tea in one (heat-safe!) container and then transfer the tea into a second container with the ice water. Even if your pitcher is heat-safe, you don't want to brew directly into it because of heat transfer science-y stuff: basically your pitcher is going to retain heat and keep your iced tea from being, well, iced. 

METHOD 2 FOR MAKING ICED TEA: COMBINATION STEEP (HEAT & CHILL)

This is a great no-fuss option if you want to make some tea to have around and aren’t in a hurry. It's similar to Method 1 above, except it extends the steep in the fridge to deepen and set the flavors. You still steep tea in heat-safe contain using half the amount of hot water for approx. 5 minutes. Then add the other half of the liquid as cold water or ice water to cool off the tea and let it sit for another 10 minutes. This is an important step as it cools off the pot and you don't want to bring up the temperature in your fridge. Then place pot in fridge, covered, and let it sit for 2 to 4 hours. Once that time is up, you can strain and enjoy your iced tea. Compare it to the first method and see which one you prefer! 

METHOD 3 FOR MAKING ICED TEA: COLD STEEP 

If you have the patience for it, it’s definitely worth cold-steeping (aka cold-brewing) your tea to experience the difference. A cold-steeped tea will yield a slightly different flavor profile and a different mouthfeel, in large part because there is no heat to draw out the tannins and astringency. Instead, the flavors develop slowly and more fully over many hours. This method works especially well for greens and oolongs, which impart an array of subtle flavors. It’s easy enough to prep this tea in the evening, let it steep overnight– then drink it all the next day. Because this tea doesn’t start out hot, if you want it sweet you’ll need to use a liquid sweetener for it to dissolve. You can use the recommended serving size ratios given in the packaging directions for a cold-steep (e.g. 1 tsp per cup). However we recommend trying 1.5x to 2x the amount of tea for richer flavor (e.g. if the directions say 1 tsp per cup, try 1.5 tsp or 2 tsp per cup).