10 Iced Tea Hacks

The First Five Hacks

• When you are making a tea that you enjoy iced, double the quantity and freeze half the steeped tea as iced cubes. Use those ice tea cubes the next time you make that tea iced.
• Elevate your iced tea with add-ons that serve as edible garnish and/or flavor enhancer–try a small cookie cutter on a slice of ginger, cut a notch in the bottom and slide it onto your glass. Use fresh mint, lemon or lime slices, fresh rosemary, a strawberry, a peach slice, etc. Add a dollop of a fruity jelly or marmalade can also add sweetness and fun flavor. Slide a cinnamon stick into the glass.

• Make clear ice. Ignore all the misinformation on the internet. Boiling your water doesn’t do anything. It’s directional freezing that creates clear ice. Here’s a reliable source on how to make clear ice. Freeze add-ons in your clear ice! Citrus slices, rosebuds, other edible flowers, herbs–any edible add-ons that you enjoy in your iced tea can add to a beautiful presentation.
• For this iced tea hack: beat the heat–don’t even turn on the kettle to make your iced tea. Use a cold-brew method for your iced tea. Put tea leaves in room temperature water and then in the refrigerator. It can take any where from 15 minutes (some Japanese teas) to 12 hours. But, you often get delicious tea that maximizes sweet notes.

• Get cooler than someone who simply beats the heat! Use the ice-brew method. (This is called koridashi in Japanese.) Put Japanese green tea over ice cubes in a tea bowl or mug and allow the tea to steep as the ice melts.

Iced Tea Hacks Six through Eight

• Make sparkling iced tea! This is so refreshing. It especially impresses tea-loving guests that enjoy fizzy drinks.
• Don’t forget iced tea lattes are easy to make at home! Use your favorite matcha or hojicha powder. Use about two tablespoons of hot water (the same temperature you like when you prepare the tea hot) to whisk your tea. Then, pour it over a glass with ice and milk (or your favorite milk substitute). Make sure your glass can take some temperature changes. Pouring the hot tea concentrate over the ice and milk instead before the milk should minimize the temperature change.
• Make a decadent Iced Latte Cream Tea. Make a very strong iced black tea–an East Frisian blend, a bold Dian Hong, Assam, English or Irish Breakfast blend, etc. Pour the iced tea in a glass with ice. Then, slowly pour cream into the tea.

More Iced Tea Ideas

• Here’s an iced tea hack I love and haven’t seen anywhere else. Avoid the dripping, watery condensation that can leave rings on tables and drip all over the tea drinker. Serve your iced tea in a teacup with a saucer. No condensation puddles, and it looks beautiful.
• Make ice tea and sweeten or flavor it easily by making simple syrups or flavored simple syrup. (Here’s how to make simple syrup.) You can do 1:1 sugar to water or 2:1 sugar to water. Simple syrup will stir into cold tea much easier than granulated sugar. After the sugar is completely dissolved, turn off the heat. Add your enhancement of choice–for example, mint, rosemary, lemon, ginger, a vanilla pod, or whatever you like. Let it steep in the hot sugar water for 5 minutes. Strain, and chill. (Keep refrigerated.) Look up how long you can safely store it, based on the ratio of sugar: water you used and whether you added enhancements. Another great variation is to make honey simple syrup. It dissolves much better in cold tea than honey and tastes great.

A Bonus Iced Tea Tip

• Avoid making cloudy iced tea. If you are making iced tea the traditional way (by brewing it hot and then cooling), cool it gradually. It’s sudden temperature changes that cause the tea to turn cloudy. To save time, I will make an ice tea concentrate–with half the amount of water I plan on adding. I’ll let that cool off a bit, then I’ll add the rest of the water at room temperature. Once I’m sure it’s room room temperature, I put it in the refrigerator.