With these hot summer days, we’ve been making lots of iced tea at the teahouse. We thought we would share how we do in case anyone wants to make their own at home!
When we make iced tea at the teahouse we use three primary methods depending on the tea. We have the “Hot Method, “Cold Brew Method”, and “Shaken Method.” Hot or cold brew works great with almost any loose leaf tea, and powdered tea (Matcha) is for a-shakin’.
Here’s some brief instructions to help you get started. Experiment to see what tastes the most delicious to you!
In general, for a 1/2 gallon of iced tea we use between 10 – 22 g of tea, depending on what you are brewing. Typically we use more leaf for black teas and less for the more delicate greens.
Hot Method Instructions:
- For ½ gallon mason jar, add about 1/8 to ½ cup of tea depending on how tightly it is rolled (12-18g tea leaf)
- Add two cups of boiled water
- We recommend putting a metal knife in the jar to prevent the glass from cracking
- Steep the tea for 2 – 5 minutes
- Add sweetener (honey, sugar) if you’d like
- Fill the jar the rest of the way with cold water
- Wait 10 minutes and then strain the leaves out by pouring into another jar through a strainer
Cold Brew Method:
Takes 8+ hours
- For ½ gallon mason jar, add about 1/8 to ½ cup of tea depending on how tightly it is rolled (12-18g tea leaf)
- Pour cold water over your tea leaves, filling the jar completely.
- Rest the jar in the refrigerator overnight.
- Strain in the morning (or ~8 hours)
Shaken Method (with powdered tea):
To make shaken iced tea you’ll want a cocktail shaker (or a small mason jar with lid).
Iced Matcha (for Matcha “Lattes”…just add milk on top):
- Fill shaker with ice
- Add water (filtered is best…always!)
- Add about 1/4 tsp of matcha powder per cup water
- Add sweetener if you like, for our famous Maple Matcha, add maple syrup
- Shake and pour!
Iced Chai:
- Fill glass with ice
- Add chai concentrate (we premake ours with our chai blends, see recipes there)
- Add milk and sweetener
- Shake and pour
Hope you find this post helpful and get to enjoy some delicious iced teas this summer!
If you’re trying to figure out where to start, some teas we recommend making iced are:
- Yunnan Gold
- Organic Yun Wu
- Hibiscus Orange Peel
- Darjeeling 2nd Flush Red Thunder
- Organic Mei Bai Cha
- Yunnan Mao Feng
- Organic Matcha Grade 2 or Matcha Standard
But you can make any of your favorite teas iced! Just let us know how it is!
Happy summer and happy brewing!