There has got to be a secret to good iced tea. I go to some restaurants and their tea is way better than I can make my self. I have tried to figure it out but cant. I have tried all the different brands of teas on the store shelves. Best I have come up with is Lipton loose leaf tea thru my Bunn coffe maker thats made for Kcups. I use the module for loose coffee. I have found to do a couple batches using new tea each time. Trying to run a second batch of water thru tea thats already had a batch of water makes for bitter tea. I am going to try and find some online sources for loose tea maybe that will help.
My world changed when I tried the loose leaf varieties in the marketplace at Wegmans. Experiment with different varieties other than the name brands, unless you like Lipton. There are multitudes of white, black, and green tea mixes.
I buy mine at the Asian grocer. Don't squeeze it out, you release tannins which have a harsh taste. Also, use more tea and steep less time with give it a smoother taste.
I just use the lipton large tea bags for ice tea and pour boiling water on the bags for no more then about 15 minutes (wife used to let it set longer and it tasted like azz) and for me its better then what you get in the restaurants.
I use Lipton tea bags, put around 5 bags per gallon. Boil up some water in a pot (maybe 6-8 cups or so... never really measured). Put in 1/2 a cup of sugar, little bit of baking powder (teaspoon or so). Mix up well. Throw in tea bags for ~5-10 mins with the heat off. Pull out tea bags, let the mix cool a bit then dump in a pitcher and fill with water. The pitcher I have is 1.5 gals I believe.
tea from health food store. Let it steep to a nice golden color. As mentioned before, no pinching the tealeaves. I don't care for sugar in my tea. I might add, unless your water taste good, your tea won't taste good.
Tip of the day,adding lemon or taking a vitamin c tablet increases the digestion of the tea antioxidants like EGCG by 500 percent.
we have a gallon of homemade iced tea in our fridge at all times. Wifey uses the big Lipton bags, a small amount of sugar. Nothing fancy, but beats the pants off of those premade gallon jugs of tea from the store. That stuff SUCKS compared to brewed tea. May have to brew a pot on the woodstove.....never did that before! I've made percolated coffee on the woodstove several times and call me crazy, it seems to taste WAAAAAY better than any other coffee!
Like Nate said above, its almost better to make a small batch of strong & short brewed tea and then cut it with water, just like bourbon. Boiling water, shut off, drop tea, pour off, sweeten, cut with water. I use about 2 Tbsp of loose tea per 8 oz of water. I brew 5 cups of tea mash, strain, sweeten with honey, and cut with 10 cups of water, which gives me just under a gallon. Crystallized ginseng, green tea, lemon, berries, are all good add-ins too.
One thing I will add that I have found to help. The pitcher you are going to add the brewed tea to. fill with water and ice stir well to get really cold before you add the tea. It makes a different and better taste than adding cold water to the tea.
Anyone know of a commercial brand of ice tea that doesn't taste like that horrid instant ice tea. I am looking for a non sweetened tea that taste like real tea.
Its supposed to pull the bitterness out. I have no idea how, I'm not a cook by any means. I know I forgot it once and I realized it just from the difference in taste.
I can't do coffee. It tears up my guts almost worse than milk does.... It's a good thing I don't like the taste of either!
I go through about a gallon per week 1 pint or a bit less every morning,dont drink coffee much except on coldest mornings or when going to a job out of town. 8 regular sized bags of either Black Currant or a 50/50 mix of Black Currant/Orange Pekoe with gallon of boiling water,let it steep a couple hours then remove & squeeze out the bags,discard them.From early May until the snow covers them - I add a couple sprigs of Spearmint and/or Peppermint from the garden to the pitcher.After that during deep winter I substitute those with 1 teabag of same stuff. http://www.amazon.com/Twinings-Blac...im_gro_21?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GK0A79JG061D22373ZZ Only brand I found that still makes the Black Currant,I use Lipton or another cheaper brand when wanting Orange Pekoe to mix. Around $1.70 per gallon weekly,much cheaper & better for you than pop.Still drink maybe 1 or 2 Diet Cokes per month,used to be 2-3 per day for years.
You make a good point, I think I will taper off my soda consumption and replace it with tea. I bring two sodas to work every day, I could cut that to one. And then drink a lot less soda at home where the tea is readily available.
Another fantastic tea is made by using mint leaves. We grow it at home, once you start it wont stop though. Always dry some out and save it for winter. Make it just like any other tea. Get a pot of water boiling and throw a handful of leaves in and let it boil. Add just a little sugar and you have a wonderful light minty flavored tea. I prefer that over any tea you can buy.
