How do you make clear iced tea, without a trace of cloudiness?!
How do you make clear iced tea, without a trace of cloudiness?
And, do you make ice cubes of the tea infusion itself, or do you simply use water to make them.....or .... do you simply chill it and serve it without ice?
Additions? Mint, or orange slices ...or spices? And herb tea bags?
I know to look it up, but it is so much nicer to know other people's experiences.
Ta!
Answers:
I used to make a mango iced tea.
I bought VERY expensive mango leave tea from a delicatessen and made a pot of tea.
The left over tea in the pot I used to save (because it was so expensive) and put it into the fridge, to drink later with ordinary ice - it really was good.
I find that if you make the cubes from tea, the cloudiness goes. Taste however is personal, if you add lemon, clearly its iced lemon tea etc so do your own thing.
Fruit can make it cloudy too though.
To make clear tea you must start with boiling water. You can make ice cubes out of your clear tea also.
The best way to make very clear tea is simple. Buy LIPTON'S cold brew tea bags. Put 3 to 4 of them into a 1gal bottle of OZARKA spring water and let it set in the window for approx. 30min. Longer if you like strong tea. You will not be disappointed. The tea will be crystal clear and tastes even better with a fresh slice of lemon. You really don't need sugar! It tastes GREAT. (never boil tea, it kills the oil)
Use filtered water.
Use 5 teabags per gallon of filtered water.
Let set in the sun for 4 hours.
Remove teabags (do not squeeze)
Refrigerate
Serve with lemon or/and orange slices and a milt sprig.
You can use Lipton teabags, herbal teabags, black tea - green tea - WHITE tea (best of all, most healthy). Your choice, you decide and proceed. Enjoy!
If you have enough sun in your part of the world, make sun tea. Take a large glass jar, fill it with cold water, add several teabags, then set it out in the sun for awhile. In the desert, we leave it out for an hour in the summer or two in the winter. Other places need to leave it out for about 4 hours in the summertime. This really makes the best iced tea because there is no hint of cloudiness anywhere. In fact, my mom would make a huge jar of sun tea and keep it in the fridge. For breakfast, she'd take her sun tea and put it in the microwave to get a very nice cup of hot tea with no bitterness in it.
Earl Grey makes a delightfully different iced tea to serve guests. Other than that, though, I like to make flavor combos with my iced tea. It's fun to mix mint and vanilla, or berry and vanilla, or even a couple of citrus teas. Herb tea doesn't work as well for sun tea, even in the desert. It really needs boiling water, I think.
We always used plain water for the ice cubes. Because of that, however, we brewed the sun tea extra strong so it would be nice when slightly diluted.
Pour 2 cups of boiling water over 4 small tea bags (or 2 medium ones)
Let it steep for 4 minutes.
Remove the tea bags and add enough lukewarm water to make 2 quarts.
Chill in the fridge.
Boiling the water and not adding ice cold water to the hot tea concentrate keeps it from getting cloudy. But like another reader said NEVER boil tea. Boiling water okay.... boiling tea bag not okay.
Easiest way is to use a tea maker or coffee maker put in 4 Lipton small bags in the coffee pot put in the water let it make then pour into a gallon jug add cold water then your sugar if you use it stir and it should not be cloudy at all. If no coffee maker then boil on top of stove in a pan bring to a boil fill your jug up about half way with water add tea and add remaining of cold water stir and your ready to go. But I would suggest if you drink a lot of tea get you a Tea Maker under $20 at Walmart there great.