Homemade Iced Tea Recipe

Sweet, healthy, refreshing, and ready in 5 minutes. This homemade lemon Iced tea recipe is quick, easy, and simple to make. Sweetened black tea with a subtle flavor of lemon, this is guaranteed to keep you hydrated for hours, the summer heat has got nothing on you.

Homemade iced tea

While I prefer to make iced tea with cold-brewed tea, today I will be sharing with you the quick and classic way of making it. That is, brewing hot tea which is faster than waiting around for cold brew to infuse.

This recipe serves two but if you would be serving this to a crowd, please keep reading to know how to.

If you would be serving this to a crowd then you would need a pitcher that would be big enough for the number of guests you are serving.

What is iced tea

Iced tea is a sweetened cold tea usually served in a glass with ice without milk. It can be sweetened with honey, sugar syrup, sugar, or any other plant-based sugar such as coconut sugar or maple syrup.

It is typically flavored with lemon, other common flavors include orange, lime, raspberry, and peach. That said, you can flavor your homemade iced tea with any other flavors of choice, and don’t forget to add a few mints leaves too.

You can use tea bags and loose leaves tea to make this drink. If time is not of the essence, you may consider using cold brew tea to make your ice tea instead.

Why you should be making yours

It is amazingly easy and I mean EASY to make!!! If you make and drink tea regularly then you will understand my emphasis on the word EASY. How hard can making a cup of tea be especially if it doesn’t need milk?

While sweet iced tea is readily available in stores for convenience, it should be noted that those ones are filled with preservatives and can be overly sweet too. Making yours at home would allow you to control what goes into the drink especially if you would like it less sweetened or without any sugar at all.

It is affordable!

This drink is perfect all year round and not in summer alone. Concentrated cold brew tea can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days, so no reason not to have some in your fridge all year round.

What you will need to make iced tea

Teabags: this doesn’t have to be anything fancy, everyday regular black tea bags should be fine

Sugar syrup: I have a vanilla sugar syrup recipe on the blog for how you can make yours at home. If not then opt for caster sugar, it is finer and would dissolve quicker in the water than granulated sugar.

Lemon slices: you can use any citrus of choice for this recipe

Ice

Cold water

Baking soda: This is optional but it helps eliminate bitterness from the tea and also produces a smooth tasting tea. There is also a theory that it makes the tea clear and not cloudy. Although, this can be simply achieved by not using scalding hot water. The best water temperature for brewing black tea is around 96C/204F

How to make iced tea at home in simple steps

Place 2 teabags in a mug or a heat-proof glass then add boiled water and add a pinch of baking soda if using. Let the tea steep for about 4 to 5 minutes and discard the teabags.

Stir the sugar into the hot tea until dissolved. Alternatively use sugar syrup for a quicker job.

To 2 separate tall glasses (400ml capacity) add ice and few lemon slices, pour the sweet tea over the ice ¾ of the way then top with chilled water. Stir to combine, garnish with fresh mint leaves add more if need be, serve and enjoy!

Tips

Do not over-steep the tea or it would become bitter, also when removing the teabags from the mug, squeeze them gently also to avoid bitter tasting tea.

Double or triple the recipe to suit your need.

FAQs

Can this be made ahead

Yes, you can make it ahead and store it in the fridge for up to 24 hours for best taste and quality. Keep it for 3 days at most.

Tea bags or tea sachets

You can use tea bags or tea sachets to make iced tea. Teabag leaves are smaller and finer while the leaves in tea sachets are loose and mimic the size of a loose tea. 

Which is the best tea to use

You can use any type of tea for iced tea including green tea and flavored tea. For more classic ones, then use black tea you can find in any supermarket. Teas labelled breakfast tea, earl grey tea, or Assam can be used too.

is tea caffeinated

Yes, but it is not as much as you would find in a cup of coffee. Usually, depending on your level of tolerance to caffeine, a mug of tea a day should be harmless.

More iced beverage recipe

Iced coffee

Iced coffee condensed milk recipe

Best Iced milk tea recipe (YouTube recipe)

Mango pineapple smoothie McDonalds copycat

Brown sugar oatmilk shaken espresso

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