An ice cold drink on a hot day can be delicious. But be honest, ice tea from a carton doesn’t taste like anything. Also, making a pot of tea and putting it in the fridge for a few hours does not produce a tasty iced tea. That’s because of the refrigerator scent that mixes with the iced tea. How do you make iced tea? Read all about it in this article.
Content:
- Anyone can do it
- How do you make fresh iced tea?
- The trick of making your own ice cubes
- Making ice cubes with a plastic bag
- The hammer
- Hot tea + ice cubes = iced tea
- Make ice cubes with a plastic container
- Store ice cubes
- Lime tea
Anyone can do it
Making iced tea is not difficult. Anyone over 12 years old can make delicious iced tea. It does take some time. But then you do have superior quality iced tea. The secret to a good iced tea is freshness. Old iced tea tastes lousy and iced tea from a carton is too sweet or chemical. Making fresh iced tea is somewhat laborious, but the result is excellent. It is worthwhile to stand in the kitchen for a few minutes.
How do you make fresh iced tea?
You make fresh tea. Make the tea strong. You add a lot of sugar. Then you put a glass full of ice cubes. You pour the hot tea to the brim. Because the tea melts the ice, the tea water cools very quickly. A glass of tea is iced tea within a minute. The temperature is around 3 to 6 degrees, which is very cold on a day when it is 25 degrees. You serve the iced tea with a spoon so people can stir the sugar or honey and the ice cubes. That is not really necessary because the hot water has already melted all the sugar, but it is just fun to play with the ice cubes. So it’s that easy to make iced tea. To make it extra tasty, choose a fruit tea flavor.
The trick of making your own ice cubes
The difficulty is in creating the many ice cubes you need. The standard ice cube trays and bags probably aren’t enough if you want two or three large cups. Especially if you have visitors and everyone wants iced tea, this can be a problem. Giving small tea glasses is not really a solution because you have to drink a lot in the summer. Make a nice large glass so that everyone can enjoy it for a long time. It takes the same time to fill a tall glass of iced tea as it does a small glass.
Making ice cubes with a plastic bag
How do you make ice cubes yourself? There is a trick for that. If you don’t have an ice maker, you can put water in a sturdy, clean, plastic bread bag with no holes, tie it tightly and place it in the freezer compartment of the fridge or freezer. Make sure the bag is clean. Use thick plastic that cannot leak. Rinse the bag a few times. Test the bag for leaks by holding it over the sink. If it leaks you should not use it. Place the plastic bag in a paper bag before placing it in the freezer. This is to prevent it from freezing to the bottom.
The hammer
You can only use a plastic bag once. Then, when the water has turned into a block of ice, take a hammer. You hold the block of ice that is still in plastic in one hand and hammer with the hammer on the ice with the other hand. Move the ice cube around so that you hit all sides. When you feel all pieces, throw it in a plastic container or iron pan.
Hot tea + ice cubes = iced tea
Smashing it when the ice is in plastic prevents the ice from splashing in all directions. Then you can put the debris in your glass. Then you make tea as you always do. Add sugar to the hot tea, maybe a little more than usual because ice is added. Also make the tea stronger than usual. Then you are ready to put the hot tea water over the ice in the glass. It doesn’t matter if the ice blocks are too big. Ice melts very quickly by pouring over hot tea water.
Make ice cubes with a plastic container
Another way is to fill a plastic container with water and put plastic wrap over it. This lid is important, otherwise the water will taste strange to the freezer compartment. You put this container in the freezer or freezer compartment. Then, if the container contains a frozen cube of ice, take it out and place the container upside down in the sink or another container. Dripping the bottom of the inverted tray with hot water will cause the ice to fall into the tray. Be careful to use a sturdy container to freeze the water or it will break with pouring over hot water. Now you can just smash the ice with a hammer. It is also possible with an ice ax. Make the pieces small enough to fit in the glass.
Store ice cubes
If you have leftover ice cubes, you can put them back in the freezer. It is a good trick to put loose ice cubes in a paper bag. Because it is in paper and not in plastic, the ice clumps together less. The paper absorbs the water, which usually causes blocks of ice to freeze together. A paper bread bag is ideal for this.
Lime tea
You can easily make lime or lemon tea by squeezing half a lime or lemon and adding it to the tea water. For this it is also useful to serve the tea with a spoon. You can also make iced tea from green tea. Read the article about making herbal tea yourself and add ice cubes as described here. This way you can experiment a bit with different flavors until you find the perfect taste that suits you.