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Iced Black Tea

By Lan Lam

Published on May 12, 2020

Time

15 minutes, plus 2 hours steeping and chilling

Yield

Serves 4

Iced Black Tea

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons loose-leaf black tea 3 cups boiling water 1 cup ice water Lemon wedges

Before You Begin

You can substitute decaffeinated tea if desired. Do not substitute tea bags for the loose-leaf tea. Your ice water should be half ice and half water. This recipe can easily be doubled. Sweeten with Rich Simple Syrup, if desired. For an accurate measurement of boiling water, bring a kettle of water to a boil and then measure out the desired amount.

Instructions

  1. Place tea in medium bowl. Add boiling water and steep for 4 minutes. Add ice water and steep for 1 hour. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into pitcher (or strain into second bowl and transfer to pitcher). Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
  2. To serve, pour into ice-filled glasses and garnish each serving with lemon wedge.
Iced Black Tea
Photography by Carl Tremblay. Styling by Chantal Lambeth.

Iced Black Tea

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Time

15 minutes, plus 2 hours steeping and chilling

Yield

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons loose-leaf black tea
3 cups boiling water
1 cup ice water
Lemon wedges

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons loose-leaf black tea
3 cups boiling water
1 cup ice water
Lemon wedges

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons loose-leaf black tea
3 cups boiling water
1 cup ice water
Lemon wedges

Test Kitchen Techniques

Why This Recipe Works

For brisk and refreshing iced tea, we skipped lower-quality bagged tea in favor of loose-leaf tea. We started by brewing tea with boiling water to extract the aromatic compounds from the leaves. Then we cooled the extraction with ice water but did not strain it. By steeping the tea for an hour at this lower temperature, we could draw more flavor from the leaves without pulling out too many bitter compounds.

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Before You Begin

You can substitute decaffeinated tea if desired. Do not substitute tea bags for the loose-leaf tea. Your ice water should be half ice and half water. This recipe can easily be doubled. Sweeten with Rich Simple Syrup, if desired. For an accurate measurement of boiling water, bring a kettle of water to a boil and then measure out the desired amount.

Instructions

  1. Place tea in medium bowl. Add boiling water and steep for 4 minutes. Add ice water and steep for 1 hour. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into pitcher (or strain into second bowl and transfer to pitcher). Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
  2. To serve, pour into ice-filled glasses and garnish each serving with lemon wedge.

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