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You’ve come here to learn how to make iced tea—and you’re not alone. The US is a nation of iced tea drinkers. In fact, four out of five cups of tea in this country arrive iced, a rarity in a world where hot tea is the norm. But for all its thirst-quenching glory, I think we’ve all drunk from plenty of pitchers that were simply there rather than special. If you’re shopping premade, most bottled brands are injected with extra flavorings, heavy on sugar, and weak on the taste of actual tea. Not exactly my cup of…beverage.
There’s no right or wrong way to make iced tea, even extra-sweet versions have their place. But a quality iced tea can blow your mind with brilliant marine and fruit flavors, sweet floral aromas, and a rich, weighty finish that you’ll taste on your tongue for hours. If you’ve never sipped a glass of iced tea that made your eyes widen with a wow, a few small adjustments can turn your homemade brew from cold and functional to truly fantastic.
- What’s the best tea for iced tea?
- Iced tea brewing methods
- How to make iced white or green tea
- How to make iced black, oolong, or herbal tea
- How to make sweet tea
What’s the best tea for iced tea?
Step one to making iced tea is picking the right tea for the job. Any tea can be enjoyed iced, but certain styles take better to the treatment than others. Black teas, which are well oxidized to develop brisk, malty flavors, make a great full-bodied cup; they’re the popular choice for Southern-style sweet tea (more on that later). Green and white teas taste especially bright and delicate, pairing well with citrus, like in this Green Tea Arnold Palmer. And teas that have been roasted, like hojicha or grain teas like barley and buckwheat, become crisp and refreshing on ice.
The heavily chopped teas used in most teabags infuse quickly to make a strong pitcher of iced tea, though not necessarily an interesting one. For a more complex brew, go for loose-leaf tea from specialty such as Camellia Sinensis or Happy Earth. Whole-leaf teas tend to brew less bitter and retain more of their natural sweetness, meaning you can drink them with little to no added sugar. They’ll also stay fresh in your cupboard a lot longer than more heavily processed varieties, and you can steep the same leaves multiple times before their flavor is maxed out.
What’s the best way to brew iced tea?
There are three main ways to brew iced tea: Hot brewing, cold brewing, and ambient brewing.
Hot brewing: The most common way to make iced tea, hot brewing most often requires boiling a lot of water, pouring it over teabags in a pitcher, and chilling that pitcher until the tea is cooled down. There are a couple reasons why I don’t love this method:
- It takes a long time and a lot of energy to boil all that water, just to refrigerate it.
- It immerses tea leaves in hot water for a long time, which mutes their natural sweetness while extracting bitter and tannic compounds. You know how a hot cup of tea tastes kinda stewy after you’ve forgotten about it for a few hours? The same issue is playing out in your tea pitcher.
Cold brewing: This one’s simple—combine tea with cold water and refrigerate the mixture for 6–12 hours. Unlike hot brewing, this cold method won’t over-extract those bitter and astringent compounds, which means you can keep the leaves in the jar for an extended period of time. Cold-brew iced tea requires virtually no prep time, but takes a long time to steep: Great for the forward thinkers, but not so much for last-minute brewing. And it doesn’t extract as much flavor from the tea as other methods.
Ambient brewing: This in-between method requires neither boiling nor refrigeration. Left out on the counter, the tea steeps in cool room-temperature water for around an hour. Once steeped, it’s served straightaway, never hitting the fridge at all. This method is similar to the one used to make “sun tea,” or tea that brews solely in the heat of the sun. Ambient brewing extracts more flavor from leaves than a pure cold-brew method, but can’t be made too far ahead of time, so it requires precise timing to get right.
How to make a perfect pitcher of iced tea:
So what’s the best way to make iced tea? Well, that depends on (1) what type of tea you’re brewing, and (2) how soon you want to drink it. The below methods, all hybrids of popular brewing techniques, are thoughtfully designed to yield your best pitcher.
- Brew method: Ambient + cold brew
- Total time: 1½ hours
Combining the flavor-forward approach of ambient brewing with the make-ahead convenience of cold brewing, this method (which comes by way of Postcard Teas in London) involves steeping the tea for an hour at room temperature, then transferring it to the fridge for anytime enjoyment. Cooler temperatures emphasize the sweet and subtle umami flavors of tea, making this method ideal for lighter teas, like green and white varieties.
For maximum convenience, brew the tea in a French press or an old cocktail shaker with a filter on the pour spout—that way, the strainer is built right into the storage vessel. For a family-size batch, simply double these amounts.
Ingredients:
- 1 heaping Tbsp. loose-leaf tea (8–10 grams) or 3–5 teabags
- 1 liter cold or room temperature water
- Lemon slices, fresh mint, or any other garnish that suits your fancy
Instructions:
- In the vessel of your choice, add 1 heaping Tbsp of loose-leaf tea to 1 liter of cold or room-temperature water. Let the tea steep for 1 hour on the counter, then transfer to the fridge to chill for an additional 30 minutes, or until ready to drink.
- Strain the tea over a glass of ice. Garnish with lemon slices, fresh mint, or any herbal-citrus combo, and enjoy.
- Brew Method: Hot brew + ice
- Total Time: 10 minutes
If you’re after a more intense cup, or you simply need iced tea now, try this variation on the hot-brew approach. It follows the same brewing guidelines as Japanese iced coffee: Make a brewed concentrate (in this case of tea) using boiling water, then instantly dilute that concentrate with an equal amount of ice. The method yields a heady, full-bodied iced tea, instantly chilling the drink to keep bitterness in check. Best suited for black and herbal teas, this method for making homemade iced tea requires only about 10 minutes time.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups water, frozen into ice (from one standard ice tray), plus an additional 2 cups filtered or tap water
- 1 heaping Tbsp. loose-leaf tea (8–10 grams) or 3–5 teabags
Instructions:
- For 1 liter (1 quart) of iced tea, freeze 2 cups of water into ice cubes (the approximate capacity of a standard American ice cube tray).
- Once the ice is ready, boil another 2 cups of water to steep 1 heaping Tbsp. of tea. Steep 4–5 minutes, then take a small sip. The brew should taste too strong to drink on its own, but not yet bitter.
- Once the concentrate is steeped to your liking, strain it over the ice and stir until the ice dissolves.
- Brew Method: Hot brew + ice
- Total Time: 10 minutes
There’s no better way to cool down on a hot summer day than with a glass of sweet tea. If you’ve taken the time to find quality leaves and brew your homemade iced tea with care, it’s worth taking a sip to see how you like it before you add sweetener. You might just find you don’t need as much as you’re used to. But a well-balanced sweetened iced tea can be a beautiful thing, with a lot more “tea” flavor than the bottled stuff.
For sweet tea, use a bolder tea that can stand up to sugar, such as Assam or English Breakfast (in the Southern US, Luzianne is a popular choice, but even a standard bag of Lipton black tea can shine with the right method). Herbal tea is also a nice choice here: Dosed with fruit, flowers, and herbs, these caffeine-free teas are distinct in flavor, and a little sugar will only enhance those floral, herbal, and nutty notes.
When it comes to sweeteners, you have plenty of options. Since the concentrate is hot, you can dissolve sugar in it easily, but liquid sweeteners like simple syrup (made with a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water), honey syrup (made with a 2:1 ratio of honey to water), or agave syrup all work well here and can be used to adjust a glass of tea to each drinker’s liking.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups water, frozen into ice (from one standard ice tray), plus an additional 2 cups filtered or tap water
- 1 heaping Tbsp. loose-leaf tea (8–10 grams) or 3–5 teabags
- ¼ cup sweetener of your choice (such as granulated sugar, simple syrup, or honey syrup), or to taste
Instructions:
- For 1 liter (1 quart) of iced tea, freeze 2 cups of water into ice cubes (the approximate capacity of a standard American ice cube tray).
- Once the ice is ready, boil another 2 cups of water to steep 1 heaping Tbsp. of tea. Steep 4–5 minutes, then take a small sip. The brew should taste too strong to drink on its own, but not yet bitter.
- Once the concentrate is steeped to your liking, add your sweetener of choice to the hot tea concentrate (if you’re using syrup, you can also leave the tea unsweetened and let friends and family adjust their glasses to their own preference). Stir until fully dissolved.
- Strain the tea over the ice and stir until the ice dissolves. For extra pizzazz, throw some mint sprigs or citrus peels in there. We’d posit lemon wheels are nonnegotiable, but you do you.
A squeeze of lemon juice is enough to upgrade a glass of unsweetened iced tea, but there are plenty more ways to change things up. Once you’ve mastered the basic method, try different flavor combinations to make your own quintessential summer drink. Add a spoonful of jam to make raspberry iced tea, infuse cold-brewed tea with mint sprigs and fresh plums, or mix iced Earl Grey tea with orange-flower water. Ready for happy hour? Spike a pitcher with bourbon.
Additional reporting contributed by Zoe Denenberg.