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Iced Tea by Shangri La – Traditional Black Brew Bags
When it comes to tea, certain seasons are known for certain things. I’m drawing a blank when it comes to autumn and winter, though it’s safe to say those are times when the warming qualities of a nice hot cup of tea are much appreciated.
We are currently passing through spring, perhaps best known for being a time when the first tea harvests of the year take place. This gives us shincha, a Japanese term meaning “new tea,” and some of the finer of these varieties are among the most coveted of all teas.
Right now, the afternoon temperature in my part of the world stands at 92 degrees (with 5 percent humidity – truly a dry heat). So it seems very summery, even though summer officially does not commence for almost two months.
All of which means iced tea season is approaching. Never mind that for some of us, it’s always iced tea season. I’ve already written a few articles about my curious tea drinking habits and though my Esteemed Editor will surely cringe, I’ll direct you to one of them.
Rather than reinventing the wheel and writing yet another article about bold new ways to prepare iced tea and whatnot, I thought I’d direct you to a few of the fine articles already in the archives here as well as touching on some miscellaneous iced tea-related bits.
Such as iced tea consumption in the United States. I don’t doubt that Americans drink a lot of iced tea and that the majority of what we drink is of the iced variety. What I wonder about is that in the seven years I’ve been writing about tea the only number I’ve seen given for the percentage of tea we drink is 85%. Maybe this number hasn’t changed even one percent in seven years or maybe I’m just looking in the wrong place.
Then I got to thinking about the term iced tea itself and wondering when it first came to be. I found a travel book from 1845 that commented on the iced tea, coffee and chocolate in Naples. Three years earlier, a writer in the London Quarterly Review noted that the Russians cooled all of their warm weather drinks with ice, including tea. But the oldest reference I was found (in my not completely thorough search) was a passing mention of iced tea in the 1827 volume, Domestic Economy, and Cookery, for Rich and Poor.
If you’d like to brush up on various facets of iced tea knowledge you can check out the articles at this site by going here. Among some highlights, an article that takes a look at a few brewing methods, one that looks at iced tea tidbits and trivia, and an examination of the critical sweetened vs. unsweetened issue.
See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles here.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Ti Kuan Yin, chilled (Photo source: stock image)
It is the wrong half of the year to even be talking about iced tea. I get it. I’m wondering if my Esteemed Editor will even be able to read through another piece that addresses my slightly offbeat tea-related quirk. I won’t go over the basics of it again, since I already did that here, but suffice to say that I’ve totally forsaken hot tea in favor of the iced stuff. Yes, totally. I can’t even remember the last time I drank hot tea.
But it’s time to pause for a quick definition of terms. To be honest “iced tea” isn’t really even suited to this situation. It’s a term that, for me at least, conjures up visions of those tall glasses, full up with ice cubes and tea and then there are those long spoons and of course there’s (cringe) plenty of sugar and perhaps a slice of lemon.
Blah. For my purposes “iced” tea is really just tea that’s not served hot but is kept on ice. I actually find that it tastes best when I’ve let it warm up just a bit. But “cool tea” just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
In any event, I realize that this puts me way out of sync with the rest of the northern hemisphere, where the cold winds are now blowing and the snowflakes are doing what they do and so forth. I know that I should be huddled around the wood stove with a cup of hot chocolate or perhaps some warm cider or mulled spiced wine or perhaps even some (double cringe) coffee, but it ain’t gonna happen. My cool tea works just fine for me, thank you very much.
No, it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I live in the relatively balmy environs of southern Arizona. It’s winter here for us as well, although those of you from more brisk climes might not quite recognize it as such and might even scoff at calling it that. But the fact is that when you’ve spent a good chunk of the year acclimating to temperatures that are only a few degrees cooler than the surface of the sun, what some might call a balmy winter takes on a totally different perspective.
In closing, I’d like to say that I’ll come to my senses at some point and start drinking hot tea again but I have to be honest. I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Sorry, Esteemed Editor.
[Note from the Esteemed Editor: Aaaaaaack!]
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Summer is almost here, which for most of us is the cue to break out the pitchers and tall glasses. Here in the United States, where we supposedly drink about 80 percent of our tea iced instead of hot, those pitchers are an integral part of warm weather living, and they’re sure to get a workout.
Davidsons Tropical Ice Iced Tea
For some of us, though, this is a year-round thing. As I noted in an earlier article, my tea intake these days is exclusively iced. Perhaps it’s because I live in a warm desert climate and perhaps not, but does it mean that I’ve resorted to making the stuff – as is so often par for the course – with cheap tea bags or even resorting to bottled iced tea?
Perish the thought. Bottle iced tea is out of the question, given that even those rare ones that aren’t more sugar than tea are not very cost effective for someone who consumes such mass quantities. Cheap tea bags are out of the question simply because they produce cheap-tasting tea.
When it comes to iced tea, almost anything you like as a hot tea should translate reasonably well. For me, some things work better and, like most Americans, my primary preference is for iced black tea. Two of my absolute favorites are a Chinese black tea known as Dian Hong, or sometimes just as Yunnan, for the region in China that produces it. The other is Assam black tea, a term that covers a wide range of extremes from downright lousy to something like an elixir of the gods. Obviously I prefer the latter ones and, as always, I caution you to choose your Assam tea wisely.
As much as I like black tea, I find that I can’t go long without something to offset it. That something is most often green tea, though I’m not averse to some lighter varieties of oolong occasionally. In the green realm, I’ve found that Chinese green tea seems to work better for me. I’m not averse to Japanese green tea in iced form now and then, but I find that they tend to be a bit overbearing.
While I’m not a fan of flavored teas, I’ll touch on this topic before signing off, as there are a few that aren’t so bad in iced form. My least favorite types of flavored teas (or tisanes, for that matter) are any that have a smoky or tart fruity flavor. Fruity flavors such as mango and passion fruit and particularly peach seem to work quite well, especially when they’re overlaid on a base of good quality black tea and served chilled.
In closing, I’d encourage you not to skimp on the quality of your iced tea any more so than you would with your hot tea and I’ll leave you with a slight paraphrase of the motto for my own tea site, “life’s short, drink good iced tea.”
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Bottled tea? Really? Excuse me while this Tea Princess chuckles. *Hee hee hee hee hee* Ah, there, got that out of my system. Now, seriously, can you get real tea in a bottle? Or can? I guess that depends on how you define “tea.” These days, that seems to be pretty broad, even including things like rooibos, honeybush, chamomile, and other herbals. It can also depend on why you drink tea: taste, health benefits, thirst quenching, cooling off, etc.
Want great cold tea? Forget the bottle (and the sugar).
As recently as only a few years ago, hubby and I chugged by the case full a popular brand of bottled tea flavored with citrus from the grocery store. It was usually served well chilled or even over ice, slaked our thirst, and was better than the colas we had been drinking. However, as part of our strange transformation due to tea, we have come to prefer freshly steeped hot tea, even in hot weather, and to drink cold water or lemonade if we want a cold beverage. Being the open minded types, though, we recognize the popularity of iced tea, “sweet tea,” and the many brands of bottled tea and why people choose them.
That means, of course, that yes the stuff in those bottles is tea. But there are a few caveats: taste, quality, and health benefits.
Taste
Taste is definitely a big factor. For those not attuned to the nuances of fine teas, a bottled green or black tea with flavorings added (often some kind of fruit) will be a real pleaser. However, for those who have a developed palate where tea is concerned and are able to detect the subtle nuances in the tea aroma and flavor (or even for those of us in the process of developing such skills), bottled tea can be devoid of this opportunity.
Quality
For me, nothing beats freshly steeped tea. And the stuff in the bottles is not freshly steeped. However, I am also a very practical-minded Tea Princess who realizes that people don’t always have time to steep tea, chill it overnight in the refrigerator, and then enjoy it (or steep up a strong batch of tea and then pour it over ice for a quick chill, as many iced tea drinkers do). If lots of you out there did not also need the convenience of cracking open a bottle of tea, these products wouldn’t be out there on the grocery store shelves. That being said, I would definitely have to say that the quality in the bottle does not come close to the freshly steeped version.
Health Benefits
Lots of sites that tout the health benefits of tea, especially of green tea, claim that bottled teas lose a lot of the chemicals that make them healthy drink choices. An article by Christian Nordqvist that appeared in Medical News Today in August 2010 states that polyphenols, the key ingredient in tea that is supposed to protect our bodies from the damage done by free radicals, are very low in bottled teas. Other sources state that the level of catechins can vary widely (3 to 215 milligrams in 16 ounces). These are antioxidants, said to have a very beneficial effect on your health. So, if you’re drinking tea for this benefit (versus as a refreshing and cooling beverage), bottled tea is going to fall short. Plus, you will pay a lot of money for this less beneficial version of tea.
High sugar content and less than pure tea are other issues.
Bottom Line
As my buddy, Alex Zorach, points out in a Wikipedia entry, bottled tea can disappoint and deprive you of the joy of the tea-making experience (sort of like “zapping” your food in the microwave vs preparing a dish from scratch). If you want tea fast, you will go for the bottled kind. If you want really good tea, you will take some time to learn and then prepare your own (or hang out with someone who does). It’s up to you!
See my blog for a list of popular bottled tea brands.
See also:
Iced Tea vs. Hot Tea
Citrus and Tea
Quick and Easy Iced Tea
Iced Tea: Themes and Variations
Keeping Cool with Iced Tea
Iced Tea Tidbits & Trivia
Teas That Can Take the Chill
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
It is Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, but Down Under, it’s Summer!
I’m a BBC (British Born Chinese) and my wonderful blend of cultures has come together rather nicely on the subject of tea. Growing up, us Brits would always turn to a hot cup of tea in order to cool us down, and growing up in a Chinese family, drinking cold carbonated drinks was very much frowned upon, opting for the flask of hot jasmine tea to cool us down instead. In the hotter climes of Brisbane, however, I found myself drinking a lot more cold water so I thought I would try making some iced tea. After speaking to many tea friends on Twitter, two methods of making iced tea came to mind.
Hot Tea Cooled with Ice
Fans of this method argue that it is quicker to make and the flavours of the tea are fully developed as the components in the tea leaf that contribute to the flavour of the tea wake up at around 113oF (45oC). To make the tea one places double the amount of tea leaves into a jug, make the tea at the desired temperature and preferred steeping time. The tea is then cooled down with ice.
Cold Brew
This method requires patience but in talking to many of my tea friends on Facebook, this appears to be the preferred method. It is a very simple process where the tea is made with cold water and then the jug is popped into the fridge overnight. As the tea is not heated, it is less likely to result in a bitter brew because fewer catechins and tannins are released than in the hot method.
You can see from the picture below that the resulting brew generates quite different results.
Left: hot tea cooled with ice. Right: cold brew method.
The cup on the left shows the hot tea cooled with ice and the cup on the right, the cold brew method. On the nose, there isn’t much of an aroma to discern from the cold brew when compared to the hot brew. On the palate however, the two teas are quite different. The hot tea with ice method had a fuller flavour and with the doubling of leaves, I can see how this method would be more suited to teas that are less temperature sensitive than others. The cold brew method had a refreshing flavour profile and is more delicate on the palate.
What iced tea method do you prefer and what tea do you like iced?
See also:
Iced Tea Roundup — Some Good Teas to Serve Chilled
For Chilled Tea, Go With Basic Black
Trying a Couple of Teas Chilled
Teas That Can Take the Chill
Iced Tea Tidbits & Trivia
Keeping Cool with Iced Tea
Iced Tea: Themes and Variations
Quick and Easy Iced Tea
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Confession is good for the soul – or so the saying goes. So without any further ado, my confession. I have not consumed hot tea for a very long time. I’d like to be able to say how long but it just sort of crept up on me and so I’m not really sure. It’s probably been at least a year now, at the very least.
Ti Kuan Yin Oolong served cold
Which is not to say that I don’t drink tea. I actually drink it in amounts that are probably not so good for someone who doesn’t respond well to caffeine. It’s just that at some point I decided that I preferred my tea cold rather than hot. This goes for any type of tea I drink, whether it be a nice robust cup of Assam, a colorful Japanese green, an aromatic oolong or one of those relatively rare forays into herbal/tisane type beverages (mostly rooibos).
I’m not sure how or why this came about, but I suspect it has something to do with climate. Living here in southern Arizona it can be a bit daunting to contemplate a cup of steaming hot tea when the temperatures are well over 100 degrees and when grown men are weeping and the birds bursting into flames in the sky. While I’m aware that people in other hot regions, such as north Africa and the Middle East, often consume tea and other hot beverages in spite of the heat that doesn’t make the prospect any less daunting in my book. Then again, even when the temperatures fall into the fifties and sixties, during what passes for winter around these parts, I still drink tea iced, so I’m not sure if the climate theory is really sufficient to entirely explain the issue.
I guess if I had to pin down any reasons why this has come to pass I’d say there are primarily two of them. Since I drink so much tea in the course of a day’s time I find it more convenient to just whip up a larger quantity and stash it in the refrigerator. I know there are a lot of people who find the ritual of preparing tea to be an integral part of the process but I’m not one of them.
My primary reason for making the switch to iced tea is simply that I don’t like to drink tea hot anymore, although when it comes to the term “iced” I should probably clarify things a bit. Unless it’s a blazing day I tend to drink tea that’s not quite “icy” but that also has not had a chance to reach room temperature. I haven’t done much research into the matter – aside from my own experiences – but it seems that the extremes of the temperature range aren’t really the optimum temps when it comes to getting the optimum flavor from tea.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Ah! Refreshing and cooling!
Fortunately, there are a number of solutions for preparing iced tea without heating up your surroundings. One of the easiest of these methods is simply to use the microwave to heat water for tea, a solution which does so without throwing off any residual heat. While some of the truly serious tea fanciers suggest that making tea with microwaved water affects the taste, I’ve been doing it for quite some time, with no noticeable ill effects.
If you’d like to go even more low-tech with your iced tea, you could try cold-brewing it. As the name suggests, it simply means that you use cold water to steep the tea leaves, though obviously you will need a longer steep time to coax the flavor from the leaves. For some thoughts on how to cold-brew iced tea (and coffee) check out this recent article from the noted food expert, Harold McGee.
Another option for keeping cool while brewing iced tea is simply to harness the power of the sun to help steep the leaves. For some good tips on how to do so check out this recent article at Serious Eats. While there are some potential dangers to using this method, the popular myth-busting site Snopes.com covers them in detail and comes up with a few tips to minimize the risks.
See also:
The Dark Side of Sun Tea
More About Sun Tea
The Sweet Tea Debate Heats Up
Quick and Easy Iced Tea
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
National Iced Tea Month (June) is gone, but iced tea season is still upon us. That’s especially noteworthy in the United States, where more than eighty percent of all tea consumed is iced. While we’re not known for being one of the great tea-drinking nations, our consumption of iced tea is so substantial that in 2010 we imported more tea than the tea-swilling British for the first time — or say the experts at the Tea Association of the USA. Read more here.
Iced Tea Starter Set
Credit for the introduction of iced tea often goes to a vendor who set up shop at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. But this is a misconception, as is the notion that ice cream cones, hamburgers, hot dogs, peanut butter, and various other foods first made their way into eager American hands there. According to some sources, tea punches, often heavily sweetened and spiced with something to give them a kick, were being served here as far back as the early nineteenth century. A Tea Punch recipe from an 1839 cookbook describes a concoction that combined two and half cups of sugar with a pint and a half of iced tea.
Ask for iced tea in the American South and you’re likely to be served sweet tea, a sugary version of iced black tea that’s so popular down yonder that some call it the house wine of the South. Sweet tea is such an institution there that in 2003 the Georgia House of Representatives declared, “any food service establishment which serves iced tea must serve sweet tea.” Legislators made allowances for unsweetened tea, but those who neglect to serve sweet tea were deemed to be “guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.”
Arnold Palmer Tee
It’s hard to imagine that no one thought of combining iced tea and lemonade previously, but the blend is said to date from some time in the Sixties when golfer Arnold Palmer was overheard ordering the concoction and it soon became a viral hit, of sorts. The Arnold Palmer is so popular nowadays that the golfer has allowed his name and likeness to adorn cans, bottles, and cartons of a beverage known as Arnold Palmer Tee.
Another popular iced tea drink, that cocktail known as the Long Island Iced Tea, apparently dates from the Seventies and, in its classic form, does not actually contain any tea. However, there are variations in which tea is included as an ingredient. For a decidedly different glimpse of what one of these cocktails looks like, check out this photo from Molecular Expressions.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
English Breakfast Blend No. 1 can take the chill!
Summertime means HEAT and lots of it! That means a lot of folks reaching for iced tea. Some teas can take the chill better than others, though, so how do you choose?
First, which tea you choose depends on if you care if your tea is cloudy or not. Some teas steep up more clear than others, plus teas with certain ingredients such as cinnamon added will appear cloudy from those ingredients suspended in them.
Next, you need to think about the sweetness factor. Are you going for that Southern style “Sweet Tea” that tastes like it’s half sugar? Or would you like a more naturally sweet flavor? Fruits added to the teas can convey that hint of sweetness you are seeking.
Third, are you the “steep it hot and pour it really fast over a ton of ice” type, the “steep it in the sun and then stick it in the frig and hope it isn’t full of bacteria” type, or maybe the “steep it hot and let it cool on the counter and then chill overnight in the frig” type? Regardless of the method, select a proper tea.
Some teas and herbals I’ve tried that seem like they can really take the chill:
- Apple Spice black tea
- Monk’s Blend
- Bohemian Raspberry
- Japanese Sencha Kyoto Cherry
- Dragonwell (Longjing or Lungching)
- Mercedes Apple Spice
- Bingo Blueberry Herbal
- English Breakfast Blend No. 1
- Tropical Green Tea
- Scottish Breakfast tea
- Darjeeling
- Blood Orange Flavored Black Tea
- Apple Pear Green Tea
- Mango Mist
- Lemon Flavored Black Tea
- Peach Black Tea
- Blueberry Flavored Green Tea
Methinks there’s a pattern here: fruity teas and green teas and some black teas and an herbal infusion or two. Of course, if your taste leans toward florals, toss in a few of those, too. I find strong spices don’t work too well, especially ginger and cinnamon. Mint, though, is particularly good at adding a certain zest to your chilled or iced tea.
Go on the hunt and find some tea treasures of your own to give the “cold treatment”!
Also see:
Cloudy Tea
Iced Tea Roundup — Some Good Teas to Serve Chilled
For Chilled Tea, Go With Basic Black
Trying a Couple of Teas Chilled
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Glass is a must for true cold tea
…or How to Make Good Ice Tea.
I did not commit a typing error: The term is ‘ice’ tea, not ‘iced’ tea. In the southern part of the United States, one says, “Would you like a glass of ice tea, honey?” This is known as dialect and a perfectly acceptable way of speaking.
I have often had tussles with copy-editors over the ‘ice’ tea bit, so I switched to an older term: cold tea. Let me give an illustration and shameless bit of self-promotion at the same time. One hot July morning, I received a telephone call from my publisher saying a new title for my then-upcoming book was needed; they wanted me to come up with a fantastic, sure-fire best-selling title, and to do it by the end of the day. I, of course, said, “No problem,” hung up, and panicked. To calm myself down and cool off, I went to make some ice tea.
As I stirred the tea, sugar and ice cubes in my grandmother’s pitcher, I thought: “Ah, nothing better than cold tea on a hot day.” Bingo! My Cold Tea on a Hot Day did become a USA Today bestseller. Who doesn’t like cold tea on a hot day?
Instructions for the best cold tea on a hot summer day:
Water — use filtered or distilled. The water will give the tea the clearest taste and appearance. I have exceptionally pure well water coming through my tap, but for my tea I still use a filtering pitcher.
Teas — The same is true with cold as hot: the best teas produce the best brews. Yorkshire Gold is especially formulated for hard water and gives strong, clear tea. Devonshire Tea is smooth and wonderful cold. I’ve also used loose Ceylon tea, which produces a delicious lazy-afternoon cold tea. (Beware, once you use really good tea, you cannot possibly go back to the cheap, even for cold tea.)
For a one-quart glass pitcher (oh, goodness, I’m realizing how demanding I am because one really must use glass, at least until adding ice): Boil two cups of filtered water and pour over 2 Yorkshire Gold tea bags, or two Devonshire Tea teabags. Steep 3-5 minutes. No, I do not recommend what is called ‘sun brewed’; the tea stays far too long in the water, producing a sharp, acid brew.
Pour the brewed tea into the pitcher with 1/4 cup sugar, or more if you like it really sweet. Add lemon to taste; I like a medium half slice. Stir until sugar is melted. Add cool filtered water and ice cubes to fill the pitcher.
Pour over ice in a tall glass, sit in front of a fan and put your feet up, and open a good book.
Enjoy!
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
