How can I make good iced tea?

[kwselke]

The last batch was 9 packets of Lipton cut open and dumped into a double coffee filter in the Bunn. I poured in half a pot of water and the Bunn did it's job.

I put the hot tea into my gallon jug and added a cup of sugar and mixed. Then filtered water to total one gallon.

Now I like this tea, but the kids and the warden turned their noses up and want more sugar!

My wife is adding a teaspoon of some raspberry tea powder to each glass she drinks and my boy is adding all kinds of stuff in his, probably ketchup too since ketchup goes on everything and is a staple food for pre-teens.

The next batch will be a 10 minute steep in hot water to see if the Bunn method works as well or if I am wasting tea using it.

By the way, is tea bad for me? I'm going through a gallon in a day and a half.

You may want to increase the number of bags to 10 - 12 for a gallon, if they are small bags for a single cup of hot tea. I make tea in two quart batches and use 5 to 6 individual bags depending on the brand, or two quart bags.

I used to love Lipton, but either they changed their formula or my tastes changed. I few years back I bought some and did not like it any more. I did a lot of brand sampling and decided that of the supermarket brands I prefer Community, Luzianne, Red Rose, Tetly, then Lipton.

Black tea is good for you... the sugar you put in it? I drink almost a full two quarts each day, but I use Sweet & Low in mine.

 

[dcxplant]

If using the hot tea method, be sure not to steep the tea longer than a couple of minutes. Otherwise, so much tannin comes out of the cut leaf tea that it makes the liquid tea too stringent, and bitter.

The best method is the sun tea method. Again, watch not to over-steep the tea. I steep the tea just enough to make the iced tea without mixing it with plain water.

Making a really darkly steeped tea mixture to dilute keeps the bitter and tannic taste.

Of course, some people like that, which is just fine or course, but I like my tea smooth.

A type you may try that is just amazingly refreshing is a cucumber white tea from Tazo. On a summer day it is just the ticket! White tea is a minimally processed tea that is picked very young, and has very fine white hairs on its leaves. It yields a highly aromatic tea of a straw yellow color. It is light and refreshing.

 

[tyusclan]

Don't forget to add fresh lemon and fresh mint.

I'll let you slide on the lemon, but keep the mint OUT of the tea.

Tea should not taste like toothpaste.

 

[Sprefix]

Mr coffee tea maker, good water, 6 bags of Lipton tea, 6 of the pink packets of sweetener, and let 'er rip. Put lemon or anything else in MY tea, and someone's going home in a foul mood..................Lemon has one place on the face of this planet and that is to clean my hands after eating BBQ...just add hot water and a towel.