What's Your Flavor of Iced Tea

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Iced tea used to mean one thing: black tea that had been steeped with water and served over ice. The only variation was in how it was sweetened. Southerners prefer to sweeten it while the mixture is still hot, while northerners prefer to sweeten traditional ice tea at the table with a choice of sweeteners in little packets. Sure you could also add a squeeze of lemon, but the choices stopped there.

Now it is possible to find every variety of tea under the sun in chilled format. It started with individual bottled ice tea being offered in flavors like peach, raspberry, and half lemonade. Coffeehouses feature iced chai lattes and juice bars serve a super caffeine charged iced matcha green tea latte.

Restaurants have caught on to the trend too, offering up almost cocktail-like varieties of brewed and iced tea with additions such as ginger, lemongrass, or basil, and the chance to sweeten to your liking with simple syrup, which dissolves more easily then sugar. Some of these fancy iced teas are steeped in alcohol such as vodka, rum, or sake, to make tea infused summer cocktails that pack a refreshing punch.

America’s favorite summer beverage is sure to quench your thirst this iced tea season, whichever way you have it. Sometimes what I like best is traditional iced tea mixed with half lemonade, a la the drink that became famous because of golfer Arnold Palmer. Other times I like to get fancy with my own ice tea mocktails.

So whatever your favorite variety of tea, you can turn it into a home brewed glass of relaxation. Simply brew your favorite hot tea stronger than you normally like it and pour it over ice. Then add more ice as the first set of ice cubes dissolve and cool the tea. Or, if you favor sun tea (like my mom) you can make it in individual sized glasses, using scrupulously clean ball jars or other individually sized glass vessels and filtered water and steeping in the sunniest spot you can find for 3-4 hours. Add sweetener and whatever garnish and flavoring you like – lemon, lime, ginger, or any type of fruit – to perfect your finished iced tea.

Take a global spin and make iced green tea. Did you know that originally American iced tea was made with green tea leaves? When you make it homemade, it will offer all of the health benefits and antioxidants of green tea, and provide a nice little caffeine buzz. (Unfortunately the bottled varieties of iced green tea vary in their health benefits, with some offering more sugar than anything else.)

Maybe most relaxing of all, you can take your tea from soft to hard, with a creative tea cocktail recipe. One of the best cocktails I ever had was an Earl Grey martini served in a lemon zest and sugar rimmed glass. It consists of gin that has been steeped with loose Earl Grey tea leaves, simple syrup, egg white for texture and volume, and lemon juice. Play mixologist and you can make your own sophisticated blends using your favorite black, green, or herbal teas infused into gin, vodka or rum for at least two hours, for an adult beverage that is guaranteed to keep you cool.

So in celebration of June, National Iced Tea Month, start an afternoon teatime ritual: grab your favorite summer read, (or not) sit on the porch or hop into a hammock, and relax with a nice tall glass of your favorite home brewed concoction!

Serves/Makes: 6

***Ginger Tea Syrup***

• 6 green tea bags or spoonfuls of loose tea
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 ounces fresh ginger, sliced

***For Cocktail***

• 10 fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 cup ginger tea syrup
• 3 cups club soda
• 1 lime