Recipe: Craft Iced Tea at Home!

Missing your favourite local restaurant or café’s handmade iced teas right about now?

Three great reasons why you should start making your own iced teas at home right here:

• Save money! With the average can or bottle of iced tea costing upwards of $2.50 (and as much as $7… yikes!) with a little effort you can make your own for 15 – 50 cents.
• Save the planet. Whether it’s served in a disposable cup, or a recyclable glass, plastic, or metal container – the negative impact of ready-to-drink iced tea products is massive.
• Enjoy the highest quality iced tea experience, tailored to your taste. When you make it yourself, you choose the sweetness, strength, and flavours that suit your palate best. Insider tip: most off-the-shelf iced teas, whether they are marketed by the big guys or ‘craft’ brands are made from diluted tea concentrates and added flavours, not freshly steeped whole leaf teas and whole natural fruits. They also tend to contain a LOT of sugar.

Three simple steps.

Our iced tea method is universal.

• Steep some strong tea for 5-7 minutes for black, oolong, and herbal teas, or 2-3 minutes for green teas. (We suggest 2 tablespoons tea to 500ml water to make your concentrate… this is a great starting point for all teas and herbals)
• Sweeten to taste. You will be diluting this concentrate with water, or perhaps soda, or juice, so take that into consideration. Sugar is a natural preservative, so this sweetened concentrate will keep in the fridge once sweetened for 2-3 days) Try agave, honey, or maple syrup instead of regular sugar.
• Build your tea! Add some sparkle with soda, some flavour with fruit juice, and style with garnish. Pro tip: try adding frozen fruit in lieu of ice!

Below are three of our favourite iced tea recipes. Steep, sip, and enjoy!

Verbena Blues Lemonade

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Verbena Blues Tea
1/4 cup Agave or Honey
1/2 L Freshly Boiled Water
Lemonade
A Sprig of Mint
Ice
Optional: Soda Water

Method:

1. Steep Verbena Blues Tea in boiled water for 7 minutes. Strain, and stir in agave or honey and let cool.
2. Fill glass with ice, and pour lemonade to the 3/4 mark. Add mint and top up the glass with the Verbena Blues tea, pouring gently so that it stays at the top.

Optional: Mix lemonade 50/50 with soda water for a less sweet drink.

Southbrook Sunrise

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Southbrook Berry Blend
1/2 L Freshly Boiled Water
1 cup Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
1 Orange Slice

Method:

1. Steep Southbrook Berry Blend in boiled water for 7 minutes. Strain, and let cool.
2. Fill glass with ice and pour orange juice to the halfway mark.
3. Tilt the glass and pour the cooled Southbrook Berry tea in gently to allow the liquids to remain separate.
4. Garnish with orange slice.

Moroccan Mint Twist 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp The Canadian Mint tea
3 cups Freshly Boiled Water
Sugar
1 Lime
Ice

Method:

1. Steep The Canadian Mint tea in boiled water, and allow it to sit for five minutes. Steep for 5 minutes, strain, and let cool. Add sugar to taste.
2. Slice a lime very finely to create thin circles that will adhere to the inside of the glass.  Line the inside of the glass with these slices.
3. Fill glass with ice halfway and add chilled tea.