MAKE TIME TO CHILL

Feeling summery? Well, that’s the perfect excuse to enjoy some iced tea. Here’s a brief Cup of Tea guide to get you started…

As much as we love tea here at CoT HQ, we don’t always fancy drinking a steaming mug of it when the temperature’s up. That’s why we’re such big fans of iced tea – because it combines all the flavour of a conventional cuppa with the refreshing bite of a long, cool drink.

Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll almost certainly see a liquid masquerading as iced tea in the fridges of your local supermarket or newsagent. But don’t be fooled, because the iced tea we’re talking about is a very different substance. It’s less sugary, uses more natural ingredients, and – in our view, at least – is much, much tastier.

In fact, home-made iced tea is every bit as wholesome as its warm equivalent. That’s because it’s made in just the same way, though you can experiment with additional ingredients if you like, as some of our recipes below indicate.

Iced tea first became popular in the USA, where it was introduced by an Englishman called Richard Blechynden. During the sizzling summer of 1904, Blechynden was struggling to find customers for the hot black tea he sold on the street. So he hatched the idea of chilling it to sell as a soft drink… and it soon became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

A simple iced tea

To make a simple iced tea, you just need to brew a cup of green tea, black tea, or oolong tea. We recommend using double the normal quantity of tealeaves to ensure a good strong flavour.

Immediately the tea is brewed, pour it over plenty of ice – preferably in a tall jug – so that the taste is locked in. You can either drink it straightaway, or leave it in the fridge to stay cool until you’re ready to indulge.

If you want something different, you could try the same process with our range offruit infusionsor herbal infusions. And you can always add sugar to taste, or other ingredients like mint, lemon or lime.

As another tip, we find it’s handy to keep some pre-made tea in the freezer. Make it up to double strength, but only add enough water to create an ice cube, filling the tray with an individual brew in each hole. Then, when you’re ready for a cool cuppa, simply pop a cube into a glass, let it melt and add water and ice to taste. It’s the quick route to a perfect summer drink.

A taste for adventure

Feeling more adventurous? You could try chilling a flavoured white tea, such as Ronnefeldt White Mango Dream or Ronnefeldt White Melon. These both have a fruity countenance that blends perfectly with the delicacy of white tea, making for a very refreshing tea when drunk over ice.

Alternatively, you may want to try some of the recipes below, which we first published last year.

Ronnefeldt Morning Dew (Morgentau) with Mango

Ingredients:

4 heaped teaspoons of Ronnefeldt Morning Dew (Morgentau)

400 ml water - boiled, and cooled to 80-90°C

1-2 cl mango syrup

Mango slices (to decorate)

1. Put the tea into a small teapot, and fill with the water
2. Leave the tea brew for 2 - 3 minutes
3. Add the mango syrup, and stir thoroughly
4. Decorate with a slice of mango

Earl Grey Punch

Ingredients:

3 heaped teaspoons of Darjeeling Earl Grey

Juice of 1 lemon

300 ml orange juice

150 ml apple juice

220 ml ginger ale

1 tbsp caster sugar

2 springs of mint

10 ice cubes

Dark rum to taste (optional)

1. Put the Earl Grey tea into a teapot
2. Add boiling water, and leave the tea to brew for 2- 3 minutes
3. While the tea is brewing, pour the fruit juices, ginger ale and sugar into a jug. Add the infused tea, and stir to dissolve the sugar
4. Add the mint, allow the punch to cool, then chill it in the fridge
5. Remove the mint, and add the rum (optional)
6. Add ice cubes to the jug, and serve

Rooibos Orange Cream

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons of Cream Orange tea

400 ml boiling water

Acacia honey

1-2 cubes of vanilla ice cream