Thank you to whomever reminded “Summer” to finally grace herself in the city of Seattle. C’mon… it’s ridiculous when I’m wearing my down coat and it is the month of July. The Fourth of July was gray, cold, and wet – no surprise there. But imagine how surprised I was to wake up to sunshine yesterday. In fact, the weather rose to 79 degrees! In Seattle, this is considered “unbearably hot”. My husband flipped the switch to our portable air conditioner standing tall in our dining room and the kids spent little time getting their swim suits on to play with the garden hose outside.
I interpreted the sunshine to be an invitation to make a pitcher of coconut mango iced tea. I’m so glad it did because today it’s suppose to be almost 90 degrees and I still have half a pitcher left.
Making iced tea is simple and straightforward. It’s the same as making hot tea except you’ll want to make it double strength. For instance, you will steep two tea bags for every cup of water. The way I make iced tea is to use half black tea and half any other flavor. In this case, my daughters picked out coconut mango wuyi oolong (green) tea to marry good old plain Lipton tea. I think they did a fantastic job. The coconut mango tea was very refreshing and I will be making another batch as soon as we polish off this one.
If you’re looking for a good excuse to use the empty juice pitcher laying around, and you happen to live somewhere where the sun is shining its warmth on you, here’s my recipe for iced tea. Enjoy!
How to Make Iced Tea
What you’ll need:
10 tea bags * I recommend using half plain black tea like Liptons and half another type such as an herbal fruit tea.
5 cups water
Optional: Mint sprigs, lemon, sugar or other sweetener (simple syrup, agave, honey, splenda)
Directions:
Place tea bags in a boiling pot of water. Allow the water to simmer for 1 minute before turning off the heat. Allow the tea bags to steep for at least 20 minutes so it has a chance to pull all the flavor from the tea leaves and also allows the tea to slightly cool. Tea should be slightly warmer than luke warm but not burning. Fill a juice pitcher with ice and optional sliced lemons, and mint sprig. Pour tea over the ice and stir. Serve with additional lemon wedges. If you prefer your tea more sweet, add simple syrup to the ice tea mixture before serving. Enjoy!
I made this today- was a little bit strong to me at first, but once I added sugar it turned out alright 🙂
I have been looking for some inspiring iced tea recipes and your’s was wonderful! I can’t wait to try it.
The pictures in the post were beautiful too and made me want some iced tea RIGHT NOW!
Hi Megan,
You can use any type of tea bag flavors you want, including non-caffeinated. You can just use herbal tea.
Is there a way to make caffeine-free iced tea? I absolutely love iced tea but I cannot drink caffeine and have always wondered if I can make it myself. Is the black tea absolutely necessary? I think those always have caffeine in them
The Southern girl in me loves Community Coffee tea. It is a brand I saw far more of when I lived in Louisiana, but it is still my preferred brand of tea.
Thanks again, Its really hot in the mountains these days and a nice home brewed ice tea is a welcome break. Love the way you present your menu and I am definitely Stumbling your site.
Looks so good! I have an iced tea maker, but my tea always comes out a bit weak. I will have to up the number of bags and I’ll definitely try some flavored tea next time!
The coconut mango tea sounds WONDERFUL! My family goes through gallons of tea this time of year, maybe I’ll surprise them with a new variety this evening.
reminds me of my Texas childhood…i love sun tea though…with lots of lemon and ice!
This is a picture perfect iced tea 🙂
Really great beverage for a hot summer day….
Glad to hear it’s warming up there for you. We’ve had ridiculously hot weather on this coast and and it’s finally starting to cook down a bit. I love Stash teas, especially the peach one.
Fantastic post, though I am not a big fan of ice tea my sister loves it and i m sure she will definately love this!
I love iced tea though I no longer drink the sweet tea of my Southern upbringing. I do love all those wonderful Stash teas…they have such a fabulous assortment of flavors and choices.
Great beverage for a hot summer day! Extra lemon in mine please:)
I love the photography with this post! Thanks for reminding me to make some sun tea…
We went from low 60’s to high 90’s here in Portland. Iced tea is definitely in order.
I have a little something for you over on my blog today…
http://portlandpeeps.blogspot.com/
Stay cool!
Coconut mango iced tea sounds so good! I hope I can find those teabags in my grocery store.
Why don’t you come East and share some of our 102 degree weather this week? I can’t wait for it to get back into the 70s and 80s! Enjoy the comfortable temps and the iced tea!
Ooh, sounds good! I usually make my iced tea way strong. Some of our guests seem to like it that way, but it helps now for me to have some set portions to use. =) Beautiful post as usual!
I’m in Tacoma and I’m loving this great weather we’ve got! I’m sure we’ll have an extreme weather warning before you know it 🙂
I’d glady take this any day over the triple digits that my family has in AR right now.
Love the pictures.
I just iced a pot of loose leaf Assam, myself… and really wished I had a lemon or two at my disposal. This makes me even sadder about it. 🙂
Alice, wonderful post as always! And I see you’re already enjoying your iPhone! 🙂 As for the weather- Seattleites might complain about it here… Reaching 103º in some parts of the NYC/NJ area! Now, if only I had some of that coconut mango tea to make this!
I need that iced tea today – it is almost 100 degrees here!
OOOOH Alice, Thank you for such a simple idea! I love iced tea. My kids surprisingly do too. I cannot wait to go buy some flavored tea bags.
It’s been pretty hot here in Ohio.