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Best tea for iced tea

post #1 of 23
7/2/11 at 8:21am
Thread Starter 
I'll be making iced tea for the weekend festivities. There is the Lipton tea bag standby, but I'm wondering what other people find to be the best kind of tea for iced tea.

And does anyone have any tricks for making really good iced tea?

It needs to stand on its own without sweetening as most people in the family don't like sweetened teas.
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post #2 of 23
7/2/11 at 10:34am
I don't like sweetened tea either, and my version of ice tea is no where close to that sweet lemon stuff.

All I do is steep regular tea and add milk then put it into the fridge to chill. Serve either plain or over ice.

I use regular Tetley tea bags.

No sugar and no lemon.
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post #3 of 23
7/2/11 at 10:38am
I was all ready to chime in until you said it wouldn't be sweet tea. Honey, I'm from Virginia and you just can't make tea sweet enough!

Teasing aside, I do like Lipton unsweetened as long as you don't brew it too long. Consider getting a lightly flavored tea, as well, like peach or raspberry. It doesn't require sweetening but is still more refreshing than plain tea. I love this peach tea from Lipton.
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post #4 of 23
7/2/11 at 10:49am
I've always preferred Red Rose brand tea bags for iced tea, but I think it was a Michigan thing (it's been a long time since I've been able to find it in the stores.) It's a strong black tea, but without the bitterness. Now I use Lipton, but it isn't nearly as good. Once in a while I want something flavored, and use Bigelow Constant Comment to make a pot of iced tea.

I have a little Corelle tea pot that I boil on the stove. I put in about 6 tea bags and leave them until it cools. I then put the cooled strong tea into a large glass jar with a spigot, fill with water to desired strength, and keep in the refrigerator. Perfect tea at my fingertips!
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post #5 of 23
7/2/11 at 6:30pm
I only make sweet tea but I use Tetley Ice Tea blend. Tetley IMO is the best tea out there. Luzianne is the other one I like.
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post #6 of 23
7/2/11 at 8:42pm
I use Red Rose for hot tea. I honestly don't remember what we used for iced tea back when DH and I made it all the time.

I do use Lipton Green tea to make an iced green tea! My MIL got us hooked! I do like 2/3 green tea to 1/3 mint tea. Definitely helps with the bitterness green tea can have. Another thing that is great is to do just green tea; but squeeze and put sliced lemon in there! My MIL does that too; and she is generous with the lemon pieces; so you get a little pulp in it sometimes; but man is it gooooood! (We do sweeten it some too.)
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post #7 of 23
7/2/11 at 8:45pm
Luzianne is the best! I make a ton of sweet tea (It's a Southern thing).

(The key is to use two family-sized bags for extra flavor)
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post #8 of 23
7/2/11 at 10:35pm
I'm another who doesn't drink sweetened tea. For regular iced tea I use 2 large family sized tea bags/gallon and add one or two Constant Comment teabags for a little flavor.

I also drink a lot of herbal tea. Some of the best flavors for iced tea are apple-cranberry zinger or tangerine-orange zinger.
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post #9 of 23
7/3/11 at 2:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StarryEyedTiGeR View Post
Luzianne is the best! I make a ton of sweet tea (It's a Southern thing).
I agree about Luzianne for iced tea! (If you want good mint iced tea, try Boston Mint Tea bags.)

To make two quarts of iced tea:

Bring about 2 cups of water to a good boil.
Drop in 6-7 tea bags (regular tea bags)
Let sit for about 20 minutes (much longer than that your tea will become cloudy).
Remove tea bags and put the tea into a 2-qt container. (If using sugar, add a very scant 3/4 cup; depending on desired sweetness, even 1/2 cup will work). Mix well.
Fill with cold water and put in fridge. Serve over ice in glasses.

We have fresh mint in the garden, so I like to add about 12 nice, washed mint leaves to the boiling water when I add the tea bags. If I don't have mint leaves, we really love Boston mint tea bags.

DH is a big iced tea drinker, especially in the summer. I always have iced tea on hand for him. I'm down to a little over 1/2 cup of sugar in the tea for him now; I can drink unsweetened tea, but he won't. I've been slowly cutting back on the amount of sugar.

Goldy Cat, I like tangerine-orange zinger tea bags, too. Yum!
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post #10 of 23
7/3/11 at 6:44am
Honestly I hardly make plain iced tea anymore. Flavored tea unsweetened (or with two sweet and lows only depending on my mood ) My favorite site to get it from is Culinary Teas online. They make the BEST blueberry tea. Some of the others are nasty but try them. I've always make wildberry at parties and people like it. Just tea for thought
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post #11 of 23
7/3/11 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Winchester View Post

To make two quarts of iced tea:

Bring about 2 cups of water to a good boil.
Drop in 6-7 tea bags (regular tea bags)
Let sit for about 20 minutes (much longer than that your tea will become cloudy).
Remove tea bags and put the tea into a 2-qt container. (If using sugar, add a very scant 3/4 cup; depending on desired sweetness, even 1/2 cup will work). Mix well.
Fill with cold water and put in fridge. Serve over ice in glasses.
I am from the south, where I grew up on iced tea. This is exactly how we made it, except we would add a pinch of baking soda to the water. Im not sure why, my Grandma always did that though.

But we always made really sweet tea. It has been years since I have had iced tea, though. Now I drink hot tea.

Mint and sage are excellent in hot or cold tea.
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post #12 of 23
7/3/11 at 9:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoochNNoodles View Post
I use Red Rose for hot tea. I honestly don't remember what we used for iced tea back when DH and I made it all the time.

I do use Lipton Green tea to make an iced green tea! My MIL got us hooked! I do like 2/3 green tea to 1/3 mint tea. Definitely helps with the bitterness green tea can have. Another thing that is great is to do just green tea; but squeeze and put sliced lemon in there! My MIL does that too; and she is generous with the lemon pieces; so you get a little pulp in it sometimes; but man is it gooooood! (We do sweeten it some too.)
They still make it??? You can still find Red Rose????? Where???
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post #13 of 23
7/3/11 at 10:55am
delicious Thread!....
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post #14 of 23
7/3/11 at 11:12am
They still make Red Rose tea. I haven't done it but they do have a website where you can order it online.
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post #15 of 23
7/3/11 at 11:43am
I think our grocery store still carries it. Want me to send you some? I will!
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post #16 of 23
7/3/11 at 8:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pookie-poo View Post
They still make it??? You can still find Red Rose????? Where???
I get it at Walmart! But they don't put the little figurines in anymore!! You can get them; but you have to send something in and pay for shipping I think. Boo.
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post #17 of 23
7/4/11 at 3:44am
I had never tried Red Rose tea and I just seen it in the grocery store so I got some to try it. It was at Kroger here in Ohio. They only had the 100 ct box and it did have the little figurine in it. I haven't tried it yet, I'm still on my morning coffee.
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post #18 of 23
7/4/11 at 8:49am
In our house we make iced tea in the coffee pot! We use 4 bags of Lipton and 1 bag of Earl Grey. We turn the pot off once it has brewed. No sugar! And absolutely NO MILK! We drink it over ice with a wedge or two of lemon. Can't beat it!
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post #19 of 23
7/4/11 at 3:08pm
I make sun tea. I usually use Lipton teas-just alot more as a make a gallon. I use gallon jug fill with cold water and set in sun in front of my house for 4 hours. For some reason one isn't supposed to leave it out longer but I have. I slice up a lemon and add some to the tea. If you add too much lemon it gets really lemony tasting. I had gotten out the of habit of making iced to but started again.
I bought some of Lipton unsweetened tea powder-nasty stuff.
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post #20 of 23
7/4/11 at 8:20pm
I need to go to Kroger tomorrow for milk. I will check and see if they have Red Rose. If they do, I'm going to make some for me and my dad (we're both iced tea-aholics!)
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post #21 of 23
7/4/11 at 8:37pm
I use Luzianne, also. I use 4 big tea bags per gallon, plus one small bag each of English Breakfast and Earl Grey for the citrus flavor (Twining's brand), and 2 small bags of green tea (it's healthy so I use it. . .but I don't like the taste. Any brand). I add just a bit more than half a cup of sugar for the gallon, because I don't like it unsweetened but I also don't like it too sweet. I don't like milk in iced tea, although it's a must for hot tea.

Sometimes I'll throw in a bag of peach-flavored tea or Tazo Passion instead of Earl Grey.
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post #22 of 23
7/4/11 at 8:59pm
Like GailC, I too have always made sun tea by filing up a clear 2qt dispenser pitcher with water, adding the tea bags letting it sit out in the hot sun for about 4 hrs. Then bring it in and put it in the fridge to cool. We always had it over ice and sweetened to taste. Where I grew up everyone had their sun tea sitting outside during the hottest part the day.
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post #23 of 23
7/4/11 at 9:49pm
I didn't know they still made the powdered instant tea. My parents used that when I was growing up which was many years ago. I didn't like tea, either hot or cold, until I left home and had brewed tea. That instant stuff is nasty.
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