HOW TO MAKE BETTER ICED TEA

Cold and refreshing, iced tea is the essential drink of summer. Whether you simply pour it into an ice-filled glass, transform it into a sweet or fruity iced tea, or use it for mixed drinks, it's easy to make iced tea at home. From choosing the type of tea to finding the perfect brewing method for you, some small steps can improve your iced tea.

THE BEST TYPE OF TEA FOR ICED TEA

You can brew iced tea with any tea. Assam, Ceylon, Nilgiri, and Darjeeling are black teas to consider. Earl Grey is a bold black tea blend with a nice citrus flavor that's excellent when served cold. Oblong iced tea has a natural sweetness, and green tea blends are a bit more mellow in flavor. Herbal and fruity tea blends can have bright tastes that are perfect for summer.

Beyond type, it's also important to consider the quality of your tea. The least expensive tea bags are filled with the fanning and dust leftover from processing tea, which compromise the taste. For better-tasting iced tea, buy loose-leaf tea or high-quality bags of leaf tea.

SPECIAL TEA BAGS FOR ICED TEA

Taking advantage of iced tea's popularity, some producers sell special blends designed for convenience. For instance, Lipton has a "Southern Sweet Tea," which adds sucrose and pectin to the tea bag, producing a sweetened tea. This tea is useful for people who don't want to take the extra step of sweetening brewed tea to their own personal taste by adding simple syrup, honey, or other sweetener.

Lipton also has "Cold Brew" tea, and this one is more useful. According to the company, it adds the extracted essence of fresh tea leaves to its signature black tea blend. The concept is that you can brew a single cup of tea in cold water within a few minutes (as opposed to brewing through more traditional methods, as explained below). It works out rather well and produces a nice-tasting iced tea, though you are limited to that particular tea.

HOT BREW AND CHILLED ICED TEA

The hot brewing method is the preferred way to make iced tea. It produces a bold iced tea, takes a few minutes to brew, and is ready to drink within the hour.

With this method, the trick is to brew a strong tea base with a small portion of hot water, let it cool a bit, then dilute it to taste with cold water. If you chill the tea too fast (such as pouring warm tea over ice), it releases more astringent tannin that turn the tea cloudy and produce a more bitter-dry taste.

1. To brew one quart of iced tea, heat two cups of water to 200 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit for black tea.
   

2. Add four tea bags (or four tablespoons of loose-leaf tea in a tea infuser), and steep for three to five minutes.
   

3. Remove the tea bags or infuser, and let the tea cool at room temperature for about five minutes.
   

4. Add two cups of cold water and refrigerate (at least two hours is best) or add ice and serve right away. You can add more cold water to soften the tea to your desired strength. When switching to other types of tea, use the recommended brewing times and temperatures for that tea.