How to Make Iced Tea

Series Summary

Tea is characterized as the most mystical and healing of all the beverages. With the variety of flavors, tea seems to perfect drink for any occasion. As Chinese legend describes, tea originated by divine intervention. A legendary emperor was sitting in the grass sometime around 2737 B.C. As he was pondering life, he drank a bowl of boiling water when all of a sudden leaves blew into his bowl. When he looked down, he noticed that the water had started to change color. The ever inquisitive and curious monarch took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and its restorative properties. However, due to the desire that tea arouses, one creation myth can not possibly be enough to explain the beginnings of tea. Another legend claims that the founder of the Zen school of Buddhism discovered the beverage. Regardless of truth to these myths, tea has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative and a symbol of status. Learn how to make the perfect glass of iced tea in this free video series. Let a tea lounge owner explain how to prevent bitter tea, cold brewing techniques, sweeten iced tea and what teas make the best iced tea. Sit back on a hot summer day with a cold, refreshing glass of iced tea.

Video Transcript

"So how do you make iced tea? First you start, and you have to make sure you got some good ice cubes. One thing that people always forget, ice in the refrigerator, might not taste good, because it took up the flavor of whatever that you had in the refrigerator. So, make sure your ice cube is actually made of filtered water and it doesn't have any after taste or additional flavor and such. Because that will alter the flavor of your tea. When you make iced tea, you can use the same amount of tea leaves you would put if you were making a sixteen ounce cup of hot tea. You use one tablespoon. You'd be making a sixteen ounce cup of iced tea, you still use the same amount of tablespoons. But, for iced tea you're using less water. Instead of putting in sixteen ounce of hot water, you now use only eight ounces of hot water. After the tea is finished brewing, you put the tea into your cup of ice. That's the fastest way for me, or you can take out the, the brew and put it in another cup, and then put the ice in. But, I like putting it directly into the ice cubes. And here, you have a cup of iced tea that has not been diluted, because if you were putting a sixteen ounce cup of hot water into the same amount of tea leaf and then add ice into it, now you have a diluted cup of tea. And here, is the perfect cup of iced tea."