time for (iced) tea by Alice

I don't know about you, but I love tea. Good old breakfast tea, green tea, fruit tea, herbal tea... I love them all. And then there's iced tea. It's a summer treat that I like to enjoy all year round, because it's just that delicious! If you haven't made your own iced tea before... this is your chance, because I'm going to share my own special recipe with you. So, what are you waiting for? Go put the kettle on!

ONE.

Let's grab our ingredients. Firstly, get some tea bags. Just your everyday tea bags will work just fine. Next, dig your bicarbonate of soda out of your baking cupboard. Bicarb is essential for making iced tea; it's going to prevent that horrible bitter after taste. And finally, pick out your favourite jam (I was feeling fancy, so went for apricot, strawberry and blackcurrant, and made three different batches). You don't usually find jam in a recipe for iced tea; it's my own secret ingredient. Jam is going to add some fruity flavour to your iced tea, as well as providing some much needed sweetness.

TWO.

Grab a large jug and pop in three tea bags, along with about a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. 

THREE.

If you haven't done so already, now is the time to get that kettle boiling!

FOUR.

Pop three cups (750ml) of boiling water in the jug with the tea bags. Leave to brew for about 5 minutes.

FIVE.

Once brewed, remove the tea bags. Then, pop five or six tablespoons of your chosen jam into the tea and stir until it has dissolved as much as possible. 

SIX.

Put two or three cups (500ml - 750ml) of cold water into the jug and stir. Now comes the hard part... refrigerate your tea for at least an hour. If you're impatient like me, this is torture. Give me my iced tea already!

SEVEN.

Once you've chilled your tea for a sufficient amount of time (I'm not going to lie, I made it to about 45 minutes), pour into a glass and enjoy! If you are super fancy, serve with ice and a slice of lemon. Or, if you're super thirsty, drink it straight from the jug. 

NOTE.

This recipe will make about three glasses of iced tea. The general rule of thumb is: one tea bag, a pinch of bicarb, one cup (250ml) of boiling water, one cup (250ml) of cold water, and one to two tablespoons of jam per glass. 

Alice is a freelance writer and editor of Wonder Magazine. You can find her over on twitter. Find more posts by Alice here...