I use Tetley tea, I think it has the best taste. Now I have an Iced Tea maker, it was about 20 bucks at BB & B. I like mine strong, too. Before the Iced Tea Maker, I would boil water on the stove in a tea kettle. When it starts to boil, I'd put in my tea bags and turn the heat off. I'd let it steep for about 10 minutes then pour it over ice (or just water) into a pitcher. You can add sugar then and store in the fridge, or leave it unsweetened. I have always squeezed the tea bags (and burned my fingers) because I like it strong. I've never heard of bitter tannins. Maybe I've been drinking them the whole time!!! Christy :)

This is how I make mine and it is very popular with everyone it is served to.

Six teabags put into a small pot with just enough water to cover the tea bags. Bring to a boil, turn off heat. Let sit for 1 minute. Into a gallon size container put the water from the tea bags, 1 cup of sugar, 1 can frozen lemonade, and enough extra water to fill the gallon sized container. Stir, and refridgerate.

Can vary the teabags, flavoured, herbal or just regular, earl gray, english breakfast etc. Can reduce sugar by 1/4 c if you find 1 cup is too much.

Enjoy,

Shelley

Iced tea is my favorite beverage and I drink it throughout the year. I use a sort of strange method to make it but it turns out exactly the way I like it.

I start by bringing 1 and 1/2 cups of water and 1 level tablespoon of sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. As soon as comes to a rolling boil, I give it a stir with a spoon to distribute the dissolved sugar. Then I remove the pan from the heat and immediately sprinkle 1 heaping tablespoon of loose tea over the water, without stirring.

I let it steep for exactly 5 minutes; then pour the liquid through a tea strainer into a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup and let it cool at room temperature for about an hour.

At this point, I've got a nice clear tea concentrate and either pour it into a pint glass jar with a lid to store in the refrigerator or pour it into a two quart glass pitcher and fill with cold water to equal about 7 to 7 1/2 cups.

You can omit or increase the sugar to taste.

You can add fruit or mint. My favorite is to add 2 or 3 orange slices to the pitcher. If I'm using mint, I like to bruise the leaves and add to the boiling water to steep along with the tea.

As for the tea, I use a very strong long-leafed black tea called Russian Fancy that I buy at a local farmers' market. I don't like that variety for hot tea but it maintains its flavor with ice. You'll have to do some experimenting to find the kind you prefer.

Good luck in your quest. I'd agree that a perfect glass of iced tea is hard to find but when you do get one, it's heavenly.

I put a few handfuls of mint from the garden in a small (maybe a cup) pot of water and bring it to a boil. I add two family-serving style teabags and turn off the stove. (I prefer Lipton.) I put 1/4 c. (or a little less) sugar in a 2-qt pitcher and add about a quart of water. When I'm done with that, I let the tea sit a minute more and then pour it into the pitcher. I add water until the tea is "the right color." Refrigerate.

~Amanda

I put 2 cups of water and 2 family sized tea bags ( usually Lipton, but I like Lusianne) in a 2 cup pyrex measure, micro on high for 3 minutes, let it sit another 3 minutes and pour over ice and glug glug glug...
And I squeeze a wedge of lemon into my glass. No sugar, no mint.
Linda C

I like tea, both hot and iced, so I drink a lot of it. Sometimes coffee instead, but I'll usually drink coffee in the morning and switch to tea in the afternoon.

I've started using Elery's iced tea maker, I think it's by Mr. Coffee, and I use bulk Irish Breakfast Tea from Twinings. Perfect tea every time, I really like it.

When I'm at home I'll boil about a quart of water, add 4 tea bags, let it steep about 3 minutes, give the bags a quick final "dunk", then let the tea cool and pour it over ice. I'm told that pouring hot tea over ice is what makes it cloudy, darned if I know, but I don't do it anyway.

I like my tea plain and strong, no sugar, no lemon, no herbal stuff, no mint. Just tea. Like LindaC, my teabags are usually Lipton, but I'll use Red Rose interchangeably, it's the only two brands my local grocery store has. I always stock up on "good tea" when I go to Grand Rapids.

Annie

Lots of methods to try here! Shelley, your's is the most like my mom's but without the lemonade. She is 91 so has pretty much become an expert (in her own mind) on everything. The addition of the lemonade sounds nice.

Ruthanna, it must have taken several attempts to get that recipe. If it's as good as sounds (and I bet it is) it must be fabulous.

I have a 20 percent off coupon so I'll go get an iced tea machine from BB&B. One more kitchen gadget -- yay.

I haven't seen Luzianne tea in years. I wonder if any of the stores around here still carry it. I'll keep an eye out.

Do tea bags get stale? I have some on the shelf that have been there quite awhile.

Thanks for all these good ideas.

I keep my tea in the freezer.

Tea gets stale I understand....but I don't care.
Annie what makes tea cloudy is chilling...if your tea gets cloudy, re heat it and pour over ice....I love the crackling hot makes over ice....and yes I have broken a glass or 2...the trick is to not let the ice sit in the glass before you pour on the tea.
Also, do you know that tea can make you sick...left at room temperature?
And I am also spooky about restraunt tea...I can taste "skunky" tea right away...yuck!
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: bacteria in tea

I do mine differently from everybody else but it is good.
I bring a stock pot of filtered water to a rolling boil -about 5 quarts, then add 6 family sized tea bags. I only use Luzianne and I use 3 decaf and 3 regular bags. We make unsweetened tea.
I take it off the heat and put the lid on - to keep out bugs. I let it sit until it's cool. This is hours.

That's it. I then pour it into a huge pitcher and refrigerate. The bags stick to the bottom of the pot when I pour. I never squeeze them.
To make a glass of tea, I take a large glass, fill with ice cubes and Quell Horror! half a bag of sweet-in-low.
Pour chilled tea over ice.
Even die hard sweet-in-low haters can't tell. I've been doing this for them for years. And no, they aren't just being nice.

Luzianne is still around. I agree Lindac, I can taste skunky tea very quickly. I grew up drinking tea. That's all I drank, and even now don't drink coffee. In the winter I drink hot tea and in the summer iced tea. A few years ago I worked in restaurant. You do not even want to imagine how nasty that large tea canister got. They would have to bleach it at least once a week. The first time I saw that, I started brewing my own tea at work. Not out of that thing. Christy :)

Wow, never new that about tea sitting around and going bad. Thanks Linda!(not that we leave tea sitting around, but still good to know).

Shelley

To me, tea gets an off taste in the refrigerator after about 4 days. Otherwise it's fine. But I do use only filtered water. Once it goes bad I can taste it immediately.

Here's a sun tea lover - I have a big glass jar that I fill with water, then lower about 6 big tea bags into it and put the cover on the jar. Then I set it out in the sun for 6-8 hours. I remove the bags (no, I don't squeeze as it does release too much acid) and enjoy the tea.

I haven't made any this summer - getting plenty of acid from my tomatoes, and also am trying to avoid caffeine.

DonnaR/CA

I can taste that skunky tea quickly too, and I never order restaurant iced tea because it only comes sweetened "down south" and is usually sitting on a counter for days until it's rancin "up north". Ugh.

So if I don't refrigerate my tea it won't get cloudy? But it will get rancid, LOL, so I guess I'll take the cloudy stuff, thanks LindaC.

Annie

I make refrigerator tea. Fill a half gallon container with cold water, put in 4 tea bags, cover and put in the refrigerator over night. Take the tea bags out and enjoy. It is never cloudy.

Ok, guys. I grew up in south east Texas on the border of Louisiana, with a grandmother from Georgia who lived next door. I figure I have a few things to say... My favorite tea is Luzianne. They don't sell it where I live now but it is the best for iced tea, imho. Here are a few myths/rules that I grew up with:

1. Don't boil the tea bags it will make the tea bitter. (of course if you like your tea bitter, as it appears some do, this doesn't matter.)

2. Don't boil the water. Just bring it to almost boiling then add tea bags and let steep - off the heat.

3. Do add a pinch of baking soda. Don't remember why! lol Something to do with foaming or bitterness maybe? Does anyone out there know?

4. Don't pour hot tea over ice. This will make it cloudy. I guess per glass doesn't matter, but I have seen tea go cloudy when done in a pitcher.

So, take it for what it's worth. But, that is 3 generations from 3 different American cultures talking... lol, just imagine how confused I was growing up!! :)

Try pouring tea over ice....it doesn't cloud.
I don't want yesterday's tea...I throw out a lot of tea.
One convention center where I go to a meeting once a month always has glasses of iced tea and water on the tables by 5:30 and dinner is at 7.
I always ask for fresh tea....there is a layer of clear melted ice above a layer of tea colored liquid....and I'm not drinking that!

Like Linda I put bags in a cup and nuke it for 3 minutes. All kinds of tea but I think my favorite is a bag of Darjeeling and a bag of green tea in the same cup. I have a quart container (recycled gatoraid bottle) for work and half gallon (recycled cranberry juice bottle) for home which is a double batch. They have caps that screw on tight so I can shake a bit of honey into the tea. Once I have my tea and honey I top it off with water. Then in the fridge. Just a squirt of honey not hardly enough to taste it. Sort of gives the tea some body. Sometimes I'll go with Chai spiced tea and for that enough honey to make it sweet.

Works best if the tea bags don't sit in the tea for long. Letting it steep for 5 minutes is plenty. If it sits awhile then the tea goes bitter. Green tea has more bitter to start with it seems but is also supposed more healthful. Stomach problems so I can't hardly drink soda pop anymore. A jug of iced tea in the fridge all the time now. I have to bleach the container every couple weeks because the honey makes mold grow.

A gallon of kombucha tea fermenting in my cupboard. Supposed to straighten your Qi out. It has a mushroom or "scoby" that ferments it so it is very mildly alcoholic and whatever else the mushroom does.

Funny this thread was at the top of the page. I just got out of bed craving a glass of iced tea. Dolly was barking at something and woke me up. So here I sit with a glass of mildly sweet tea and a .38 Special waiting to see if Dolly's prowlers show up. Dolly does not normally do much barking so something was out there.

: )
lyra

I use those little packets of powder...

not exactly on topic, but one of my pet peeves in restaurants is the way tea is served. When you go out for breakfast almost universally you get unlimited refills of hot fresh coffee. However, when you order tea, you get a cup of hot water (or tepid water)and a tea bag on the side. Fancier places bring that same cup of water and a big box of tea bags to choose from. Then throughout the meal the wait-staff come and refill the coffee cups with fresh hot coffee but offer "more hot water" to tea drinkers - poured over the same soggy old tea bag.

Why can't restaurants offer brewed hot tea just as cheaply as they do coffee?

What fun to see how many different ways people make tea!

We drink a lot of iced tea around here during the hot Valley summers. I found a couple of great liquid dispensers at KMart, I think by Martha Stewart. They're tall, thin, rectangular containers that go just about to the back of the fridge, but are only about 3 inches wide, with a pour spout on the front. One is kept full of iced tea and one with Crystal Lite lemonade. The lemonade is too sweet for us on it's own, but it sweetens and gives a lemon flavor to the tea when mixed together.

We use Red Rose tea, decaf (if I drank as much caffeinated tea as I drink decaf, I'd never sleep!). 5 teabags in a 2 quart glass pot on the stove at low until one of us remembers to take it off the burner. Then when it cools down it goes into the dispenser.

Once every week and a half or so, I let the dispenser get empty and give it a good scrubbing with rock salt & ice.

Sometimes I brew up a teapot of one of my fancier, loose leaf teas, and they're quite good...Yin Hao Jasmine makes a lovely iced tea, as does Assam Golden Tip. But as they have caffeine, I can only have them for lunch. In any case, they'd be hideously expensive to use for the vast amounts of tea we chug down on a day to day basis!

I use an electric water kettle, loose tea, and a strainer. Growing up we drank a lot of iced tea, so we would make it in the coffee maker. I guess it worked well but I like to complicate things.

We love iced tea in our family...in fact for Christmas one year we gave everyone iced tea makers. I make all kinds, orange and put orange slices in it, peach and put peach slices in it, etc... but my favorite is Earl Grey (Twinings); is the only brand I buy...it has the best flavor..
I don't add sugar as we love it with only lemon.
Make the tea in the iced tea maker and let it sit closed for 5 mins when it's done. (makes it stronger).

Linda

As usual I found myself on the wiki checking up on the tea facts. A huge section on tea of every kind. Interesting facts like the best way to make tea depends on what kind of tea you have... who would have thunk it? Green or black depends on how it is processed. My wonderful darjeeling is 3/4 fraud! Seems the world drinks 40,000 tons of it but only 10,000 tons are grown each year?

With this being a popular thread I thought I stop back and give a link to the article for information junkies like me.

: )
lyra

Here is a link that might be useful: tea on the wiki

I drink iced tea year round here in FL. I never sweeten it with sugar. If it is sweetened with sugar it develops an odd taste if it sits overnight in the fridge. We make it by bringing a 2 quart pot 3/4 full of water with a family sized teabag in it to almost a boil. Let it steep for a few minutes and then dilute in the pitcher with the amount of water needed to make a gallon. Then it goes into the fridge to cool. We use SweetNlow to sweeten it. If we used the sugar we would gain weight drinking that much tea.

Very interesting daylily about the sugar. I make unsweetened tea too and it really is fine for days in the refrigerator.
I have been wondering about all the posts about skunky tea and if my taste was off but I think it is the sugar addition. We use sweet in low too...have to with the amounts we drink.
I have noticed that if I add the sweet in low to the pitcher, it won't keep as long in the refrigerator.

As much as I hate to say this, Wal-mart is now carrying Lusianne. (I hate to say it because I loathe WM, but it's the only place out here that I can get Lusianne.) And check the price because I discovered it's cheaper to buy two of the 24 ct boxes than a 48ct box. Go figure.

I grew up in the south and didn't realize until I was a teenager that anyone drank unsweetened tea except diabetics. :) My DH is from the west and nearly went into convulsions the first time he had iced tea down south because it was so sweet. We reached a compromise, and now even I can't drink it as sweet as most places there serve it. Note, I have never know sugar to cause tea to go bad or taste funky. Old tea, improperly stored tea, teas sweetened with artificial sweeteners or with lemon or other "stuff" added to it, sure, but not refrigerated sweet tea.

I use six family size bags per gallon (we like it strong and use lots of ice.) I heat water in my tea kettle. After it's steeped (which I don't bother to time), I add 1/2 cup sugar. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's perfect for us. Even my MIL is hooked on my tea now.) Note, you can't get away with that "however long" steeping with Lipton or Tetley, it gets bitter.

Yes, tea bags can go "off", especially in humid climates. That's different from them going stale, and you'll know it immediately. It's a nasty, musty, metalic flavor. And, yes, tea can breed some nasty bacteria that will keep you occupied in the privy for awhile. In restaurants, the culprit isn't the urn itself as often as it is improper holding temps or the spigot on the urn. I went to work in one place where the spigot had NEVER been taken apart for cleaning. They cleaned the urn twice a day, but no one realized the spigot had to be taken apart for cleaning. I threw it out and ordered new ones.

That happens with the spigots on soda machines too, which is one of the reasons I rarely order sodas in restaurants. If they have it in cans, fine, but soda machines are almost never adjusted properly nor cleaned properly. Every restaurant I ever worked in had filthy soda spigots when I started there, and I'd have to get to nagging people to take it apart every night at closing time.

beanthere, thank you so much for letting us know Walmart has Lusianne! I've been missing that tea for 15 years.

I like to use a loose black tea and add it to water just off the boil. The loose tea lets the water circulate through it so it brews strong without a lot of stirring or dunking. I make it in a measuring cup with a spout so it can be poured through a strainer onto the ice in a glass - I've never had problems with it getting cloudy. Usually I take it unsweetened, but when the mood strikes, I put sugar into the water with the steeping tea so that it dissolves.

If I'm going to add mint, I bruise it a bit and add to the glass with the ice. I've found that I prefer the fresh mint taste to the flavor produced when mint is brewed in hot water.

I use my regular coffee maker for tea...it's a small 4 c coffee pot...3 family sized tea bags...into the basket...now brew regular cycle...add to pitcher with 1 & 1/2 c sugar (Southern Sweet Tea) then refill your coffee with clean cold water 4 times adding to the tea/sugar mix...

ENJOY...... and yes, old tea can be dangerous! A friend of mine contacted food poisioning from it per her MD....so be careful!

I can see the box of Luzianne tea in my mind and I am seeing it spelled with a z not an s. I googled it and for once my muddled mind was right.

Here is a link that might be useful: That's Luzianne with a Z

Good catch, Dedtired. :) I think I've bought it so long that I've stopped looking at the box.

Trsinc, All the ones WMs in the Reno area carry it, so if the one near you doesn't stock it, they surely can get it. Also, when I lived in CA, we used to order it by the case direct from the company. That's another option. Of course you have to drink a LOT of tea to make that feasible as it does get old/off.

I make tea in a pot using Keemun or Fancy Keemun loose tea. I only make small amounts at a time because I don't drink that much, and I don't want to store it in the fridge. I only make enough to leave out on the counter for one day.

The last time I used tea bags, they were Tetley's, and they tasted okay to me, but I prefer loose tea. I use Equal for sweetener and sometimes add lemon, but only when I pour it into a glass.

Lars