Best ever iced tea

I have always hated iced tea made with real tea bags. Bitter, bland, flat, yucky. I think it's even worse, this sun tea idea. Oh joy, tea steeped in tepid water over several hours. Goody.

But I will share here my secret for making iced tea that you can actually choke down without gagging. The secret (drum roll please) is in the tea bag. I'm sure others here have discovered this but let's just play along and let me think I invented it, okay?

You want two regular tea bags (Tetley, Red Rose, Nabob, etc)and one herbal. Fruity is best. Pomegranate, raspberry, orange...just cruise the tea section looking for something fruity and interesting.

I make mine right in the pitcher I'm going to put in the fridge. Boil water, toss tea bags into pitcher and pour on boiled water and let steep for about 10-15 minutes. I pour in about 2 or 3 cups water. After tea is good and dark, toss bags. Add 2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar, depending on your sweet tooth, a generous glug of lemon juice and stir. At this point your tea should still be warm which helps dissolve the sugar with less stirring. Then toss in a tray of ice cubes and top up with cold water. Taste. Add more lemon juice because it really does make a difference.

So the secret is the fruity tea in addition to the regular tea. All fruit or all regular does not have the same impact. Bottoms up!

Sounds yummy going to have to try this out Uno.

Uno, nice. Gonna have to give that method a test run, yes, I agree, I don't like homemade iced tea. Now Liptons, I love that stuff!! Today, whilst on my Enderby run, I shall get some herbal tea and give it a whirl. Thanks for that info. Have a wonderful and greatest of days, CynthiaM.

Yum! I love icy cold sweet tea made right. Hubby and I got a real taste for it while traveling through the US in 2008. I will be trying this recipe sooner than later. Thanks uno.

Thanks! I've been looking for a good recipe!

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us, I too will be given it a try.

I'm off to try some as soon as I finish up here. Mine will be Surprise Tea. I have lots of fruity style teas, but the boxes they can in have all been used to bury my sons et mice which have all seemed to reach old age lately

Thanks Uno, sounds good, I have about 6 lemons to use up. I won a photo contest a few years ago with a jug of iced tea sitting on the deck and some lemons surrounding it. Adding the herbal tea is a great idea.

I freeze some of my ice tea mixture in ice cube trays then use the resulting "ice tea cubes" in the next mixture. That way the melting ice doesn't dilute the mixture.

Sliced, frozen strawberries can be added in place of ice cubes and they look pretty too.

An extra "WOW" effect can be attained by crushing several fresh mint leaves and adding them to the mix. I only do the strawberries and mint leaves if I'm really trying to impress visitors.

Yes UNO I completely agreee. This is how I make iced tea in our house it takes a bit longer than spooning some dusty choking powder in a jug but it tastes much better. I'm not fan of real tea so I always have fruit teas in the house. I find the best fruit tea is strawberry but the darker mixed berries and peach is good too. I think next I'll try some vanilla rooibos tea I have and see how that is.

I boil the water and in a 4cup measuring cup I add 1or 2 green tea bags and about 3or4 fruit tea bags. I wait for it to turn good and black then dump into a big camping thermos thingy. I add some more boiling water and let it get dark again dump into the thermos. I add about a cup of sugar and I cut up a lemon (I cut the rind off off it gives an off taste) and throw the pieces in, Stir really well and then empty my fridge icemaker of ice into my big thermos jug. I check it and usually add more ice water at this point (but not too much with all that ice it will become watery and not good later in the day) and a some lemon juice to bring out the flavour. I think this is for a 3gallon jug?? But I take it outside with some plastic cups and am the hero of my kids, hubby and whoever might stop by Oh after a long day if there's any iced tea left a nice splash (or 2) of a flavoured vodka (blueberry mmmm) is a fantastic end to the day.... Now if only I could remember what sun looked and felt like

Oooohh! Never thought about the vodka part. Clever!

I admit I like the powdered iced tea too. But after discovering that the addition of a fruity tea bag made all the difference in the steeped iced tea, I have cut back on the powdered stuff.

Oh Uno if you make some good brewed iced tea and add some flavoured Vodka it will be so yummy that you'd best have a comfy chair because you will forget there's vodka and getting up may not be easy LOL

Oh cool.. I'll have to try this! Thanks Uno