Almost Time for Iced Tea
Even with the growing popularity of fine loose leaf tea, iced tea still makes up 85% of the tea consumed in America. At TeaLula we certainly appreciate that there are few things more refreshing than the combination of icy coldness and elegant briskness that a quality tea will have when iced. In fact to the Western palate, that "briskness" we experience when drinking great tea is arguably one of the most important qualities. What we are really noticing is a mild astringency that causes a slight drying effect on the tongue and gums. It is a common misconception that the effect is due to the presence of tannins (tannic acid) in tea, but unlike wine, berries, beans and certain spices, teas contain none. Rather, tea is loaded with tannin-like compounds: catechins in green tea and theaflavins in black tea. They are the main antioxidants in tea and while both have some degree of astringency, it is really the theaflavins in black tea that shine when iced, providing it a bright orange-red color and excellent citrusy briskness.
While sodas, sports drinks and most juices have added citric, malic or phosphoric acid to mimic this refreshing quality (and then loads of sugar to balance out the acidity) a well made iced tea often requires no sweetener at all.
So how do you go about brewing a great iced tea? Well, first you have to choose the right tea and here we prefer high-grown black tea from India and Ceylon. Teas grown at a high altitude are forced to produce more of those astringent antioxidant compounds to protect themselves from the stronger sunlight, and so they brew up looking lighter and clearer. While a low-grown black tea might be great for a strong and malty breakfast tea with milk and sugar, when iced these teas tend to taste overly thick and look cloudy (almost as if you had added milk.) So we advise sticking with Nilgiris from India's Blue Mountains, Darjeelings from the foothills of the Himalayas or Ceylons from the Kandy or Uva regions. You might decide you prefer a secret blend produced from all three, as we do at the shop.
You may also decide you'd rather enjoy a flavored iced tea, and while any flavored tea you enjoy may be worth trying iced, the absolute classic would be the "Arnold Palmer". We make ours in the summertime with a "Palmer Blend" black tea that we create in-house, fresh squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup.
If you decide you'd rather have a white, green, oolong or herbal iced tea rather than a traditional black, these can work very well as long as you stick to with fruity blends and avoid ones that are spicy or overly vegetal. Some of our favorites have been peach, mango, pineapple/papaya, grape/pomegranate and strawberry.
To brew iced tea the simplest method is just to brew the tea exactly as you would for hot tea and then cool it down in the fridge. This way it will be cold enough when served that the ice won't melt very fast and dilute the tea. However a lot of times it is inconvenient to wait for a whole pitcher to cool overnight, so in this case it's best to brew a strong concentrate and allow for it to be cooled fast with ice and diluted in the process. At the shop we've found that brewing double strength with twice as much tea (not twice as much time) is generally strong enough for it to be immediately diluted. There are two other common brewing methods that we recommend against using: cold-brewed tea steeped overnight in the fridge never seems to extract the same lovely flavor as tea brewed at its proper temperature, and sun-tea brewed at ambient temperature in the sunlight suffers not only from the same problem, but also the risk of creating a perfect tepid environment for bacteria to grow.
Once brewed it is ready to be served, either on its own or with lemon and/or sweetener. Although with tea this good you probably won't want to add as much sugar as you might in a Southern sweet tea!
Tags: Brewing
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