Figure out how much tea leaves you will need to brew keeping in mind you should use about 1 heaping teaspoon per 8 oz of liquid. So if you are going to be making tea for a 32 oz. container, use 4 heaping teaspoons of tea leaves.
Next go ahead and brew the tea with hot water, however only use about ⅓ of the amount of water because you will be pouring it over ice. With this method you will be effectively making a hot brewed concentrate that you will then pour over the cup full of ice.
The best tool that we have found to use for making iced tea in this way is the Ingenuitea, which you can find on our website here.
At the end, just add more water and ice as needed, then you have a nice cup of iced tea that won’t get too watered down.
We also have a video using the Ingenuitea here.
This same method can be used for a single cup or for a large pitcher as pictured below. This pitcher is 48oz, so we used 6 tsp of tea leaves to brew. Make sure to put ice in the glass first so the hot tea doesn’t break the glass and then fill to the top with fresh water.
Another option for making iced tea is the cold brew method. Cold brew is perhaps the easiest way to make iced tea since you don’t even have to boil water.
Just start with your vessel, whether it is a jug, carafe, or tall glass and add the tea leaves directly into the vessel. Still figure out how much leaves to use, keeping in mind you should use about 1 heaping teaspoon per 8 oz of liquid.
Next, simply fill the vessel with water (can be room temperature or cold water, just not hot). Then put it in the fridge.
The tea leaves will slowly brew over the course of several hours, usually at least 4-5 hours. Sometimes we will just leave the container in the fridge overnight, then you have it ready for the next day.
Don’t worry, with this method the tea doesn’t typically over brew. However, if you are going to be keeping the tea in the fridge for a few days, it is best to remove the leaves when it is done to help maintain freshness. TO remove the tea leaves, you can just pour through any basic strainer or an iced tea maker that has a strainer lid like this one pictured.
