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A refreshing homemade iced tea recipe for summer – make it at home and serve it over ice! Kids love it too!
What’s better than serving a freshly homemade iced tea pitcher with lemon slices and lots of ice on a hot day? Homemade iced tea is so refreshing and a perfect mocktail when you have a summer party with kids!
This iced tea recipe is so easy to make and can be adjusted to your taste. I love to make it without sugar for a refreshing everyday summer drink, or with sugar as a weekend party drink.
Brewing iced tea was never easier! The best iced tea for me is black tea mixed with rosehip tea, which gives it a slightly sweeter flavor and gives this summer drink and amazingly red color!
Feel free to make this a black iced tea and leave out the rosehip tea.
I love if you adjust my recipes to your taste! Make sure to let me know in the comments what’s your favorite tea combination for homemade iced tea!
Why Homemade Iced Tea
- It’s very easy to make at home.
- You can adjust how much sugar you want to have in your drink.
- Mix the tea varieties according to your taste.
- Add as much lemon juice as you like, or leave it out.
Buying iced tea is very convenient, but comes with a lot of sugar (unless you buy the light or zero version).
Furthermore, it’s very cost intensive. It’s much cheaper buying a box of tea bags; you can make tons of iced tea with it.
So, let me show you how to make iced tea with tea bags at home!
How To Make Iced Tea
The basics for making iced tea is tea (bags or loose leaves), boiling water, sugar, and lemon. You can make iced tea with every tea you like.
The most commonly used teas to make iced tea are black tea, green tea, or red fruit tea.
It’s the easiest to make it with tea bags. If you have loose tea at home, go ahead and use it. Loose leaf tea is usually top quality tea and brews a more aromatic tea.
Iced Tea Recipe
Ingredients you need:
- Black tea and rosehip tea bags
- Hot water
- Lemons, you only need the juice
- Granulated Sugar
- Ice Cubes
How to make it:
- Bring two cups water to the boil.
- Add the tea bags and let it steep for 5 minutes.
- Remove the tea bags, pour the hot tea into a 1-liter glass bottle or large jug, add two cups of cold water, granulated sugar, and lemon juice.
- Leave it for one hour on your countertop to cool down. → The tea is too hot to store it directly in the fridge and would only warm up your entire fridge.
- Store it for another 2-3 hours (or overnight) in your fridge until your tea is cold. → If you don’t want to wait, either cool it in your freezer or serve over tons of ice.
- Serve it over ice.
- Optional: Decorate it with thin lemon slices.
Make sure to add the lemon juice AFTER you added the cold water. → Vitamin C is easily destroyed by hot water.
Recipe Variations:
- You can substitute the lemon juice with lime juice.
- Use agave nectar or coconut sugar instead of sugar.
- Use any kind of red tea (e.g. hibiscus) instead of rosehip tea.
Recipe FAQ
Sugar isn’t healthy, therefore try to use as little as possible. I usually use between ⅛ -¼ cup sugar. Sweetness level: ⅛ cup sugar = sour | ¼ cup sugar = sweet | ½ cup sugar = very sweet
Absolutely. If you make the iced tea without sugar, reduce the amount of lemon to one, otherwise, it will be too sour.
Yes, you can make it with every tea sort you like. I can recommend black tea, fruit tea, herbal tea, or green tea. Use tea bags or tea leaves!
More Summerdrink Recipes You’ll Love:
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📖 Recipe
Homemade Iced Tea
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Ingredients
- 2 cups (480ml) boiling water
- 4 tea bags black tea
- 2 tea bags rose hip tea or hibiscus tea, red tea bags
- 2 cups (480ml) cold water
- ⅛ cup (30g) granulated sugar use up to ½ cup sugar
- 2 lemons only juice
- ice cubes
Instructions
- Steep the tea bags for 5 minutes in boiling water and discard them afterward. Pour it into a 1-liter glass bottle or large jug.
- Add the cold water, juice of two lemons, and granulated sugar. Stir until dissolved.
- Leave it for one hour on your countertop to cool down. Store if for 2-3 hours in your fridge until properly chilled.
- Serve over ice.
Notes
- Use ⅛ cup up to ½ cup sugar, according to your taste or leave out the sugar completely. ⅛ cup sugar = slightly sour | ¼ cup sugar = sweet | ½ cup sugar = very sweet.
- Substitute the granulated sugar with agave nectar or coconut sugar.
- Leave out rosehip tea if you don’t have it at home.
- To preserve the Vitamin C from the lemons, add the lemon juice only after you added the cold water.
Hi again I am a girl who makes just home foods and driks and I alwais is uaing your recepies and its very delicious you know my holl famylly is using your recepis and thanks for you and the recepis
Hi.I don’t know is it a good idea to make this tea to 5 humans and I’m a kid ten yars old a girl but I need to go sleep at 8:30 and wake up at 6:00so will Imake this tea for five humans at morning or shud I star doing this at evening?
Hi Aurora, you can make the tea in the evening and let it chill overnight in the fridge so that you can enjoy an ice-cold homemade iced tea in the morning. 💕
All the best,
Aline 👱🏻♀️😘
Very refreshing & delicious in Summer time. Looks really nice with this type of glass and lemon garnish! Great idea 😍
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Biana! Homemade iced tea is the best in summer! 😍I am happy that you like my recipe!
All the best,
Aline