I cannot, no matter how I try or what recipe I use, make iced tea. It gets bitter and/or cloudy no matter what I do. Is there someone out there who can give me an absolutely foolproof recipe, please?
By metroplex from Houston, TX, USA
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Quick question/long reply. First off, any tea will go cloudy if you refrigerate it while it is warm. To uncloud it, boil some water and drizzle it into your container of cloudy tea. It will clear up, then stop pouring in the boiling water. It doesn't take much.
To make iced tea: Concentrated version. Have ready a 1 qt glass jar/jug/pitcher to hold 1 qt tea concentrate. Boil water 1 qt (plus a few more ounces for evaporation) in a kettle or pot or microwave in glass. At boiling point, remove from heat and put in 5 or 6 regular teabags to steep. Walk away and come back when the water has cooled to room temp.
Have you ever tried making sun tea?
I always have clear tea when I make it that way. It's not fast, but it's pretty easy.
I use 2 regular tea bags per 8oz of water in whatever clear, glass jar I put out in the sun.
Just make sure it will not be in the shade for at least 3-4 hours (you can leave it longer if necessary) and just bring it indoors when the tea has brewed enough for your liking.
The tea has never been bitter or cloudy in all the times I have made it this way.
Jo
Perfect Iced Tea: Put 2 and a quarter cups of water in pot on stove and bring to a boil. Put in 6 regular size teabags. Take off heat. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Remove tea bags and put in sugar, etc. whatever you want. Stir. Pour into a pitcher that has 6 cups cold water and stir.
This "recipe" was in our local newspaper last year and it is makes the best iced tea.
In a glass measuring cup or ceramic teapot large enough to accommodate 2 cups boiling water, place 6 regular size tea bags and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (the baking soda will soften the natural tannins that cause an acid or bitter taste). Pour 2 cups boiling water over the tea bags. Cover and let steep 15 minutes. Remove the tea bags, being careful not to squeeze them (squeezing the bags will add bitterness). Pour concentrate into a two quart pitcher and add 6 cups cold water. Sweeten, if desired. Let COOL, then chill and serve over ice. Enjoy.
Iced tea gets nasty (cloudy and murky tasting) if you keep it too long. I make a fresh half-gallon pitcher every morning. Boil 2 cups of water and put in 3 regular size tea bags. Let it steep till the water cools off. Pour the tea concentrate into 1/2 gal. pitcher and fill with water.
Every person you ask will have their own way of making iced tea. Use a good quality name brand tea. Generic or no-name tea bags are inferior.
Start with clear cold water /add desired amount of tea bags bring to a rolling boil remove from heat right away! remove tea bags/ sweeten tea while still hot stirring briskly, fill desired container with crushed ice and then pour tea over ice/or add ice to tea and container and let ice melt into tea and store in fridge.
You may also add some ice cold water to tea mixture if tea is too strong for your taste..:)
I am an avid tea drinker, much to the dismay of my water-drinking daughter! However, I make at least a 2 quart pitcher daily. I like it strong so I use a bag that makes 1 gallon or 2 family size bags. I used to boil water in the microwave but realized recently that just putting the bags in water in a 2-quart glass pitcher and leaving it on the counter makes the best tea.
One Family-size teabag is about equal to 3 regular teabags, if you don't want to use the big one, use 3 regular ones. I agree about the cloudy appearance, just pour a little boiling water into it to make it disappear.Cloudy won't hurt you,it's just from warm tea cooling too fast in fridge. Unless your tea is a month old & gone bad & that's why it's cloudy! Also, you may have to try different brands to see what you like. We always used Lipton in AZ, but here in OK I've decided Luzianne is better.
I never got sick from tea kept in the fridge,no matter how old it was. I have been sick & even had food poisoning several times that I can pinpoint back to fast food places that keep their tea at room temp in big urns that were not washed.
I make my tea a gallon at a time, almost the same way I have for 30 years, like my mom & grandma did. It almost never clouds & is never bitter. I boil a small amount of water in a pot, usually around 4 cups(?),turn the heat off & add 9 regular or 3 family size bags.Put the lid on & let sit until I remember it again.
Anywhere from an hour to half the day. I use a slotted cooking spoon to press the teabags against the lid to get the extra tea to drip into the pan. Then I pour the tea into a gallon glass jar or a gallon plastic water jug (we always used clean milk jugs when I was little), then add enough cold water to make a gallon.
For the last 20 years I've added 1 pure peppermint teabag to the regular teabags because I always had trouble with indigestion,bloating & other stomach trouble. Haven't had trouble since, except when I forget the mint, & it has a nice flavor.
I never liked sweet tea, so don't add sugar. My mom on the other hand, made her tea the same way(minus the mint), except she would put 1C of sugar in the jug before adding the hot tea, shake to dissolve,then add the water-made me feel like I'm drinking syrup,not tea!
Now my grandma? That generation was taught that when you make hot tea, you should NEVER wash the teapot-period! You just rinse it with water.My Grandma carried that through to her iced tea. The day after she passed away I was at her home helping get things ready for the service.It was a hot July & I thought one last cold glass of Grandma's tea sounded perfect.I drank a glass,then went for more.The jar was empty, so I went to make more & nearly gagged when I opened it.
The inside was black & had slimy things hanging that looked like the "mother" from vinegar!! I asked my grandpa about it & he said she NEVER washed her tea jar because it was a 'well known fact that washing the jar gave the tea a bad flavor"! OMG, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry, knowing I'd been drinking that for years! :O
I have a Hamilton Beach iced tea maker that I love and the booklet that came with it has simple directions.
I just make a cup/glass at a time, reserve the bag for the next serving until it gets past the flavor I like. Cold water, ice in glass, dip the teabag in. Simple. You have to start with cold water. Impurities in the hot water pipes (yes leaded pipes leach) can also make your food water cloudy. Pour up a glass of hot water and let set next to a cold water glassful. See for yourself.
Seeing where you're from, it makes me wonder if using tap water is the problem. If your water is not good tasting, neither will be the tea. Use bottled water for your tea, and it will taste so much better.
This is going to sound so strange, but here in the South where we love our sweet tea (but not all that sugar) the Hubby and I came up on a very simple solution. We did a little research on sun tea because we'd heard some dissenting opinions on it, first have to warn that method has drawbacks. Google sun tea and bacteria for yourself, you may rethink that, too.
By accident, we found "cold brew" as a possibly better, safer, and much easier alternative. All we do is put the desired amount of family sized tea bags and cold tap water (the water in our town happens to really be good) in a pitcher, and into the fridge it goes for about six hours. Take the bags out, sweeten/lemon to taste, and you're done. We use Splenda or the generic substitute for it.
No cooking, no chance of bacterial contamination, and it's as good, if not better, than the traditional method of boiling water; also, we figure that doing it this way, besides saving energy and countless trips to the store for jugs of pre-made tea, are giving us a gallon of sweet tea for a quarter or less as opposed to an average of $3.00 in our geographical area.
I think Lipton gets bitter when you get it dark. I drink my tea almost black no sugar
Another weird flavor is using plastic, I use glass cause I can bleach it and know it clean
Cloudy is either old tea and it has a weird off flavor or you put in fridge hot or even warm. Just leave on counter
I have been using a cheapy tea for years for ice tea. I have an old percolator that is only for tea. I toss in 6 bags (I used to use 8) and boil it, let cool, toss in glass container and add water if you want.
Ria
add a small pinch of baking soda.
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