Someguy23

It seems beer won't be my day-to-day relaxation drink anymore and energy drinks, while awesome, were starting to give me a very bad reaction to caffeine so... I've decided to start drinking tea.

Store-bought iced tea is nice, but I figure I would get more variety and health benefits by brewing my own (it's also cheaper). Two days ago, I bought a small box of green tea teabags, a box of artificial sweetener and some lemons. Call it a starter kit.

So far, my recipe is to boil 400mls of water, dump a teabag in it for 10mins, stick it in the freezer for 30mins, then add sweeteners+slice of lemon and drink. It's nice, but I could probably get more out of it.

Anyone got any advice, particularly about how much water/bag and how often I can re-use the same bag? or how to chill it more efficiently without diluting it?

Also, can you recommend any good blends or things to add to it?

Thanks

doggonecarl

I'm not a iced green tea drinker but 400 ml sounds like a lot of water for one tea bag. Try 3 tea bags per 400 ml. It will be stronger. Any ice you add will delute it.

You can alway add water to weaken brewed tea, but you can't add tea to make it stronger.

Steve07

Hello,

I love tea, always have a jug of ice tea in the fridge during the summer and a regular rotation in the winter. Regarding your questions; 1. The amount of water to tea is purely a personal choice, I know this woman who puts 3-4 tea bags in an 8oz cup of tea whereas I generally use 1, so it's up to you with how strong you want your tea. 2. I reuse a tea bag 3-4 times during the day when I'm at work, so the answer is you can reuse it until your not happy with the flavor. 2-3 is usually the max as the flavor is really light after that. 3. regarding chilling it. I have found that if I put the tea in warm water and not hot and then let it steep you can put it in the fridge and it will cool down fairly quickly since the water was not boiled.

One of my personal favorites and a regular around my house is to brew green tea and then steep mint leaves in it for 10-15 minutes, squeez the mint when you take it out to get some additional mint flavor then chill it. Makes a delicious and refreshing drink.

If you want to really get into teas you can checkout a tea store like Teavana and look at all the blends they have and pick up some that interest you. Or you can pick up a few different flavored teas in tea bag form and experiment. Harney and Sons make a nice vanilla black tea which is one of my favorite hot teas.

Keep us posted as to what you pick up and try.

Best regards,
Steve

oinobares

I second what Carl said: I make it real strong and then stretch it out by dilution. 3 bags per 400 ml sounds right. I love green tea--all tea in fact--but recently I've been drinking a lot of iced red zinger (the hibiscus is supposed to be good for blood pressure, who knows).

doggonecarl

I second the red zinger!

sober4myboys

Where do I get red zinger?

Weasel1966

I love earl grey in the morning and white tea during the day.

The white tea will be mild and lighter flavor if you decide to make iced tea out of it.

I also like favors to be a bit stronger so I always use multiple tea bags.

Can I recommend you get loose tea and a tea ball. You simply put the tea in the balls as and into the hot water. The loose tea may go further since you can control everything.

Have fun!

doggonecarl

Red Zinger is a Celestial Seasonings tea. Available at most of the bigger grocery stores.

sober4myboys

Thank you. I have several Celestial variety packs, I'll look for it. There is a cranberry tea that is really amazing too, also Coconut passion fruit, both Lipton.

colagirl

I second the loose tea and tea ball! I drank boxed tea for years and now that I've started on the loose tea I can't imagine going back.

OneLessLonely

I am loving tea right now. I got a $15 plastic loose leaf tea brewer from Teavana, and the tin the tea comes in tells you how much water to tea and how long to brew each type of tea. If you brew some too long, it can get bitter. I double however much tea it says to use, brew it, and then throw in ice until it's cold. The ice dilutes it down to normal strength usually. I love mostly green and white teas, but I've enjoyed herbals and rooibos. I just heard about putting fresh mint in, but I have not tried it yet. I love going to the Teavana store because they usually have plenty of samples brewed.

Mark75

I like the loose tea as well... Teavana has a nice assortment, but a little pricey. I like oolong around supper, white at night. Brewing times and temps are important. The oolong can be brewed, some say should be, a couple of times as the flavor changes and gets better.

covrecover

I do not know about the green and white teas but black tea (as many in the UK have) is high in tannin.

Tannin by itself is no problem, but it reduces greatly the iron you absorb from a meal if taken with that meal. Basically the tannin binds with the iron, and this is what prevents its absorbtion.

You can still drink tea just avoid it an hour before a meal and an hour afterwards. If you iron levels are OK then it should not be a problem.

I only say this as I'm a big tea drinker, but at present have to avoid it for the effect it would have on the iron supplement I'm on.

Cov.

Someguy23

I tried using lime instead of lemon today and that didn't work out at all. Gave off a very strong bitterness. I'll try to look for mint leaves instead, that sounds like an interesting idea.

With loose leaves, I'll wait a bit since bagged tea is more easily available. I've seen red zinger, I'll give it a try when I run out of my current box. I've also seen some honey-flavored green tea which sounds good if the flavor is noticeable (I like honey).

Still playing around with temps and proportions. 300ml/teabag, brought to a rolling boil, seems to work for me, using less water and diluting made it a little too weak for my taste. Maybe I'll try without boiling it but steeping for a longer time, not sure. Thanks for the tips.

Itchy

Bigelow Constant Comment black tea with orange and spices, and Constant Comment Green orange and spice tea. They come in a box of foil pouches, tea bags and delicious. Green tea has less caffeine than black tea. I am a caffeine hound always have been so that is not a substitute for my drinking. I drink two 12 cup pots of coffee, after one cup of Keurig dark roast in the morning, by myself every day. I do not get coffee nerves. Nor a big let down. So in the evenings I have a cup or two of either hot Constant Comment always with honey no other flavoring needed. I use the very hot water from our Keurig machine. With the tea bag already in the cup. M<y wife ordered some of the Keurig tea cups but got herbal mostly with only a few K cups of real teas. I am ordering them next time. My other cold tea is Crystal Light Raspberry green tea, and their Raspberry regular tea. I am happy with just plain Lipton Ice tea family bags and brew them for concentrate and pour it two to one water and concentrate.

auden67

Lipton makes a blackberry vanilla tea that is good quality and delicious. I too like to make a pitcher of strong herbal/black tea blend, refrigerate, and drink diluted with lemon slices and Stevia. Also good mixed with lemon sparkling water.

To make tea, I boil 6oz per hefty teaspoon or bag or tea, poor water into mug or pitcher with tea, and steep with a clean dishrag (or discarded work,papers) for 3-5 min. I don't boil the tea and water together. Cheers to tea!

goog

Any one that likes Tea should try T2 they make awesome tea, it is a bit pricey but so worth it!

I love a strawberry and cinnamon tea with fresh strawberries in it.
Or an orange tea with oranges, actually just any type of tea is awesome. With tea there are no limits!!!!

Fandy

I drink herbal tea all day when I get to work (coffee all morning before, then i stop caffiene).

Lemon Zinger is my favorite as I mix with the other flavors, you can get a tea sampler pack to try all the flavors to see which one you like best. in the US, walmart has a huge variety (at least in NJ) and the price is about $1.00-$2.00 cheaper than grocery stores.

Teakanne brand makes a delicious honey vanilla "relaxing tea" which is great to help sleepiness in the PM...i do use a bit of milk in that version.

Peach is very fragrant and so is the cherry.

Someguy23

I'm a caffeine junky as well, which is why I don't want to go to caffeine-free teas, but as I said above I seem to have developped a little sensitivity to the stuff and until that goes away I'll have to stick to green and white teas.