3 Refreshing Iced Tea Concoctions

A friend of mine recently started working at a Tea Bar in where they mix up iced tea blends in a Martini shaker and combine unusual ingredients for refreshingly cold tea-based drinks. Jump below for some inspiration to keep summer cool and delicious.

Of course, my friend couldn't reveal their exact recipes for making the tea drinks at the bar, so take these as a jumping off point for creating your own concoctions. And keep in mind that an easy way to try something new is to replace your normal tea with something different. The store keeps oolong, green tea, white tea, traditional black tea and fruit infused teas on tap to use as a base for hot or cold drinks. So if you always go the way of black tea, try green tea instead.

Green Tea, Bubbles, Lemon and Mint
Brew your green tea strong (we've been making sun tea), pour it over ice, add a splash of bubbly water, a squeeze and a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint. It reminds us of a mojito but without the sugar or the alcohol.

Black Tea with Lavender
Brew your choice of black tea and pour over ice, leaving a little room. For the lavender, you can either use a lavender tea, or you can add some lavender from the garden and allow it to simmer gently on the stove until the water is infused with the flavor. Reduce the amount of liquid by half so that the flavor is more concentrated. Keep this bottled in the fridge for moments like these. Add a splash of the lavender infused water to your black tea. Serve. (We like it without milk or sweetener, but try adding some honey or condensed milk in place of sugar).

White Tea with Condensed Milk and Almond
Starting with white tea, which is mild and not as caffeinated as black tea, add a touch of condensed milk (with has sugar in it) and a scoop of almond powder. If you have a shaker, this is a good one to shake over ice since it helps the almond powder disperse. Pour over ice and serve. It's sweet, almondy and delicious.

And once the sun starts to set you can experiment with adding alcohol to these to make true tea cocktails.

What are your favorite iced tea concoctions?

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(Image: Laure Joliet)

Comments (15)

As a southerner I drink sweet iced tea every day. But as a foodie I find plain black tea to get dull after a while. When I make it I use a little less of regular black tea and throw in whatever random (usually fruity) tea I have lying around. Some favorites are peach ginger and mango.

I like to make a herbal tea from catnip, mint and lemon balm. I have all of them growing in my yard. I find it very refreshing and relaxing before bed.

I usually just make sun tea with whatever black tea I have on hand, and drink it plain or with some lemon, but today I used peach-flavoured black tea brewed with cinnamon and mixed with fresh-squeezed orange juice, lemon juice, and a bit of simple syrup, in a riff on the orange-orange pekoe iced tea from Bryant Terry's "Vegan Soul Kitchen". *So* good.

Iced chai with tons of condensed milk. Oh, heavens.

I made this recipe last week, Rosemary mojito iced tea. It was delicious, and very inexpensive I posted the recipe on my site here--> http://myteashelf.com/recipes/rosemary-mojito-iced-tea

I drink iced tea all day, always have a pitcher in the fridge. But I must confess I use a powdered mix. *blush* Right now I'm using a black tea powder, no additives, which I've found it's too bitter for me. I've grown used to the taste of milder green tea.
So, since I recently found myself with a bit more gingerroot at hand than I'd normally have, I made a pot of simple syrup flavored with ginger and used that to sweeten my iced tea. Super refreshing!

ohhcristina, your recipe sounds delicious!!! I think I'll try that one as soon as possible, thanks! :)

I just tried iced Earl Grey with Lavendar last night! Spent all night baking and it was so refreshing.

I can always go for an Arnold Palmer...ice tea and lemonade. It's not fancy, but it's good.

Can you please define what you mean by almond powder? Thanks!

How do you make sun tea?

How do you make sun tea?- I use 4-6 tea bags in a 2 qt glass container with lid filled with filtered water, then you sit it outside in the sun. You should not let it sit for more than 2-3 hours bacteria can grow. You put into refigerator and should drink it within two days.

I make iced coconut chai tea which is a black tea and add cold almond milk.

When I make sun tea a crush a bunch or mint and fresh lime juice with some agave syrup make a nice refreshing tea.

The black and lavender tea is intriguing. In general, though, I prefer plain iced tea. That is to say, real tea (black, green, white, whatever), brewed, allowed to cool, iced liberally. Maybe a slice of lemon (with black tea) or some fresh mint, which is great with orange pekoe. No sweetener and definitely no milk for me, unless I'm having iced chai, which is rare.

ATClaus--if you do a google search you can find almond powder, it's just finely ground almond that disperses easily in liquid. You could get a similar flavor from using a little bit of almond milk or almond extract!

@laurej. Thanks! I did some searches, but almond powder yielded both that (ie almond flour) but also some powdered drink-type mix that has "sugar, almonds, milk powder, etc" (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/282028#1501947) so I wasn't sure what was being referenced here