Iced tea is a cold beverage made by brewing tea and chilling it. It can be made with hot tea poured over ice or sun tea soaked in the sun. It can be blended with fruit juices or pieces of fruit and vegetables. Variants include sweet tea and Thai iced tea.
Iced tea is tea that is served cold, classic over ice to ensure it stays cold. Many tea and herbal tea drinking cultures have some form of this beverage, particularly warm climate cultures, and there are several varieties, ranging from sweet and rich Thai iced tea with coconut milk to blends that include juice.
Making iced tea is usually quite easy, as you just brew a teapot and chill it. When the tea is brewed, it is often made extra strong so that it can be served over ice. When ice melts, the water dilutes the drink, so if it were of normal strength, it might become weak and watery as a result. Making it strong keeps the iced tea flavorful.
Some variations on the iced tea blending process include using hot tea which is poured over ice to create a lukewarm drink or using sun tea, which is soaked for several hours in the sun to extract the flavor. In areas with limited energy resources, solar tea can be convenient, because the water doesn’t have to be heated. It’s also popular in many places during the summer, where adding more heat to a home by turning on the stove can seem like a waste of energy.
Iced tea can also be blended with fruit juices to make it particularly flavorful or to create a specifically desired flavor. In some cases, pieces of fruit or vegetables may be added directly to the tea during the brewing and steeping process; in China, for example, it’s often made with ginger flakes. Iced tea can also be made with things like lemons, strawberries, and fresh flowers, and these items can also be served with tea, for added visual interest.
Some well-known variants of iced tea include sweet tea, a form served in the American South that is heavily sweetened during the brewing process, and Thai iced tea, which is made with a strong blend of black tea and coconut milk, with a hint of sugar to sweeten. Ice cold herbal teas like hibiscus tea are also popular, especially in the tropics. It’s also possible to find more exotic iced teas, such as cocoa green tea, in some regions of the world.
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