A good iced tea on a hot day is the best thing in the world… so long as it’s not packed full of artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners. Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on a store-bought iced tea and noticed that the actual amount of tea is less than 1%? I have and it annoys me to no end. Especially when you learn that there’s a simple iced tea recipe you can make at home with natural ingredients you already have.
Learning how to make iced tea at home allows you to choose the ingredients and flavours you love while controlling the amount of sugar you add. You can also steep your tea extra strong so it actually tastes like tea once it has been iced! If you care about avoiding plastic, homemade iced tea can be poured into your usual thermos or flask for days out – the insulation that keeps tea hot in the winter can keep it cool in the summer.
Compared to supermarket iced tea in the UK, homemade iced teas are far more economical too. With a single teabag (which can cost as little as 5p) and some tap water, you can make a basic iced tea at home. Even adding some fresh fruit, sugar or herbs won’t take the total cost over £1 for a litre of the good stuff.
There are two options when it comes to making iced tea at home:
- Cold brew (steep overnight for smooth, less bitter iced tea)
- Hot brew (just add ice for a quick and easy iced tea)
These methods work brilliantly with teabags (which infuse faster) or loose leaf tea if you prefer a more complex flavour.
In this guide, I’m going to share my 3 easy iced tea recipes that you can make at home. They use everyday ingredients, real fruit, and no special equipment is needed. Perfect for summer afternoons! Oh, and if you want to find the best ready-to-drink iced tea in the UK that actually tastes like tea, my favourite is Harry Brompton’s.
3 Easy Iced Tea Recipes
Lemon Earl Grey Iced Tea
Citrus fruits like lemons, orange and limes are super refreshing on hot days and are the classic companion for black iced teas. I like to boost the citrus with bergamot rich Earl Grey.
This cold brew iced tea recipe is perfect if you don’t usually drink black tea without milk – the cold brewing method prevents the tea getting too dark and bitter, while the cordial really lifts it with sugary sweetness. Trust me, you’ll like it!
In this earl grey iced tea recipe, we’ll be using lemon. However, I strongly recommend you try using lime or a mix of lemon and orange if you want a unique twist. It never fails to impress guests and is a perfect drink to serve to those who don’t drink alcohol!
Ingredients
- 1 Earl Grey teabag (I’m using Twinings Earl Grey)
- Dash of lemon cordial (if you’re using fresh lemon juice, add sugar to taste)
- Tap water (or cold water for cold brewing)
- Ice cubes
Instructions
It’s super simple. To make this cold brew iced tea, place the water, earl grey teabag and cordial in a glass, bottle or pitcher that fits in the fridge. Mix it all together and place in the fridge overnight.
For a quicker infusion, boil your water and brew the teabag normally. Then, add the cordial and chill in fridge for a few hours.
I use cordial because it’s naturally sweet and sugary, so I don’t need to spend ages dissolving sugar in my tea to get it to the right flavour. I don’t recommend using fruit juice from concentrate – it just doesn’t taste right.
Pour into tall glasses, add ice cubes, and garnish with a fresh lemon slice. This refreshing iced tea is perfect for summer entertaining or a relaxing afternoon.
Raspberry Iced Tea with Fizz
This recipe for raspberry iced tea combines tart berries with sparkling fizz, creating a refreshing drink that’s perfect for summer parties. The trick is to choose a strong-flavoured fruit tea base and then go nuts with the fresh fruit. The flavour will have the right balance between tart concentrated fruit flavours and sweet fresh fruit flavours – with no artificial ingredients in sight.
There are so many berry tisanes and tea mixes. Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, currants, and more exotic berries, like acai, are all excellent. Look for other summery ingredients like hibiscus, apple, peaches and pineapple too. I love berry and green tea blends, but black tea also goes great in this recipe.
Raspberry is always a crowd-pleaser so that’s the focus of this fruit iced tea.
Ingredients
- 1-3 berry teabags (Twinings, Pukka, or Teapro berry blends all work well)
- Cool water
- Lemonade or other fizzy drink (sparkling rose is lovely!)
- Ice cubes
- Fresh berries
- Fresh mint
How to Make Fruit Iced Tea
Place your teabag(s) and water in the fridge overnight to cold brew. You want it to be quite strong and tart and berry-y as you’re diluting it with fizz afterwards, so add multiple teabags if the brew is usually quite weak when hot.
To serve this refreshing iced tea, add a handful of berries to a tall glass and drop the ice cubes on top to slightly crush them. Fill 2/3 with your iced tea and top with your fizzy drink of choice. Garnish with a mint leaf (or add these with the berries if you want to make it minty throughout). Drink through a straw to suck up those crushed berries at the bottom!
This sparkling iced tea is one of my favourite easy iced tea recipes because it looks impressive but takes minimal effort.
I’m going raspberry crazy this summer as we have a few raspberry canes in the back garden fuelling me. If you have a few berries that are slightly too soft to eat but not bad enough to throw away, it’s the ideal time to make this homemade iced tea.
Fresh Peach Iced Green Tea
Peach and green tea is a classic combination for your homemade iced tea. Green tea can have a grassy bitter taste when brewed hot (especially if it is low-quality) but by icing it and pairing it with juicy peach slices, you brighten it up and add natural sweetness.
Ingredients
- 1-2 tsp of green tea/teabags (or a flavoured tea like Birchall’s award-winning Green Tea & Peach)
- Fresh peach slices
- Cold water
- Optional: honey or agave
Instructions
You can brew this iced green tea directly in your mug or glass if you use the cold brew method – just pop 1 teabag in and let it steep overnight in the fridge. If you are going with the quick hot tea method, wait until your boiled water has reduced to roughly 80°C to prevent scalding the tea leaves. Once the tea has brewed quite strongly, add any sweetener or sugar to taste and pour over ice to instantly chill it.
Add the fruit just before you serve the tea. You can bash a few slices of peach at the bottom of a glass to release the juices before pouring the tea on top, or let the peach slices just sit in the tea for a few minutes to infuse the flavour for delicious peach iced tea.
If you want to skip the fresh fruit, use a pre-flavoured green tea & peach blend like Birchall’s Great Taste Award-winning version linked above – it’s naturally flavoured and doesn’t need any additions like fresh fruit iced tea.
Tips for Making the Best Iced Tea at Home
Knowing how to make good iced tea is a must – it’s a delicious and affordable way to get your caffeine hit in the summer months. Here are my top tips for perfect fresh iced tea every time:
- Choose strong teas for the best iced tea. Whether you cold brew overnight or pour hot tea over ice, your final iced tea will be more diluted than usual, so opt for strong-flavoured teas or double up on tea bags.
- Use loose leaf tea if you can. Compared to teabags, loose leaf tea is typically higher quality and imparts a more rounded flavour. This is particularly noticeable when cold brewing tea. Teabags are more convenient and impart a stronger flavour, however. Experiment with both!
- Add sugar or sweetener at the start. It’s hard to dissolve into ice cold liquid, so add it at the start of your cold brewing or when your iced tea is still hot.
- Forgot to add your sugar or sweetener at the start? Make a simple sugar by heating sugar and water together on the stove, then pour this into your iced tea before serving.
- Try lowering your water temperature or reducing your brew time if your iced tea tastes bitter. You may be scalding the tea leaves or over-brewing them.
- Add fresh herbs and natural ingredients for an elegant touch. Rosemary and thyme work beautifully with citrus-based teas, mint goes with berry teas, and sage is delicious with apple infusions.
- For a visual flourish, try mixing in edible flower petals just before serving. These can be purchased from specialty culinary stores. Certain rose petals, marigold petals, and lavender buds are all beautiful.
Finally, your iced tea is best drunk fresh, though you can store the tea in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. Once you add fresh fruit, it needs to be served immediately. Freezing is another option for iced tea storage, but in my opinion the flavour just isn’t the same.
Where to Buy Iced Tea Ingredients (for Beginners)
If you want to make iced tea at home without going fully DIY, then I have a really good option for you. Teapro, a UK-based small tea company, curates these beautiful tea discovery boxes. The Fruit Tea Cooler subscription box includes 4 fruit teas and easy-to-follow instructions to help you brew them.
You’ll love this option because:
- It’s beginner friendly – even if you’ve never brewed tea before.
- The four flavours are delicious and made with whole fruit pieces, not flavourings.
- Teapro will introduce you to brewing loose leaf tea if you’re new to it.
- Price-wise, it is very reasonable (especially when you opt to include their infuser glass in the box).
- Finally, you can buy their fruit tisanes separately, so if you fall in love with one flavour you don’t need to purchase the entire box again!
You can find Teapro’s Fruit Tea Cooler box on their website.
FAQs
Any iced tea made with traditional tea leaves (not herbal or fruit teas) will contain some amount of caffeine. Store-bought bottled iced tea have minimal caffeine. Iced tea made in a coffee store (like Costa or Starbucks) may have quite a bit – check their menus online to find caffeine info. Iced tea made at home depends on what tea you use and how strongly you brew it.
Plain tea (no fresh fruit added) can last 3 to 5 days but is best consumed fresh.
Yes! This includes black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong, herbal infusions and fruit tisanes. Even pu-erh could be iced!
Cold brew is best for high-quality loose leaf teas, as it gives the leaves time to fully infuse and impart their complex flavour notes. Hot brew is best for teabags, when convenience is more important.
For black tea, choose something strong like an Assam or Kenyan tea. A mellow and fruity green tea or white tea (silver needles) is great for iced tea too, but often tastes best when made with the cold brew method.
