Iced Tea, Lightened Up
The tall glasses of cold Tea are great for chilling and rehydrating on hot summer days. It is possible to make a massive batch in minutes (please don’t use that powdered stuff! ). However, knowing what you should put in it is essential. Here are some suggestions and recipes that you could test.
The Tea
Cold Tea is among the most simple, delicious summer drinks available and my favorite. It’s a breeze to make Tea; add a few sweeteners, and pour it over the ice. There are numerous tea types that you can pick from that range from a fruitier sweet taste to a more sharp green tea. Each makes a beautiful tea iced if you use the proper ingredients. (As they vary, look for instructions regarding the quantity of bags and the brewing time to put in your teapots.)
Just because you love it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it too far. Many tea drinkers overdose in the summertime. Tea does not contain calories. However, it does have a chemical called oxalates. This prevents the body from taking in calcium. You should limit yourself to 1 to 2 cups every day.
The Sweeteners
The problem is that many people prefer their Iced Tea to be sweet. Granulated (or brown) sugar can be okay, but once you begin dumping the cups with sugar, you’re at risk of a sugar crash even before dessert is on the table. One tablespoon of sugar is 45 calories (3 teaspoons of sugar are in one tablespoon). As a general rule, limit yourself to 1.5 teaspoons of sugar daily.
There is a way to add sweetness to tea with sugar, either. Fruit juices like grapefruit, apple, or mango are excellent options; however, with about 60 calories for a 1/3 cup, dividing it into about one-quarter cup for each serving is recommended. I prefer adding some lemonade to my black iced tea; however, only a tiny amount! Lichee juice, agave nectar, and Grenadine are some other sweeteners that you could consider, as I have always said to think beyond your (sugar) of the box. (Check out our article on natural and popular sweeteners.)
Other Added Flavors
Mint is a traditional ingredient in Tea. When I travel to Israel each year, my chilled Tea is automatically filled with mint (or nana in Hebrew). I like adding a small amount of spice by adding ginger root or fresh fruits like strawberry slices, star fruit, or apple slices. The fruit will also give it its natural sweetness so that you can reduce the amount of other sweeteners.
Alcohol such as Rum is another popular iced tea ingredient, but keep on your toes it’s 1.5 ounces (about the same amount as the shot glass) is a hundred calories drink and is not nutritionally valuable. Two or three glasses throughout a weekend are good, but sipping pitchers of iced Tea spiked will not benefit your waistline (think beer belly or the belly of iced Tea in this instance).
The Cubes
This is an innovative idea to infuse flavor into your ice cubes. Mix honey and lemon juice with the water before making cubes, or freeze a half-and-a-half mixture of water and fluids like orange or pomegranate. Ellie Krieger makes a unique Lemon-Ginger Iced Tea with Berry Cubes, a great recipe to impress your guests.
Say “No!” to instant Mixes.
Iced tea purists would be ill if you attempted to serve them tea made with some of that powdered mix. A majority of my customers confess to using these. Don’t! You’re just dumping tonnes of sugar (not to include preservatives and chemicals) into the water. Yes, these mixes are effortless to prepare. However, you should take the extra steps to make your own.
- Recipes for iced Tea to test:
- lemon-ginger iced Tea and Berry Cubes
- Chica Iced Tea
- Iced Tea containing Grenadine
- Lychee Iced Tea
- Carambola (Star Fruit) Iced Tea
- Raspberry Iced Tea (shown above)
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