Easiest Iced Tea

Back in the day when I had a full house with kids and their friends we would have sooo much food and drinks in the house. It was crazy. I would do these pantry challenges just to clear some of the shelves and that’s how this original recipe started all those years ago (ha, 2012 to be exact!) It’s summertime so good time to be sharing again!

Enjoy … 

When I was on the first pantry challenge of the year (back in January), I thought, geesh, the pantry has a gazillion bags of tea, so what the heck, let’s make our own ice tea! This is so simple, with minimal effort and taste pretty good to boot … 

Ok. I know, it’s easy to do. Years and years ago, we used to do the sun tea thing … then the jar broke, poolside one year. That sort of took all the fun out of that process!

Then I would do the brewing method with boiling water but Hubby said I never seemed to get it right, not to mention, it created a steam bath in the kitchen … so I stopped all together and we went the Arizona Tea route …

After the first pantry challenge in January and then this last one in April, I still have a LOT of tea to consume! So, I made some today and thought I would share, yet again, how I do it!

Here’s what you need:

4 cups water, room temp (you can use water from the tap or filtered, or spring, whatever you prefer. Me? I use tap)
4 tea bags

Using a 1 quart size mason jar (which is 4 cups), place tea bags so that the tags are hanging over the outside of the jar. Fill with 4 cups of water. Place top on, making sure the bags are secured so they don’t fall in the jar.

Put the lid on the jar and place in refrigerator for 6 hours minimum (I started doing this in the morning so that it could do it’s thing while we are all at work). I am thinking of buying some more 2 quart size jars as all of my large jars are in use with storage for raisins, nuts, chocolate chips … all kinds of good stuff, actually.

Obviously, you can and should use a larger container. Just remember that it’s one bag for each cup of water.

When ready to serve, remove the bags, do NOT squeeze them. I’ve been told that’s what makes the tea bitter but not being a big tea drinker, I can’t really say if that’s true or not …

I do NOT sweeten the tea. If you prefer sweet tea, you can certainly stir that in before putting in the fridge (the sugar will dissolve faster with the room temp water) … alternatively, you can make a batch of simple syrup (1 cup sugar 1 cup water, heated til dissolved) and keep that in the fridge.

Enjoy!