Cooking with tea: Iced tea recipes

If you enjoy drinking tea, there's no reason to give it up just because the weather has turned warm. Summer is the perfect time to enjoy iced tea. Try these recipes for making iced tea that will help you keep cool this summer. You can always adjust the sweetness of the tea by adding more or less sugar.

Basic tips for making iced tea:

1. Remember to use fresh water when you brew tea. The quality of the water that you use for brewing tea will affect the quality of your finished drink.

2. For making iced tea, use more tea leaves than you normally would. The ice in the drink will dilute the taste of the tea.

3. Let the tea steep longer. The key is to use water than has been boiled and allowed to cool down to the right temperature so that the tea leaves are not burned. Burned tea leaves has a bitter taste.

4. Use quality tea leaves for making iced tea. You'll notice the difference.

5. Let the tea brew cool to room temperature before pouring it over ice.

6. If you have a sweet tooth, add honey or sugar syrup to the tea. You can make sugar syrup by simply mixing equal parts of sugar and water and then bringing it to the boil. Always let the syrup cool before adding it to your drink.

7. You can freeze tea in an ice cube tray and use the ice to cool your drink.

8. Adding a slice of lime or lemon will add a citrus twist to your iced tea.

Chrysanthemum Quencher

Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine believe that chrysanthemum tea has cooling properties. In fact, in China, chrysanthemum tea is recommended to ward off the flu and fever. Adding some honey, which is also known to have medicinal properties, enhances the natural sweetness of the tea. Try serving this tea with ice cubes that have the dried chrysanthemum flowers inside them to add visual interest to the drink.

1 L fresh water
10 g Master Zhao's pure chrysanthemum tea
honey to taste
ice cubes

Boil the water and then let it cool to about 90C. Put the dried chrysanthemum flowers in a teapot and pour over the heated water. Let steep for about 5-10 minutes, then allow the liquid to cool to room temperature. When your tea is cool, pour into a pitcher filled with ice cubes. Add honey and stir before serving. You can use the chrysanthemum flowers to make another pitcher of delicious iced tea.

Oriental Beauty Iced Tea

Oriental Beauty iced tea is made from one of the best Oolong teas from Taiwan. (Image: Radio86)Oriental Beauty is perhaps the best of Taiwan's Oolong teas. Legend has it that a Queen of England gave it the name “Oriental Beauty” after being won over by its delicious taste. It's perfect for making iced tea because its taste has honey undertones. You won't even need to add any sweeteners to this tea. In China, Oolong is believed to be good for a variety of illness and is even said to help with weight loss.

1 L fresh water
10 g Master Zhao's Oriental Beauty Oolong tea
ice cubes
lime or lemon slices

Boil the water and then let it cool to about 95C. Put the tea leaves in a teapot and pour over the heated water. Let steep for about 5-10 minutes, then allow the liquid to cool to room temperature. When your tea is cool, pour into a pitcher filled with ice cubes. Serve with a slice of lemon or lime. You can use the tea leaves for up to four infusions.

Lemon and green tea granita

Green tea is the quintessential Chinese tea. Recent scientific studies have confirmed the health benefits – including helping guard against heart disease, aiding weight loss and even preventing bad breath – that can be derived from drinking green tea. On hot summer days, a good alternative to fat-laden ice cream is this fresh granita with a Chinese twist.

500 mL of water
15 g Master Zhao's West Lake Longjing or TaiMu Mountain green tea
juice of one lemon
rind of one lemon
50 g sugar

Boil the water and allow it to cool slightly to between 70 and 80C. Put the tea leaves in a teapot and pour over the heated water. Add the sugar and lemon juice. Let the tea steep for about five minutes. Strain into a deep pan that can fit into your freezer compartment. Let cool to room temperature before putting in the freezer. After about thirty minutes, take the pan out of the freezer and scrape with a fork to break it up. Mix with the remaining liquid. Repeat every thirty minutes until there is no more liquid left in a pan.

Alternatively, you can let the mixture freeze completely and whizz it in a food processor. This step is probably easier if you freeze the granita in ice cube trays.

Serve in individual glasses with a small twist of lemon rind. You could also try infusing the tea with a bit of ginger for a more exotic flavor.