Most of us (ourselves included) think that a new iced tea recipe calls for a new and different tea. But this doesn’t always have to be the case. One single iced tea, perhaps your favourite, can be tweaked any number of ways to offer an entirely new taste experience. And if you apply this principle to a variety of teas, your iced tea repertoire will grow exponentially. Talk about scaling up the delicious!
 
We’ve made a basic iced tea using Organic Assam Breakfast and given it three different twists to show you what we mean. We’ve created one option by adding sliced fruit, one by adding juice and yet another with a splash of sparkling water, or prosecco for the adventurous. 

Basic Organic Assam Breakfast Iced Tea: (10 servings)

• 2 cups water
• 8 teaspoons of Organic Assam Breakfast loose-leaf tea, or 8 single-serve sachets
• 6 cups cold water

• In a small saucepan bring the 2 cups of water to a gentle boil. Add the tea, remove saucepan from heat and let it steep for 15 minutes. It’s a lot of tea, but we are accounting for dilution when the tea is eventually served over ice or when other liquids are added. 
• Remove the tea bags or sachets without squeezing them, which can add bitterness to the iced tea, and let the tea cool to room temperature. 
• Pour tea into your favourite pitcher and add 6 cups of cold water. Give it a stir and pop the tea into the fridge until cold.  
• Serve this iced tea over ice with sugar if desired, garnished with a lemon wedge or sprig of fresh mint.

Twist #1: Fruit it Up!

Add fruit slices to your tea. Sounds simple but here are a couple of tips to level it up. Try a mix of fruits - lemon, orange, strawberries or any combo you like. It adds visual interest and doesn’t end up making the iced tea too tart, like if you only use lemons.

Another tip: Layer the fruit slices with the ice in the glass. A little bit of ice, couple of fruit slices, a little more ice and so on. Pick one fruit to use as a garnish. Now that’s a tempting iced tea! 

Twist #2: Juice it Up!

Couple of tricks. Pick a juice that goes with the tea. Just Google it – which juices go with Green tea, Assam tea, Oolong tea, etcetera. An option: go for something exotic like guava or lychee juice; there are so many juice choices out there so have fun. The mix ratio should be one-third juice, two-thirds tea, but let your tastebuds be your guide.

Twist #3: Sparkle it Up!

This one’s probably easiest of all. Simply top off a glass of iced tea with a splash of sparkling water, prosecco or sparkling wine. It’s the glassware that will set this drink apart. Try a champagne flute or press your wine glasses into use. A few raspberries or blueberries as garnish will bob around, teasing you until the glass is empty!

Okay, Twist #4: Ice it Up!

To give your iced tea a way cool monotone look make the ice cubes out of the tea too. It’s a very sexy look and does away with the dilution factor. And lastly, make your ice cubes with fruit – something without a rind of course. As the cubes melt the iced tea takes on some new flavours.

Experiment and enjoy!