Drinking hot tea when it’s blazing outside is a hard sell, so what are the cooler alternatives? Hydration is important when it’s hot but if you’re after something more fun than water, tea is the answer.
Great southern cha
Iced tea was a beverage derived from alcoholic fruit punches popular in the US in the late 1800s. The advent of Prohibition and the growing availability of both ice and tea leaves meant jettisoning the booze to make what we now know as iced tea. The real uptake, however, came at the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair in Missouri thanks to tea merchant Richard Blechynden, a British subject born in India. The hot summer meant cold drinks were popular, and some 20 million visitors took the concept of ‘iced tea’ back home with them to all corners of the US and around the world.
From here it was a matter of climate. Southern USA, being generally hotter than the northern states, developed a taste for sweet iced tea, brewed hot with sugar dissolved in it and then refrigerated and served with mint and/or lemon. According to the Tea Association of the USA, up to 80 per cent of the tea consumed in the country is iced.
In Australia there is a plethora of commercial iced tea options: the average supermarket probably has seven or eight brands from big players like ITO EN, Lipton and Nestle, to homegrown brands like East Forged, Origin, and kombucha too if you want to count that tea scion. The average Asian grocery has plenty more, including milk tea options. If you’re on a health kick, watch out for added sugars and preservatives.
DIY iced tea
You can also make your own iced tea. Two popular methods are hot brew, where you steep the tea as usual and then cool it either in the fridge or by diluting it with ice, and cold brew, where you add leaves to cold water and let it steep in the fridge. Flavour changes with temperature so most iced tea is made with a higher tea to water ratio for more oomph (try 2g per 100ml); cold brew tea is best steeped for at least two hours – usually overnight – to maximise flavour.
Japan also contributes kooridashi (ice brewing) as a technique. Usually reserved for rich green tea like gyokuro, it’s exactly what you think: ice and tea leaves. Place about a tablespoon of tea leaves in a cup of ice, wait until the ice melts, then strain and sip. Fresh ice made of good water is best – you don’t want the tea to taste like your freezer – and you can use chipped or shaved ice if you’re not very patient.
Forget bubbly, go bubble tea
Invented in Taiwan in the 1980s, bubble tea has shaken up (‘scuse the pun) the high streets of metropolitan Australia over the past decade. Walk down any suburban shopping strip and you’ll likely encounter a handful of different brands.
For those uninitiated, classic bubble tea is cold tea, with or without milk, with flavouring, ice and topping. The ‘bubble’ in ‘bubble tea’ comes from the mixing of these elements – the server will usually shake it for you before handing it over, forming bubbles.
Toppings are optional and include tapioca pearls, different sorts of jelly, custard, sago or aloe pieces. You can generally choose your sugar and ice level. A lot of places use syrups or powders for the ‘tea’ component, so if you want more tea for your buck, it’s worth looking for freshly cold brewed.
What’s your favourite tea to drink in summer?
This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 29 December 2023.