This cool and refreshing Strawberry Iced Tea is the perfect drink to enjoy during those hot summer days! The strawberry flavour comes from a simple syrup made with fresh strawberries!
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Iced tea is one of the most popular summertime cool-down drinks. And I don’t mean the iced tea you buy at the supermarket, I mean the good ole southern homemade sweet tea!
A few weeks ago, I shared a recipe for Homemade Lemon Iced Tea (one of my all-time favourite drinks). That recipe was so easy to make, I just had to make some more! However, this time I decided to take a shot at a new flavour.
Strawberry Iced Tea Ingredients
This iced tea is made with 100% real ingredients, even the strawberry flavour comes from fresh strawberries! You only need 6 ingredients, or maybe just 5 (if you don’t count the water).
For the strawberry simple syrup, you only need 3 ingredients:
- Fresh strawberries: use fresh strawberries, you don’t want the added water from frozen strawberries.
- Sugar + Water: use equal amounts of each to create a sticky syrup.
The iced tea itself only needs 4 ingredients:
- Water: You’ll need 10 cups, 5 to steep the tea and 5 to add at the end.
- Black Tea Bags: The base flavour of the iced tea comes from black tea. You’ll need 10 bags to equal the amount of water we’ll be using.
- Baking Soda: This is the secret ingredient in a lot of sweet tea recipes. Black tea can be quite bitter, so a teaspoon of baking soda should help take away some of that bitterness!
- Lemon Juice: I only added about a teaspoon to enhance the strawberry flavour, but if you want a strawberry lemon flavoured iced tea, add ¾ cup of fresh lemon juice!
How to Make Strawberry Simple Syrup
So now that all of the ingredients have been broken down, let’s put ‘em all together! Starting with the strawberry simple syrup.
One of the easiest things you could ever make is simple syrup. All it is is equal amounts of sugar and water that’s boiled on the stove for a few minutes to create a syrup. One of the main uses of simple syrup is to moisten cake layers when assembling, but today we’ll be using it as a drink flavourer.
To make a strawberry flavoured simple syrup, add sugar, water and diced fresh strawberries to a saucepan and allow it to reach a boil. Then lower the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes.
The strawberries have released their flavour into the syrup, so strain it out into a bowl and discard the strawberry pieces. Now you’ve got a beautiful bright red strawberry simple syrup! Allow it to cool while you prepare the iced tea.
How to Make the Iced Tea
- Steep the Tea: To make the iced tea, start by making...well, tea! Tie the 10 tea bags together and place them in a large bowl with the string hanging off the side. Bring 5 cups of water to a boil, then pour it into the bowl and allow the tea to seep for 5 minutes. Don’t steep any longer than this, unless you want your iced tea to have a strong bitter taste.
- Add Strawberry Simple Syrup: Discard the tea bags and stir in the strawberry simple syrup. Since it has the sugar in it, we don’t really need to add more sugar, but you can taste it and add more if it’s not sweet enough for you.
- Stir in Baking Soda and Lemon Juice: Both of these will cause a chemical reaction in the tea, removing some of the bitterness and improving the flavour!
- Add Cold Water: Stir in the remaining 5 cups of cold water, taste the tea and adjust the sweetness to your liking. Then cover and refrigerate overnight.
Serving the Iced Tea
Serve the iced tea in a large pitcher, and if you’re serving it at an event, add some slices of fresh strawberries! However, if you plan on keeping this in your fridge for a few days, don’t add strawberries as they’ll go bad and ruin the whole batch. I removed the strawberries from my pitcher after taking the photos. For serving in individual glasses, ice cubes, fresh strawberries and mint leaves!
Want another fruity and refreshingly cool drink to beat the heat? Try this Watermelon Lemonade next!
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Strawberry Iced Tea
This cool and refreshing Strawberry Iced Tea is the perfect drink to enjoy during those hot summer days! The strawberry flavour comes from a simple syrup made with fresh strawberries!
Ingredients
Strawberry Simple Syrup:
- 2 cups (10 oz) fresh strawberries, stems removed and diced
- 1 cup granulated sugar + more if needed
- 1 cup water
Iced Tea:
- 5 cups boiling water
- 10 black tea bags
- Strawberry simple syrup (recipe above)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 5 cups cold water
To Serve:
- Ice Cubes
- Sliced Strawberries
- Fresh Mint Leaves
Instructions
For the Strawberry Simple Syrup:
- In a medium saucepan, add the diced strawberries, sugar and water. Turn the heat to high and allow mixture to come to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Immediately remove from the stove and pour through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Discard strawberry pieces.
- Set simple syrup aside to cool. You can also store it in a jar until you’re ready to use it, or for up to a month.
For the Iced Tea:
- Bring 5 cups of water to a boil.
- Meanwhile, tie all the tea bags strings together and place them into a large bowl. Make sure the strings are hanging off the side.
- Pour the boiling water over the tea bags and let it steep for 5 minutes. If you want a stronger tea, steep for 10 minutes.
- Remove the tea bags and discard. You can either pour the tea into a large pitcher, or continue mixing in the bowl.
- Pour in the strawberry simple syrup and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
- Add the baking soda and lemon juice and stir until the fizzling subsides.
- Pour in the 5 cups of cold water and give it a few more stirs. If you used a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow tea to chill in the refrigerator overnight.
- To serve, either pour into a pitcher or serve with a ladle. Add a few slices of fresh strawberries to the tea and individual cups, along with ice and fresh mint leaves!
Notes
- Strawberries: If adding fresh strawberries to the pitcher, don’t leave them in for too long or the strawberries will spoil and ruin the taste of the iced tea.
- Sugar: There’s already 1 cup of sugar in the syrup, but if you feel like adding more directly to the tea after tasting, feel free, but don’t add any more than 1 cup to the syrup.
- Strawberry Lemon Iced Tea: If you want a strawberry AND lemon flavoured Iced Tea, instead of 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, add ¾ cup!
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 145Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 138mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 1gSugar: 36gProtein: 0g
BON APPÉTIT!
Love, Dedra
©QUEENSLEE APPÉTIT. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe.
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