Below are the methods I use to make tea at home with tea bags. The sun tea and refrigerator tea can be made while you are at work. The brewed tea and steeped tea methods are used when I am in a hurry to make tea with tea bags. Your favorite tea bags can be used instead of regular tea bags.
Placing tea bags in a jar to steep in the sun is another way to make tea. Letting tea steep in a gallon jar in the sun for 2 to 4 hours is the most common way to make this type of tea. I have made sun tea in a pint jar and weakened it down in a larger pitcher.
If a gallon jar is being used to make sun tea, use one to three one gallon tea bags. The amount of tea bags to use depends on how strong you like your tea. If you are using specialty tea bags, you will need to use four to eight of those. The amount of the smaller tea circles or bags depend on the strength of your tea.
Pint jars or other smaller jars emptied can be used for sun tea. I have used one one-gallon bag or two regular sized bags for smaller pitchers of tea. I pour the tea into the pitcher after steeping and add water.
Brewed tea is another way to make tea. In restaurants, this is how they make their tea. They brew it like coffee and add water to the pots of tea in a large urn with water and ice.
There are two ways one can make brewed tea. One way is to use the an ice tea maker or tea maker. These tea makers have a filter holder for tea bags or to use loose tea leaves and coffee filters. They work similar to coffee pots.
Another way to brew tea, if you do not want to buy a machine mentioned above is to use your coffee pot. This allows the tea to be made in the same manner as your coffee. However, using this method, you will need to make sure the coffee carafe and coffee filter holder are washed before and after using. This will prevent the coffee and tea flavors from mixing.
Steeping Tea
Steeping tea is different from brewing tea.To steep tea, the water is brought to a boil. The burner is turned off. ‘ยจ
I add two to four cups of water to a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. I turn the water off and place two or three small tea bags into to hot water. I allow to steep for 10 minutes. This allows the flavors of the tea to come out.
After the 10 minutes, I pour the steeped tea into a pitcher and add water. This type of tea will have a stronger flavor than the other teas mentioned.
Refrigerator Tea
I fill a regular size pitcher to 2 inches below the rim. I put three tea bags into the water and wrap the strings of the tea bags around the handle of the pitcher. This keeps the tea bags and strings from sinking to the bottom of the pitcher.
I place the pitcher into the refrigerator of the morning. After about four hours the tea is ready to drink and is already cold. I have done this method before going to bed and is ready in the morning. However, with each glass I have had to weaken it down a bit due to being stronger than any of the other methods.
