Crafting Infused Tea: Herb, Flower, and Fruit Iced Teas

1. Welcome to Crafting Infused Tea: Herb, Fruit, and Flower Iced Teas: Hi, I'm getting Glenn and today we're going to talk about crafting infused ice teas. For me, T has always been a comfort food. I love a good Irish breakfast tea, but sometimes I find myself wanting tea with a little bit more flair. So in this class, I'm gonna show you how to take tea to the next level. For this edition, we're going to focus on Ice Tea's. Specifically, we'll explore the six basic types of tea. And even though T has a fascinating history and tradition, we're gonna be diving into that too much in this class. We're primarily going to focus on the flavor profiles of the tea, how to brew them and options for cooling your brewed tea. They will check out some tools and techniques for crafting infused iced tea and some basic pairing logic when it comes to enhancing the flavor of the tea with herbs, flowers and fruits. And with this class you'll get an ingredient pairing chart three recipes that you can try this afternoon and a tea brewing chart. Also, you can start crafting your own signature iced tea drinks, so if you're the type of person who already loves tea or you're the type of person who's trying to love tea. With this class, you'll get everything you need to discover the flavors in pairings to make tea your comfort food, too. 2. Tools for Brewing and Crafting Tea: Let's start our T crafting journey by taking a look at some of the tools you may find helpful when making your infused iced teas. And I've broken them into two groups. Brewing tools and crafting tools. Up first are the brewing tools that actually broke up. T really only need to tools a vessel for water. No way to get the tea out of that water. There are lots of ways to do that. One of the most recognizable is probably the tea bag. Loose tea goes in, then the whole thing is just dropped into the water. Another common method is the use of the T ball, which comes at all sorts of shapes and sizes. The basic structure is always the same. Opening. Put loose tea into holes for the flavor to come out, but small enough to keep the T in. The building method of retrieval from the water like a chain could also use cheesecloth is a tea bag or to strain the tea out, and also use a strainer for that. Just get your tea out of the water. Then there the vessel strainer combos like tea cups with built in strainers or for larger quantities of tea. There are teapots with built in strainers or their many teapots that do two servings at a time that also have that same strainer. You may also want to get a thermometer for testing the temperature of your hot water, which will get into a little bit more in our next lesson. And finally, I've got a few measuring spoons here just for getting loose tea out of bags. So those are the brewing tools. Now let's take a look at some of the crafting tools you may find helpful when making your own infused iced teas. The purpose of these tools are to either extract. Flavor would help in the measuring and mixing of our ingredients, so let's start with the tools of extract flavors. A mortar and pestle are great for granting herbs that we have. A mother pointed end is great for crushing fruits, well fled and is good for crushing herbs and flowers. Jesters Ally To get either fine or large bits of zest off a Citrus micro planes air good for finally grating ingredients. Finally, we have juicers either the twist type of the press type. Either one both work great for getting juices out of Citrus from their needs and basic kitchen tools like measuring spoons, knife and a cutting board. Honey dipper some tools for mixing like cocktail spoons. Large spoon for storing big batches and shaker ingredients and ice. Go in, shake it up and pour out cool tea without watering it down. You may also want to consider getting some drinks. Stones. We'll talk about those more in our next lesson. All right, now that we've taken a look at all of those tools, keep in mind that they are all optional. And later, when I show you how to make some infused ice teas, I'll demonstrate how to use some of those tools. But first I'm gonna show you some methods for brewing and cooling your tea. 3. Methods for Brewing and Cooling Tea: Now, when brewing rt, we have two different options. We can use the cold brewing method, the more coming hot brewing method, and when using hot water to brew your tea, you don't want to just use boiling water. Different types of tea need different temperatures of water in order to extract all of the tea flavor goodness without any of the bitterness. With this class, I've included a brewing chart available for download in the class. Resource is, and when you buy T, it will probably have the ideal brewing temperature in time on the package. But if it doesn't, you can use this chart as a guide. And in general, the more delicate the T, the cooler, the water. How much loose do you use will depend on how strong you want your final T. As a general rule of thumb, Start with one heaping teaspoon of tea for every eight ounces of water, and you want to double this If you plan to make iced tea that's cooled with ice cubes. When filling a T ball, don't over fill it. The tea will need room to expand as it steeps, and you can typically count on T to double in size by the time it's done steeping and always follow the recommended brewing time so you don't end up with tea that tastes bitter or astringent. If you want stronger T just gonna have to use more tea leaves because when it comes to brewing, longer doesn't equal stronger. So the goal for this class is to create an infused ice T. So we'll need to cool the tea that we just brewed. Ice gives our great option, but remember to double the amount of tea you use when brewing. So is the ice melts. You don't end up with water down tea one afternoon for avoiding water down T is to shake your tea with ice, which cools it down. Then pour the kool tee and leave the ice in the shaker. You can also avoid water down T by using drink stones, and these are made of soapstone and to just pop them into the freezer. Then, once they're cool, use them exactly like an ice cube. Of course, you can always put your team the refrigerator to cool if you're not in a hurry, or you can use the refrigerator to brew your tea in the first place. Gold bring is pretty much what it sounds like. You cover your tea with room temperature water, then place it in the refrigerator to prove for between 2 to 5 hours. This brings have a slightly different flavor in the tea. They definitely recommend trying it with your favorite teas so you can experience the taste difference. And because you're using cold water to brew the tea, it won't develop bitter flavors despite the longer brewing time. Regardless of the brewing method you choose, you want to try and use distilled water whenever possible. Tap filtered and spring water all contain minerals, which may interact with the constituents in the tea, which could end up changing its flavor. Speaking of flavors and our next lessons, we're going to talk about the different flavors you can use to create your infused ice teas . 4. What Makes Tea, Tea?: Now let's explore the base of our infused tea drinks the tea, and there are anywhere between 3 to 6 official categories of tea that very inspects the question. What exactly makes tea T We'll all t starts out with one plant. Camelia Sinensis is highly skilled. Workers pluck the plants 1 to 2 times per year on Lee, taking one but two leaves, which is exactly what it sounds like. They pick just the bud and the top two leaves of the plant. It's the different types of processing of these leaves. It gives us the different types of tea. The processing varies based on the type of tea being made, but it usually involves a few of the following steps. Plucking are harvesting, withering or wilting, rolling the tea leaves, firing her drying the natural process of oxidation, fermentation and sorting the tea leaves. Now, as with anything that has a long history teas, definition can vary depending on who you're talking to and where you are in the world. But in general, people do seem to agree that to be a true T, it must contain leaves from the Camelia Sinensis plant words varietals, which brings up an interesting point. If T has to contain leaves from the committees and it's plant, then that would be the camomile tea. It's not actually a T. Neither is red tea or anything labelled herbal tea. So if they weren t than what are these delightful drinks? Well, they're technically called tous ins, and that's a catch all term for any beverage that you make with hot water and the foliage or flower of any plant except committee and sinensis. So faulty comes from the same plant, and the only real difference is in the processing of the leaves. Then how many categories of tea are there? That's not easily answered. But in the next lesson, I'll show you some of the basics of the more common categories. 5. Tea: Types and Tasting Notes: discussing the different categories of tea can actually be a contentious discussion. Different people have different opinions, So today I'm gonna show you six categories of tea, and I'll talk to you about why these may only be three categories of tea. But the big focus for this lesson is actually on the flavors of the tea. Let's start with a pretty common tea black tea. It goes through the most processing of all the teas, which gives it a bold flavor. The black day comes in an array varieties. Some of the more common are Darjeeling, Earl Grey and any sort of breakfast he But he is a rich of full body T. It can have multi or caramel flavors, and it's strong. Flavor lends well to being paired with other strong ingredients, the kind that may overpower some more delicately flavored teas like green or white teeth. Up next, we have another common tea green tea. These tea leaves don't go through oxidation like black tea and results in a tea with a light, toasty flavor. Green tea is also available. Many varieties, including sentia, longjing and gunpowder. Green tea in green tea's flavor can also skew a bit grassy or basis, depending on the variety. Because of this, I like to pare green tea with fruits florals. And if I'm using a sweetener, I'll usually select honey or Gavi nectar to complement the or basis flavor rather than trying to cover it. White days usually regarded as its own category of tea. But some people do lump it together with green tea. I'm not going to do that today. I'm gonna keep it in its own category. Some of the more common types of white T R silver needle, Darjeeling, white and white, pne and white T has a light flavor, and depending on the variety you choose, it'll be floral and sweet. Might be a bit fruity, and it may have a slight hey, taste to it. Because Whitey's flavor is so delicate, you want a pair with equally light flavors. If you do, select a strong flavor like the ginger will use in a recipe later, make sure you use it sparingly. Long T is oxidized to varying degrees until it becomes something between a black and a green tea. This means its flavor can very somewhere between a black and a green tea as well because of the varied oxidation levels for long. It comes in a wide variety of flavors, including Big Red Robe, Iron Buddha and Four Seasons in general. Lung has a smooth finish in a slightly less grassy tasting than green tea and may even carry a floral aroma or a nutty taste. Who long tease can be paired with any of the same ingredients you've used for black or green tea. Pour tea is a tea that has been fermented and aged, a process that's unique to poor, where I've heard it being lumped in with black teas. But today I'm gonna keep it in its own category because the flavor profile is so different from black tea. Where can be sold this press blocks or loose tea leaves, which may be rolled in a little balls and the loose varieties are usually more for a ble, but the press varieties are more coveted for their uniquely earthy flavor. Import E has a bold and pungent flavor. It's full bodied, so you could use it with other bold flavors. And unlike the hint of floral you get with some varieties of black tea, where tea usually has a very earthy flavor that pairs well with warmer, spicy herbs and anything sweet. And finally, we have yellow tea. This tea is sometimes listed in the same category is green tea. While they are similar, Yellow T does go through some extra processing, resulting in a slightly different flavor profile. So for this glass, we're gonna keep it. Separate. Yellow T is rare and often expensive. The most common variety is main Ding who Anya from Mount Ming in China. Yellow T hasn't obey cious or grassy flavor similar to green tea, but it's flavors milder. You compare florals and fruits with this tea, but just like when you're in fusing ingredients with delicate flavor of whitey, you want to use a light hand so you don't overpower the yellow teas. Natural flavors. So now that you know the basic flavor profiles of the different types of tea in our next lesson, we're gonna pair those flavors with ingredients that enhance them 6. Ingredients and Pairing Logic: in this lesson, we're going to explore the different categories of ingredients that you can infuse into your tea. The idea is that we're going to enhance the flavor of the tea, not overpower it. There are two main tactics when choosing ingredients to infuse into your base T. The first is to pair flavor intensities, so if you have a T with a strong flavor, pair with ingredients that haven't equally strong flavour. So you're infused flavors. Don't get lost in the tea. And conversely, when using, tease the Have a light flavor like white t. Choose ingredients that are equally like flavor to avoid overpowering the taste of your base. T. The second tactic, when selecting ingredients is to balance and complement. Let's say you selected your based E, and it's a green tea with a nerve, a cious, slightly fruity flavor. You can complement their basis and fruity flavor with a sweet herb like stevia. Then you can balance all of the flavors with a Citrus like blood oranges, which are a bit tart but also slightly sweet. So now let's talk about actually selecting your base tea and infusion ingredients and help you get started. I've put together an ingredient pairing chart. It's available for download in the class. Resource is, and I've also included a list of herb and tea shops that you may find to be helpful. Resource is now. Most importantly, when creating your signature infused iced tea, you'll want to select a base t that you like, I said, Just going to a tea shop where you'll be able to smell the different types of varieties of tea because the smell of dry tea leaves definitely speak to their final group flavor. Then, after selecting your based E ticket home, brew it and let it cool, using one of the methods we discussed in less than three. Then try it, as is. Smell it and sip it to get a sense of the flavor. Is it bitter grassy floral? Or is it light or intense? Use those observations along with the ingredient pairing chart, to choose ingredients off similar flavor intensity that both balance and compliment your base. T. To help me get started choosing the different ingredients, I've put together this ingredient pairing chart. You can download it in the class resource is, and it's broken down into a few categories to help guide you towards flavors that work well together. The first section is a summary of base teas. Then I have a selection of herbs, flowers and fruits, and arguably, herbs and flowers can be in the same category. But for creating our signature iced teas, I've separated the mouth. I've also included a list of sweeteners, and you want to use these sparingly because sweet can easily overpower rather than enhance and always warm your sweetener or, in the case of white checker, make it into a simple syrup before adding it to cold tea so that it mixes into the team or evenly and doesn't just sink to the bottom of the glass. Now all of this is just a place to start when creating your icy feel. Free to explore beyond this chart and to go against the guidelines to find your own signature flavor. In the next section of this class, I'm gonna show you how to make three drinks, and I'm gonna use ingredients that are common and some ingredients that are unique 7. Tea Crafting 1: Lady Lavender Iced Tea: or let's make our first infused iced tea. I'm calling this one lady lavender iced tea. And I like this one because we're gonna take black tea, which has a few floral overtones. And we're just gonna bump that up with some lavender and some cardamom. We're gonna balance everything out. Just a hint of sweetness. The techniques you'll learn for this drink will be hot. Brewing and rooming a glass with sugar are chilling. Method will be drink rocks. Our based E will be Lady Grey tea, but you can use Earl Grey. If you can't find that, are additional ingredients will be lavender buds, ground cardamom and white sugar. For all the exact measurements, download the rest of the card in the class. Resource is for this team. We're gonna be doing the hot brewing method, but because I'm gonna be cooling it with drink rocks instead of ice cubes, I won't need to double the amount of tea I start with. However, I will still need a T ball and to my T ball. I'm going to add my tea in my lavender buds and then I'll close it up, place it in a cup and cover with eight ounces of hot distilled water. I'll set my timer for four minutes. Well, that's steeping. We're gonna rim the edge of our iced tea glass. You've probably seen this technique of margarita glasses. Basically, we're just gonna flavor the rim so that each time you take a sip, you get an extra bit of film. First, mixed together your sugar and cardamom, and if you want to, you can do this ahead of time to let the flavors really mix and milled together. Then just stored in an airtight container until you're ready to use it. All right now, poor my cardamom sugar onto a plate and start running my ice tea glass by first moistening the edge. You can do this with water or by running a wedge of Citrus with a small slit in it around the rim of your glass. And I happen to have a Meyer lemon on hand, which has a sweeter flavour, the regular lemon and I think that will play nicely with the lavender. Now just dip the damp rim into the cardamom sugar mixture and move it around. Do you haven't even coating? Then just set it aside all right, the tea is done steeping. Now I'm gonna take the T ball out, and then I'll run to the freezer and get my drink Rocks carefully placed the drink stones in your glass and then pour your tea. And And I've put my team this mini pitcher, to make it easier to pour without disturbing the sugared rim on the glass. And then you can finish the drink by just floating a lavender stem on top. And there you have it, lady lavender ice tea. While this t pairs perfectly with brunch up next, I'm gonna show you a T that pairs really well with orders or light finger sandwiches at an afternoon tea party. 8. Tea Crafting 2: Green Garden Iced Tea: All right, let's make another T. I'm calling this one green garden ice T, and it's fruity and floral. It's perfect for spring. The techniques you'll learn for this drink will be cold brewing and muddling fruit and flowers and are chilling. Method will be frozen fruit are based. E will be J. Ju Island green tea An hour. Additional ingredients will be jasmine flowers, Bartlett pears and rose petals, and the taste of green tea can lead a bit or basis. And rather than covering that flavor, just want to cut the edge of it. So I'll be using the pairs is a sweetener in the fruity Sweet should play nicely with the floral flavor of the rose and the jasmine. And for all of the exact measurements, download the recipe card in the class. Resource is so for this drink. We're going to do a cold brewing method, and personally, I think it brings out gentler flavors of the tea. Does change the flavor a little bit, but give it a try. See what you think. Now for this, you're going to need Adar or a picture that you could put a lid on top of into my jar. I'm gonna add one slice of pair for every serving of tea I'll be making, and I use the pointed end of my mother. Or you can use a fork and I'll start to gently mash the pair to bring out some of its juices. And now that I've got some moisture in here, I'm gonna and my dried rose petals and then allowed just a few fresh jasmine flowers, and you can use dried if you don't have access to the fresh ones, and then I'll flip the mother over and use the flat side. If you don't have one of these, you can just use the back of a spoon, and I'm going to start stamping and pressing the jasmine and rose petals. And the goal here is to mash the pedals into the moist pairs, and this will release their flavor more than if you just broke them up into small bits. And while I'm doing this, I want to remind you that if you are planning to harvest fresh flowers or herbs, avoid getting them from areas near busy roadways where they'll be covered in the oils, dirt and fumes of the passing cars and also don't go foraging in areas that may have been sprayed with pesticides. Okay, now that are, enhancements are thoroughly pummelled. It's time to add the tea, and you don't need to mash the tea. You could just put it in the jar and then cover the whole mix with your water and pop it in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours. And this cold brew method will extract the flavors from the fruit and the flowers along with the tea. But because we're not using hot water, it won't become bitter and acidic tasting. And while the tea is Dylan in the fridge, I'm gonna cut two additional pear slices and pop those in the freezer so that when my tea is ready, I can use them to keep the tea Kool instead of using ice cubes. And because they're going into the freezer, you don't have to worry about them turning brown. And here I've got a dark tea that has been steeping for about two hours. So let's put this string together. Start by selecting a couple with a wide enough opening so that when someone drinks their noses in the cup and they'll catch that scent of jasmine each time they take a sip of tea. And when you pour the tea you want is a strainer to catch the tea flowers and pair bits and then I'll drop in one frozen Paris slice. And now to top it off with a single jasmine flower. And so here you have it. Green garden ice tea. Oh, all that. I hoped it would be all right. Now, this pairs well with ord herbs or ah, finger. Senators said a little afternoon tea party. And then for our next crafted T, we're going Take a look at a drink that pairs well with desserts. 9. Tea Crafting 3: White Zinger Iced Tea: and for our final drink today, we're gonna be making ice t that I'm calling white zinger. And it's got just a bit of tartness from lines and spice from ginger. So it pairs really, really well with heavy desserts like cheesecake er crime Berlet. The techniques you'll learn for this drink will be hot Brewing and doing a Citrus twist are chilling. Method will be ice cubes in our base table. The Silver needle white T are additional ingredients will be lime peel, ginger root and strawberries, which will have both flavor and sweetness and justice. With the other recipes, you can find all of the exact measurements on the recipe card available in the class. Resource is, it's over this t we're gonna be using the hot brewing method, which means going to need a way to cool it. And to do that, I'm gonna use ice cubes, which means that I want to start with double the amount of tea when I start the brewing process so that we don't end up watering it down. Once I add those ice cubes and actually brew our tea, we're gonna be using this tiny little brewing pot today into my brewing pot. I'm gonna add my tea. And I've selected a brewing pot because the white T has a delicate flavor and I don't want any of it to escape in the steam. Is it steeps? So place the little on top to keep that from happening. Then I'll set my timer for three minutes and start prepping the rest of my ingredients. That mentioned earlier that you want a pair white tees with other delicate flavors off which lime and ginger? Definitely or not. But if you remember, I also say, if you could break that rule if you do it with a light hand and that's what we're gonna do today I'm using a micro plane to shave the ginger into very fine bits, and I'll only be using a small amount for the line. We're only gonna using the peel so you could save the rest of your line for another culinary adventure, like making salsa and for the strawberries. I'm gonna make a slit in the center of one, and then I'll cut the other one into about six slices. Looks like the team's done, so I'll remove the strainer and set it aside and they will go grand, my ice cubes from the freezer, and then we'll put this drink together. Start by placing the ginger into your iced tea glass and then pour in a small amount of tea and use a long handled spoon mixing around. This will ensure that ginger doesn't just rest at the bottom of the glass. Now drop in to strawberry slices and one of these ice cubes, and then I'll stirred again to ensure even distribution of flavor. Then I'm Morty to the mix, along with two more ice cubes. And then I'll drop in a few more strawberry slices and given another stir, and I'll just keep layering the ingredients in there until my glasses full. Then I'll have the lime twist by grabbing both ends of the peel and twisting in opposite directions to release the essential oils and drop that into my drink. Interview on an extra bit of lime in your drink. You can squeeze in a little bit of juice from that line you've got, and there you have it. White singer iced tea, and all you need to do is garnish with your other strawberry. Take a sick so delicious all right. So, as I said earlier, this pairs really well with heavy desserts like cheesecake or creme brulee and ah, the lime. The ginger discounters it beautifully, the Starbury at a little bit of sweetness so overall, really delicious. 10. Bringing it All Together: so that's it. Now you have all of the resources and knowledge you need to start the class project. Crafting your own signature iced tea. For the class project, you'll be creating a tea blend intended to be served chilled. Start by selecting one based tea, then choose three additional ingredients to infuse into it. And you can use the pairing chart to get ideas. But don't feel restricted by it. Use whatever fruits, herbs and flowers that you like best then right up your signature infused ice T recipe. Given any, it's a minute in the class project area as a photo text document or just a quick video whatever you feel comfortable with. And be sure to tell everyone a little bit about why you chose the ingredients he did. And for bonus points, if you make your signature iced tea or any of the class iced teas, make sure you upload a picture so we can all see your creation. And don't forget to grab the charts and recipe cards in the class. Resource is where you'll also find a list of wonderful tea and herb shops, and please don't let limited availability of ingredients stop you for making your own infused ice. T. I always prefer loose tea, but if you only have access to bag t, definitely use that instead. So that's it. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you enjoyed the class, and I look forward to seeing and talking to all of you in the project area about your signature iced tea recipe ideas. And I hope you'll join me for future classes on crafting hot tea and flavored ice cubes. Me sure brewing pot today earner zinger and the tartness of the line The spice of the Ginger Get it, boss.