How Do You Make Iced Green Tea? What Are the Health Benefits Of Green Tea?
Tea and coffee are both very popular among most people in the world. Some drink them to have a kick start to their sleepy mornings, some drink it to get rid of headaches, and there are also many who drink these for the health benefits they have upon regular consumption.
Green tea is one beverage that is most commonly consumed for the wide range of health benefits it provides. However, it really is not a very tasty concoction to drink according to most as the taste is a bit bitter, especially when it’s cold.
So, here you are going to learn how to make iced green tea in three different ways which will actually leave a good taste in your mouth afterward.
Ingredients Needed To Make Cold Brew Iced Green Tea
First and foremost, you are most definitely going to need some green tea, and for this specific recipe, you are going to use one tea bag. Use a cup for 250 milliliters of water to make the tea. And of course, you are going to add ice to your drink, otherwise, it will not end up tasting the same as you desired.
Last but not least, you can use honey. Now, this is not something you absolutely have to add to your tea. However, it does add a better taste to it. As sugar is not a good option for those trying to lose weight drinking the tea, honey is the perfect alternative.
The Process Of Making The Cold Brew Iced Green Tea
In this section, we’ll tell you about the process of making the cold brew iced green tea.
Step 1: Prepping The Tea Into The Water
One of the main reasons why someone would want to brew tea in cold or room temperature water is to prevent the bitter taste of tea from coming out into the water. This is something that happens when the tea is brewed in hot water.
Now that the little information is out of the way, the first thing you must do is fill a cup with 250 ml of water (preferably cold, but room temperature would do as well). Per serving is equal to 250 ml, so if you plan to serve more than one person then you are going to have to do the math and adjust accordingly.
The next step for you would be to add a bag of green tea to the water. If you don’t have a tea bag, then add the amount of loose tea leaf equivalent to the tea bag.
So, add a tablespoon of loose tea leaf for every tea bag. Also, keep in mind that the one tea bag is for one serving, for more people you will have to add more tea bags.
Step 2: Brewing The Tea
Once the tea bag is completely submerged in the water you have to cover the top of the cup with some type of lid or maybe a plate. The next step would be to pop it in the fridge for five to six hours until the green tea has completely infused with the water.
Now, if you want your brew to be stronger then you should keep it in the refrigerator for a longer amount of time, so about seven to eight hours.
Your next step would be to take a glass out and add in two or three cubes of ice in it. If there is tea for more than one serving then add as many glasses as required but do remember to put ice in each of them.
Step 3: Serving The Tea
At this point in the process, you should take the cup of tea out of the refrigerator and remove the tea bag from the cup. Make sure to give the bag a good squeeze before taking it out so that all the excess liquid stored up in the bag is released into the cup.
Now all you must do is pour out the content in the cup to the glass. If you do end up using loose tea leaf, then you will have to use a strainer to take out all the leaves from the water. And finally, stir in some honey (as per your liking) and enjoy your cool healthy and delicious drink.
This process is easy. However, it does take a very long time for the tea to actually brew, and many people might not have the patience for it. An alternative to this process would be to make the hot brew iced green tea. It does take much less time to make but it does get your pot dirty.
Ingredients To Make Hot Brew Iced Green Tea
For this particular recipe, you will need 4 cups or one liter of water to make the green tea. To the water you are going to have to add 4 to 6 bags of green tea, you can also add loose green tea leaf in case you don’t use tea bags. Ice is also required to make this green tea.
Here too you can add the honey if you want to, but it depends on your taste and your preference, so if you want you can skip adding the honey altogether. The taste, however, will be altered because of the absence of anything sweet.
Process Of Making the Hot Brew Iced Green Tea
In this section, we’ll tell you about the process of making the hot brew iced green tea.
Step 1: Tea Bags In The Pot
First and foremost, you will have to pour 4 cups or one liter of water in a pot and then put it on the stove to boil. If you want to make use of a kettle rather than a pot, then you can do so and then pout the water in a mug.
Once you take the pot off the heat, add in the tea bags to the water. How strong your tea is will end up depending on how many tea bags you add to the water. So, if you want it to be stronger you will want to add more than one tea bag for each serving. Thus, you could add six bags in a pot of water for four servings.
You could also opt for adding the tea bag to the mug in which you poured the water from the kettle.
Leave the tea bags in for three to four minutes, leaving them in any longer will give the tea a bitter taste, that is something you should avoid.
Rather you can simply add more bags of tea to make the tea stronger. After three minutes just take the bags out of the water. Don’t forget to squeeze the excess liquid out of the bags.
Step 2: Cool It Down
Before you do anything else to the tea it has to be left to chill for an hour at best for the water and the pot to come to room temperature. The time will mostly depend on the temperature of the surrounding area. In a cold room, it will take lesser time to cool down.
Once that is done leave the pot in the fridge for two hours so that it becomes cold for you to enjoy. You can keep it in for a few more hours if you want the tea to be colder, but two hours is a good amount of time for that to happen.
Step 3: Time To Serve the Tea
Just like the time before, you should take glasses out and fill them in with a few ice cubes so that the drink is chilled to the max. then take the pot out of the freezer and pour the liquid out into the glasses ready to serve.
At this point of the process, you can stir in a teaspoon of honey if you want to add a bit of sweetness to your drink, but this step can be skipped if you don’t happen to like honey much.
And with all of this, you are done making your iced green tea.
Health Benefits Of Drinking Green Tea
There are a plethora of reasons why people like to drink green tea as much as they do. Many of them have actually seen great results after adding this to their diet, and here we will be going over a few of the advantages of drinking green tea.
Green Tea Can Actually Make You Smarter: One of the main components in green tea is caffeine which is believed to make people more awake and aware. Research has also shown that caffeine actually does improve certain aspects of brain function, can boost a person’s reaction time along with their memory.
Lowers The Risk Of Certain Types Of Cancer: The antioxidants present in the green tea can actually help fight the risk of developing breast cancer, people who drink green tea have 30% lower risk of having this. 50% of the risk of having prostate cancer goes down when the individual drinks green tea.
It Kills Bacteria: The catechins in green tea are able to kill bacteria and some other viruses, which is why many people also like applying green tea on their faces. This is mostly done by those who are prone to getting pimples and acne on their face.
This is not just true for the skin, rather it can kill the bacteria in their body as well, so overall you will be of sound health when you drink green tea.
It Lowers Your Risk Of Having Type 2 Diabetes: This disease is becoming more and more common around the world nowadays due to high levels of sugar consumption. Green tea can actually help improve the insulin sensitivity of the body and reduce the risk altogether.
A Good Solution To Help Lose Weight And Fight The Risk Of Obesity: Many pieces of research have been conducted of the relationship between green tea and weight loss and the relationship exists. As green tea boosts the metabolism of the body, more calories are burnt, meaning more weight is lost.
The weight loss mostly happens in the torso or the belly area, so the people suffering from extra fat there are able to benefit tremendously.
Conclusion
More and more people have started to reap the benefits of drinking green tea, and with time people are starting to realize how much better it is to use organic and natural products to take care of themselves and their bodies.