Cool Sweetness: How to Make Iced Tea Lattes

Published by SamovarLife on July 24, 2009 under Specials and Promotions, Tea Blog, The Culture of Tea, What's New

Iced tea lattes are usually known as overly sugary concoctions made with low-grade tea or even tea-flavored syrup. However, like chilled tea, tea punches and cold-brewed tea, iced tea lattes can be a delicious summer treat when made properly. Here’s how to make your own awesome iced tea lattes at home in six easy (and versatile) steps:

First~ Select a tea as a base for your latte. It has to be something that goes well with milk (or a milk substitute – I prefer soymilk) and sugar. Generally speaking, black teas are a great choice. More specifically, Ancient Gold has a bold taste that suits iced lattes, Earl Grey gives iced lattes a citrus twist and Masala Chai makes a far superior “iced chai” to what you’ll find in coffee shops.

Some other teas have flavor profiles that work for lattes – try rooibos (like Earl Red, classic Rooibos or chai-like Ocean of Wisdom) or herbal infusions (like Orange Ginger or Samovar Moorish Mint) to start.

Second~ Pick a milk, any milk. Full, low-fat, fat-free, soy, almond, whatever. If you want some vanilla in your latte, I recommend Silk Vanilla Soymilk. Make a 50-50 mixture of filtered water and your chosen milk, in a quantity that’s half what you want your final volume to be. (For example, if you want 16 ounces of iced tea latte, put mix four ounces each of milk and water for a total of eight ounces.)

Pour your mixture into an appropriately sized saucepan and heat on medium. Bring the liquid to the temperature required of your selected tea.

Warning: Soymilk tends to boil over faster than dairy milk. Watch your pot closely to avoid massive cleanup.

Third~ Select a sweetener. Honey, cane sugar, agave, flavored simple syrup… whatever you prefer. Add an amount that suits your taste buds, the sweetener type and your end quantity of iced tea latte (in our example above, that’s 16 ounces). Look at your pot and think, “How much sweetener would I want in this much tea?” Then, add double that amount.

Note: Acidic, tart fruit-flavored syrups can sometimes curdle warm milk. Add them when your liquid is still cool, or skip them altogether. Sweeteners that need to be dissolved (like cane sugar) should be added earlier in the heating process and stirred in well. If you want to retain the healthful properties of honey in your latte, add it to the mixture immediately before you ice it.

Now you’re ready to brew your tea Add two to three times the amount of leaves you would normally use for your end quantity of tea. (Example: 16 ounces of latte with a black tea that normally requires 1 Tbsp per 16 ounces would require 2-3 Tbsp.) Brew for the sample length of time you usually would. (If you need more guidance on standard brewing procedures, check your tea packaging for instructions, or read Samovar’s handy guide on how to brew tea.)

Once your tea is brewed, strain the leaves as you pour it into a blender. Add an equal volume of ice. (You can measure it in advance or just keep adding lots of ice until you see the volume has doubled in your blender.) Note: If you prefer an unblended iced tea latte, just pour over ice and serve. You’re done, my friend.

Last step~ Blend until smooth, then serve immediately. You now have an awesome iced tea latte.

Side note – For those who are wondering why I didn’t address matcha lattes (which are also very delicious), it’s because I didn’t want to encourage you to use Samovar’s Matcha Hekisui for lattes. It’s the best matcha I’ve ever tasted and it’s super-rare, so I would be incredibly sad to know that anyone was using them for lattes. In general, I’m not a fan of the “use cheap tea for cooking, iced tea, etc., because you won’t taste it anyway” argument – I think the quality of the ingredients is reflected in the end product – but you have to draw the line somewhere, and Matcha Hekisui is where my line is drawn.

In my next blog post, I’ll be talking about more summery tea treats, like tea ice pops and tea granitas. Yum! In the meantime, I hope you’ll chill out with an iced tea latte.

~Lindsey for Samovarlife

Lindsey “Vee” Goodwin is a professional tea writer and consultant. She founded Vee Tea, is a contributing editor to World Tea News, writes for non-industry publications about tea and writes web copy/press releases for tea companies. She is also a consultant to several tea companies and teaches about tea through staff training and individual/small group classes and tastings. Click here to reach her by email.

Make your own Iced Tea and Herbal Lattes at home. Our favorite teas for blending with milk are 20% off until August 4th with coupon code: LATTE20. Enjoy!

• loose leaf tea lover on August 2nd, 2009
  

  finally a recipe for iced tea latte that knows what its talking about! Black tea is great, but so is Rooibos since it already has a naturally sweet flavor. Thanks for the detailed info.

• Gina on August 3rd, 2009
  

  Can u make a hot tea latte as well?

• christine on August 5th, 2009
  

  Hi Gina,
  For sure! I love making matcha and almond milk hot lattes (almost as much as I love whisking traditional matcha). Have fun experimenting!

• Lindsey on August 13th, 2009
  

  Loose Leaf Tea Lover — I totally agree that black tea is not the only great option for lattes, and I hope to get the word out!

  Christine — Thanks for answering Gina’s question.

  Gina — I’ll talk more about hot tea lattes as the weather cools down. Please check back in a few months. In the meantime, let us know if you come up with any great hot tea latte recipes!

• How Make Cold-Brewed Teas | Tea Blog | Samovar Tea Lounge | Samovarlife on September 1st, 2009
  

  [...] we’ve talked about chilled teas, tea punches, iced tea lattes, and frozen tea treats. Now it’s time to talk about cold-brewed teas. Cold-brewed teas are a [...]

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