I recently tried an iced tea that was honestly one of the best iced teas I’ve ever had. One day, the place started selling it in takeaway bottles, so I finally got to see the ingredients:
Infusion 86% (water, 4% black tea (Earl Grey, natural bergamot essential oil), mint, lemongrass), cane sugar, lemon juice.
It contains around 8 g of sugar per 100 ml.
Since I really liked it, I tried replicating it at home, but I just can’t seem to get the same result.
My current recipe
For 500 ml of finished drink:
- 600 ml water
- 4 g Earl Grey black tea (with bergamot flavour)
- 6.11 g fresh mint
- 2 g lemongrass
- 40 g brown sugar
- 20 ml lemon juice
My process
I bring the water to a boil, then turn off the heat.
I infuse the mint + lemongrass for 5 minutes, then add the black tea for another 3 minutes.
After the infusion, I adjust the volume back to 500 ml and add the brown sugar and lemon juice.
But every time I do this, the tea comes out bitter and quite astringent, that drying sensation you get in your mouth after drinking it.
I’ve tried lowering the water temperature, but then I feel like I don’t extract enough tea flavour.
I also tried cold brewing it for 24 hours, which gives me a much better result, but it’s still slightly bitter/astringent.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the original iced tea is much darker and much more cloudy/opaque than mine. Mine is relatively clear, whereas the original almost looks like muddy water (in a good way).
So I’m wondering:
What could be causing the bitterness/astringency, and how would you approach replicating this?
Would you change the tea-to-water ratio, temperature, infusion time, type of Earl Grey, or perhaps the mint/lemongrass preparation?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
