Black Currant Iced Tea Recipe: Easy, Simple, Homemade!

Is there anything better than sipping a chilled berry flavored iced tea on a hot summer’s day? Here is a simple recipe for a drink that’s refreshing, hard to resist, full of berry flavor and easy to make.

Black currant simple syrup

If you have plenty of time, we recommend making a black currant syrup to add to your iced tea. Not only does it taste delicious, but you can use it to add berry flavor to milk shakes, lattes and simply for mixing with ice cold water. Home-made syrup can be made a few weeks ahead and chilled, covered in a clean jar or a bottle. And the best of all, you can use it for adding a new flavor to any pure iced tea. How? Just serve tea over ice and add some black currant simple syrup to taste. Alternatively, use a regular simple syrup and brew tea together with a cup of gently squashed black currants. Or to make it super easy, use a pre-made black currant syrup.

For making a black currant syrup you will need:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 3-4 cups of black currants

Instructions:

1. Wash black currants and remove berries from the stem.
2. Squash them or use a blender for a couple of seconds.
3. In a saucepan bring water to a boil.
4. Add black currants and simmer over low fire for at least 45 minutes.
5. Strain the juice from the pulp and pour the juice back to the pan. You can use a fine mesh metal strainer and squeeze boiled black currants to extract all the juice.
6. Add sugar and simmer until sugar is completely dissolved.
7. Remove from fire and let it cool for a couple of minutes.
8. Pour into a clean jar or bottle.

Black currant iced tea

You can make iced tea in different ways, but the best and easiest one is to make a concentrated tea and diluting it with cold water. When serving, simply stir in your black currant simple syrup, add ice and decorate.

For making black currant iced tea you will need:

• 2 tablespoons of pure black tea or Black Currant Decaf black tea (alternatively, use 4-5 black currant tea bags)
• 1 ½ cup of hot water
• 3-4 cups of cold water
• 3-4 tablespoons of black currant simple syrup
• ½ cup of black currants for decoration
• 1 lime, washed and sliced
• Ice

Instructions:

1. Put tea bags or loose leaf tea into a teapot.
2. ·Bring water to a boil and pour 1 one and a half cup of water over tea leaves.
3. Steep tea 5 minutes at least. The longer you steep the leaves, the stronger the flavor will be, but don’t steep for more than 10 minutes.
4. Strain the tea or tea bags and pour into a jug or a pitcher.
5. Cool and chill covered in the fridge for one or two hours.
6. Serve with ice in tall glasses and stir in syrup, 1-3 tablespoon per glass, depending on preferences.
7. Squeeze lime wedges into tea and add wedges for decoration.
8. Add a few washed fresh black currants.

Find more summer tea recies here.