Iced Tea - Am I missing something?

I love tea in almost any format, iced included, and find it very refreshing on a hot day. A couple of years a go whilst on holiday in India i had what is without doubt one of the nicest drinks i have ever consumed, it was an iced tea but with more sugar than you might normally put in plenty of lemon and a ton of fresh mint. To be honest i think it was the mint that really lifted it to new heights.

Iced coffee is nice

Iced tea can be really nice, though I've found it hit and miss

cans of Lipton’s Iced Tea

Our son, when about 10, decided he wanted a can of Lipton’s Iced Tea instead of his usual Sprite or whatever. One look at his face as he tasted was enough to know what he thought…  "but, but, it said on TV that it was really nice!"

Lesson learned!

Iced tea needs a good amount of sugar, don't be shy with it.

Iced tea needs a good amount of suga

This is the key, as in a ridiculous amount.

Is that it?

Yep

I was looking for something non-alcoholic to replace a cool refreshing Pimm’s on a hot summers day

The answer, my friend, is Dandelion and Burdock.

You can make an excellent pimms substitute with a cap of balsamic vinegar in a pitcher of fruit and lemonade, sounds weird, but give it a go (a friend suggested it, but hopefully there is something online to back this up).

Cold brew coffee, espresso over ice, affotgatto.

I am not a tea person.

Mmmm Lipton’s peach iced tea 🤤

Acquired the taste for iced tea return on holiday this year. There was the ubiquitous Liptons, but several other brands as well, all tasting pretty much the same. First few tries I thought it was rank, but in the end I was swigging loads of it.

Lipton and similar don't taste much if tea, I hate tea but can drink iced tea as it's really just a very sweet/fruity soft drink.

I like iced coffee, shop bought ones I tend to find too sweet but some sweetening is usually required for a DIY version (warmed milk tastes sweeter than cold so a hot latte wouldn't need the sugar)

Iced tea is weird. Iced coffee is revolting.

Hot drinks be hot, cold drinks be cold, you're upsetting my feng shui.

The answer, my friend, is Dandelion and Burdock.

I grew up drinking D&B, but was very surprised not to find it commonly in shops when I moved to England as a student, late 80s. I remember some of my friends trying it, and one saying that it tasted like bubble-gum. (We were in Devon at the time, but the friend who made that comment is from Yorkshire, and I had lived in Bristol and London by that time. I added it to my list of stuff that I couldn't get, which included welshcakes -natch - and corned beef pasties.)

Do I take it that England's drinks game is moving on? 😀

Aside,

This isn't a recommendation per se but, I picked up a bottle of alcohol-free rum at the weekend. It smells amazing, drunk neat it's rank, but as a mixer with coke it's... really not half bad.

Supermalt?

alcohol-free rum at the weekend. It smells amazing, drunk neat it’s rank, but as a mixer with coke it’s… really not half bad.

I simply cannot imagine an existence where I'd think "I desperately need a rum and coke but mustn't have any alcohol. Oh yum, alcohol free rum.."

Generally when I drink alcohol it's not out of "desperation."

I grew up drinking D&B, but was very surprised not to find it commonly in shops when I moved to England

Sainsbury's do it in cans. Own brand, along with cream soda and a nice lemonade.

Is this a regional thing perhaps? Did the South swap it for shandy?

Generally when I drink alcohol it’s not out of “desperation.”

Thpeak for yourshelf, madame!

someone was raving about iced tea

What a bizarre thing to "rave" about. You really shouldn't listen to weird people.

Is this a regional thing perhaps?

Might be. It's definitely a north-west thing, very common when I were a lad on the mean streets of Cheshire and, I'm happy to report, still is now I've moved back here.

It is the perfect accompaniment to fish and chips.

It is the perfect accompaniment to fish and chips.

Agreed.

Down south our dandelion and burdock is supplied by Fentimans.

Actually prefer the cheap stuff we used to get as a kid.

Probably a bad recipe. Needs to be a little tea with your sugar rather than 2 sugars in your tea.

Worse for you than Coke but tasty if made well.

Our son, when about 10, decided he wanted a can of Lipton’s Iced Tea instead of his usual Sprite or whatever. One look at his face as he tasted was enough to know what he thought… “but, but, it said on TV that it was really nice!”

I've done this as an adult, abroad.

Off brand can with a picture of a lemon on it. Non english writing (I cant even remember what country I was in, may have been Greece).
Assumed it was some lemon fanta type thing, which should be nice and refreshing on a hot day. One sip determined it was in fact a liptons iced tea knock off.
Disgusting. Bitter enough to make me retch, not sure how much I managed to drink but eded up feeling more thirsty than when I started.

I have a real aversion to artificial sweetners; the smallest amount just makes a drink undrinkable to me. Almost all soft drinks now are off the menu, which is a shame because I used to like a ginger beer or Tango lemon after a hot session windsurfing on the sea. Classic Coke is OK, but I only like it when it's flat, and then it makes my teeth squeak.
Last week, I rediscovered Purdeys. They're nice and sour and refreshing. I can almost see myself having one in a pub as an alternative to an alcoholic drink.
Well, I obviously wouldn't but you know what I mean.

Brew the tea properly, in a pot. Half the strength of your breakfast brew. So a teabag to a pint or a heaped teaspoonful of leaves. Take the bag out or strain the tea then let it go cold.

Sweeten it with sugar or something like candarel and add a good amount of ice in a big jug. Juice half a lemon and slice the other half to garnish. Tip the juice in and experiment with the taste. Add a big sprig of bruised garden mint.

If you’re in charge of the ingredients, there’s no one else to blame if you don’t like it …..😀

Proper cold brew coffee (overnight in the fridge, min 10 hrs, before plunging in the morning) has been my go to morning hit these last few weeks.
Not a fan of the regular hot brews with ice. Something about the long cold brew reduces the bitterness.

I grew up drinking D&B, but was very surprised not to find it commonly in shops when I moved to England as a student, late 80s. I remember some of my friends trying it, and one saying that it tasted like bubble-gum. (We were in Devon at the time, but the friend who made that comment is from Yorkshire, and I had lived in Bristol and London by that time. I added it to my list of stuff that I couldn’t get, which included welshcakes -natch – and corned beef pasties.)

I’m from Brizzle and I drank D@B in the 70/80’s, I think you usually got it from the lorry rather than a shop,(could be alpine or corona but as I lived close to tizer factory could have been them)

Soft drinks delivered by lorry you ask,what is this magic 🙂

The answer, my friend, is Dandelion and Burdock.

Isn't D&B a kind of root beer ?.

MacDonald's used to sell root beer down in London in the 80's. Very refreshing ice cold during those hot summers.

Soft drinks delivered by lorry you ask,what is this magic

Alpine was the company up here in Glasgow. They did a shed load of flavours and pineapplaid actually tasted of pineapples, not that weak solution the sell these days.

What you're missing is hot weather, basically. Living in Japan, we got used to drinking all sorts of chilled stuff we'd never have touched in the northern half of the UK.

Though we also drank cans of hot sweet coffee in the winter which was pretty foul.

I have a real aversion to artificial sweetners; the smallest amount just makes a drink undrinkable to me.

I thought the same for years. I finally weaned myself off full-sugar drinks when I realised that I was quite fond of what teeth I have left and diabetes didn't look fun. Took me about two weeks to get acclimatised to it.

Days like that I fire up the Soda Stream and have a soda and lime. Suppose I could rattle some bitters about the bottom of the glass first.

What you’re missing is hot weather, basically. Living in Japan, we got used to drinking all sorts of chilled stuff we’d never have touched in the northern half of the UK.

I am partial to a chilled glass of green tea, flavoured or not and unsweetened. Used to make up jugs of the stuff at sea.

It is the perfect accompaniment to fish and chips.

No it's not, Barrs Limeade was before it became pish.

I thought the same for years. I finally weaned myself off full-sugar drinks when I realised that I was quite fond of what teeth I have left and diabetes didn’t look fun. Took me about two weeks to get acclimatised to it.

I physically can't deal with aspartame, goes right through me like crap beer, quicker just pouring it down the toilet. To be fair the only one that still has full sugar is Coke, the rest have chemical shite. The solution isn't to change what variety of shite you're drinking but just drink less of it.

I physically can’t deal with aspartame

https://naturaler.co.uk/aspartame-free-drinks-list-uk/

To be fair the only one that still has full sugar is Coke, the rest have chemical shite.

What do you suppose constitutes sugar, if not chemicals?

Mmmm Lipton’s peach iced tea 🤤

That's what does my nut about uk iced tea and consequently I avoid.
It only ever seems to be peach! Where TF is lemon? You can get it pretty reliably in France, but here, always with the peach. Bleaugh!
What kind of maniac prefers peach over lemon?

I was expecting a B. A. Baracus appreciation thread. I still rate Ice Ice Baby as one of the greatest rap songs ever.

What kind of maniac prefers peach over lemon?

Me!

And if you look next to the peach ice tea then you’ll find lemon on one side and raspberry on the other

What you’re missing is hot weather, basically. Living in Japan, we got used to drinking all sorts of chilled stuff we’d never have touched in the northern half of the UK.

Hey, we had a heatwave 2 weeks ago. People on here talking about buying linen suits and all sorts of madness.

Isn’t D&B a kind of root beer ?

Well technically yes but that's not a terribly useful fact since it tastes nothing like American root beer which is flavoured with sassafras root. It tastes exactly like the mouthwash I used to have at the dentist as a kid, or the tooth brushing powder we had once.

I finally weaned myself off full-sugar drinks when I realised that I was quite fond of what teeth I have left

Diet drinks are worse for your teeth than sugared ones because they are more acidic.