I picked up this iced tea at my local Chapters bookstore at the end of the summer when they discount all their summer stock to make way for the incoming fall products. Unfortunately each large teabag is intended to make a gallon of tea and I only have a smaller 2 L pitcher so steeping times and quantities are at best a guesstimate. The steeping instructions on the tin said boiling water for 15 minutes – which I ignored as it was obviously just copied over from the black tea-based iced teas without taking into account the more delicate green tea base. The water I used was 80°C and I steeped the large tea bag in 2 cups of water for 4 minutes and then added iced and cold water to make up the 2 L volume. It is convenient having the iced tea in a bag which saves me having to filter the brewed tea and results in much less mess.
Despite the reduced steeping time I found the base to be a bit bitter and it took a fair bit of my homemade simple syrup to make it palatable. The flavour isn’t citrusy lemon, instead it’s pretty obviously derived from lemongrass and that adds to the strong herbal undertone which I’m not terribly fond of. It’s a refreshing tea, I’ll give it that, but it’s not to my taste.
