This lemon iced tea is the perfect, refreshing beverage for a party, outdoor event, or just to keep in the fridge! It’s lightly sweetened (but not too sweet). And it has great lemon flavor that’s balanced by an extra ingredient—the juice of a couple sweet clementines!
The Search for the Perfect Lemon Iced Tea
Me and iced tea go way back. When fountain drinks were still a thing that I might indulge in every now and again (definitely a mark of the 90s for me), my go-to was always either Brisk lemon iced tea or whatever peach/raspberry tea they had on offer.
It was SO sweet, I watered it down a little, even as a kid! I was first confronted with the amount of sugar that must have been in that 20-ounce cup when I was at a T.G.I Friday’s with a hankering for iced tea. They only had unsweetened. “Just put some sugar packets in it,” my aunt told me. Well, I did…and it seemed like no matter how many packets I threw in there, it just wasn’t sweet enough.
Obviously, my sugar tolerance has changed quite a bit since my neon-leggings-wearing, cartoon-watching 9-year-old days. But my love for iced tea hasn’t!
This lemon iced tea recipe hits all the right notes for me. It tastes like a fresher, healthier, WAY less sweet but still soul-satisfying, thirst-quenching version of the Brisk of days past. It’s lightly sweet and lemon-forward without being sour or bitter.
I think the key is the addition of the juice of a couple clementines. (You could also use mandarin oranges or tangerines, or even a very sweet orange). Think of it as getting the flavor of a fancy meyer lemon (a sweeter, less acidic variety) without paying that meyer lemon price tag!
A Staple for Entertaining
This iced tea has become a go-to for me for summer entertaining because:
- It’s a major crowd-pleaser. Everyone loves it!
- I can make it at home with ingredients I often have on hand
- It doesn’t produce the waste that canned and bottled beverages do.
- And finally, it somehow feels more special for guests when you present them with a pitcher of homemade iced tea. I may not be from the South (where sweet tea reigns), but I feel like even my lightly sweetened version just has the vibe—of simpler times, warm hospitality, and welcome.
Lemon Iced Tea Recipe Instructions
Add 4 cups of hot water and tea bags to a covered container. Allow to steep for 1 hour. Alternatively, add cover tea bags with 4 cups of room temperature water and steep in the refrigerator overnight.
Tip!
I like to brew iced tea in a medium pot or saucepan (or even a stockpot if I’m making a big batch). Bring the water to a boil in the pot. Throw the tea bags in, cover the pot, and that’s it. No kettles, no batches in the hot water boiler. You don’t need multiple containers for boiling/brewing, and you save on dishes to do!
Stir in the lemon juice, clementine juice, and agave nectar.
Pour into glasses over ice, and add lemon slices.
Serve!
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Recipe
Lemon Iced Tea
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 5 bags black tea (we use Lipton; can also use 5-6 teaspoons loose-leaf tea)
- ¼ cup lemon juice from 1 medium to large lemon
- ⅓ cup clementine juice (from about 2 clementines; can substitute tangerine, mandarin orange, or any sweet orange juice)
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar (or to taste; can also substitute honey)
- ice
- 1 lemon (sliced)
Instructions
- Add hot water and tea bags to a covered container. Allow to steep for 1 hour. Alternatively, cover tea bags with room temperature water and steep in the refrigerator overnight.
- Stir in the lemon juice, clementine juice, and agave nectar. Pour into glasses over ice, and add lemon slices. Serve!
Nutrition Facts
FAQs
This might be a bit controversial, as there are so many great teas out there, but my choice for homemade iced tea is good ol’ bog standard Lipton tea bags.
Most of the iced tea we all enjoy is made with black tea, and you could choose any black tea blend you like. But I find that Lipton just has that classic, familiar flavor that I’m looking for in a glass of iced tea. I don’t buy their special “iced tea” blend or anything like that. I just buy their standard tea bags (organic if they have it).
They’re widely available, economical (which is especially great if you’re making big batches of tea for a party!), and I just think they have the right flavor notes.
Funnily enough, my parents and I were once on a tour of a tea farm in China that produced 红茶 (hóngchá), which translates to “red tea” (this is what the Chinese call black tea). The highest quality whole dried tea leaves were QUITE expensive. When we asked about the different grades and price points, the tour guide told us that the small broken bits of leaves and tea “dust,” i.e. their lowest grade tea that wasn’t fit for sale in the fancy canisters, was actually sold to…you guessed it. Lipton. For me, this came off more positive than negative. If I was getting Lipton tea dust from a farm that also sold tea for 100 RMB a box, it didn’t seem like a bad deal!
Many tea connoisseurs say that cold brewing iced tea is more ideal than brewing it with hot water, as the tea has a cleaner flavor with less bitterness. I say that if you have the time and forethought, go for it! It eliminates that extra step of boiling water, but you just need to have enough time for it to steep.
That said, I often whip up this iced tea on the same day I plan to serve it, and I just use hot water. I don’t find it to be noticeably more bitter, and it is a significant time saver.
Agave nectar is my preferred sweetener here. You don’t need very much of it (it’s actually much sweeter than sugar and a little sweeter than honey), disperses quickly in the tea, and it has a clean flavor. You can also use honey, though that will definitely add an extra flavor dimension.
If you’d like to use sugar, dissolve it in an equal amount of hot water before adding it to your iced tea, or you’ll just get a bunch of sugar settling to the bottom of your glass/pitcher. I would use 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar dissolved in 3 tablespoons of hot water to get the equivalent level of sweetness here. Of course, you can also adjust the amount of sweetener to taste!
