Though green tea sounds like something that will help you lose weight and maintain your health, it can be your refreshing beverage too. There are plenty of ways to drink green tea and one of these is to make a cold beverage out of it.
And for the beverage, you will need to add the syrup. So yes, you can add syrup to green tea.
But where would you find the syrups?
You can get organic syrups from melmas.at. They have plenty of flavors too. It is not easy to stick to one taste and a lot of people get bored of it. And when it comes to flavors, there are no limitations to it. Not only there are plenty of green teas but also flavors.
You can get peach, lime, ginger, mint, cranberry, chai, orange and even raspberry lemon and many more flavors. And not only these, but you will find many other organic teas and coffee syrups too.
What is tea syrup?
A syrup is a name given to liquid sugar. We mix water and sugar and cook the mixture to get a specific consistency. This is syrup.
But this is not tea syrup. To make that, you have to mix water, sugar, and tea. So a tea syrup will have flavor. You can add the flavor of your choice. So if you like peach, you can make a peach flavor syrup.
Furthermore, this won’t be limited to iced tea only. You can flavor simple drinking water or add it to cocktails. In addition to this, you can use it to flavor your pancakes, get a flavored morning tea, and in baking.
You can choose to make your syrups or get them from the market.
How can we make them?
1 – Classic syrup
One of the most commonly used syrups is this one. You will need;
- Granulated sugar – 1 cup
- Water – 1 cup
Add water and sugar to the saucepan and let it simmer on medium flame. Stir the mixture continuously to get the desired consistency. You have to stir the mixture until it becomes clear. Now remove it from heat and let it cool at room temperature. Put it in a bottle or jar and place it in the refrigerator.
2 – Vanilla syrup
The second most common syrup that we use is vanilla flavor. To make this, you will need;
- Granulated sugar – 1 cup
- ½ vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Water – 1 cup
Take half a vanilla bean and cut it from the middle. Scrap out the soft middle portion of the seed and put it in the saucepan. Or you can use a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Now add water, sugar, and vanilla extract to the pan and turn on the heat. Let the mixture cook until it becomes clear. Now cool it down and pour it into a bottle or jar through a fine strainer.
Straining is essential if you are using vanilla seeds. However, if you are using only vanilla extract, you can simply let it cool and store it in a container in the refrigerator.
3 – Ginger syrup
Ginger syrup is especially good for winters or when you are feeling cold and sore throat. To make this syrup, you will need;
- Granulated sugar – 1 cup
- Water – 1 cup
- Ginger – ½ cup, peeled and chopped
Put everything in the saucepan and let the mixture get to a certain consistency. After the sugar gets completely dissolved and you get the syrup consistency, remove the pan from heat. Let the mixture cool down and strain it through a fine strainer. Now put it in the bottle and store it in the fridge.
4 – Peach, mint, lemon, and any other flavor
To make flavored teas, you can follow the instructions for ginger tea. Just replace ginger and put other flavors in its place. In this way, you will be able to make tea syrup in every flavor you like. You can choose to use flavor extract or the fruit itself.
Make the best green tea beverage
The easiest way to make green tea is to simmer some water and put green tea leaves in it. Let them sit for a while and you have your green tea. However, this won’t let you get the best out of it.
If you want to make the perfect green tea, you should make sure to time things.
If you let the leaves set in for too long, it will make the drink bitter. Leaving the leaves in for short time will not extract all the benefits.
Therefore, the ideal time is 3 minutes. While making green tea, you should let the leaves in water for one minute and taste the green tea. If you feel satisfied, you can drink it. Otherwise, leave it for 30 seconds more. You should let the leaves brew for a maximum of three minutes with 30 seconds intervals. Let the tea brew until the flavor is to your liking.
How much tea leaves to use?
Apart from the brewing time, the quantity of leaves is also very important. Of course, you will get the bitter taste if you put too many leaves in a single cup.
1 tsp per cup?
It depends on the size of the cup and leaves. If you are using a teacup and use smaller leaves, it will give a bitter taste. Therefore, while using a small teacup, you should only take 1 tsp of small leaves.
So, a rule of thumb is to use 2 g leaves for 6 oz water. This is the exact amount to get the perfect taste.
If you are making it for a group of people, of course, it would be hectic to make single cups. Therefore, it is better to make it in the pot. There are special pots for green tea, they have a strainer attached to them. Thus, you don’t need to use a separate strainer.