We're not going to keep it a secret. While our discovery of GABA Passionfruit iced tea rocked our world, and continues to do so, we really feel we unlocked something with this simple recipe! The unique flavor profile of traditionally made Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea is only enhanced when iced! Then add just a twist of lemon and a drop of honey and it becomes a proper tea cocktail invention!

The best Taiwanese loose-leaf iced tea in 3 steps

1. Brew your tea at a ratio of 1:40, loose-leaf tea : water. Boiling temp. water. Brew 7 minutes. 
2. Pour the brewed tea into a a cocktail shaker full of ice, add whatever flavoring, and shake.
3. Pour the well shaken iced tea into glasses half-full of ice cubes.

So for this recipe, simply add the lemon or lime juice and honey into the tumbler, along with the brewed tea, before shaking. Here the specs that we use:

recipe for 500ml of Tie Guan Yin Oolong iced tea

1. Brew 10g of tea leaves in 400ml of boiling temp water for 7 minutes

2. Fill a 550ml cocktail shaker 3/4 full with ice cubes, add 1/2-1 tsp. of honey and 1-2 tsp. of freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice

3. Pour brewed tea into the shaker, cap it, and shake for about 20 seconds

4. Pour into a pint glass or two smaller glasses half filled with ice cubes

5. Enjoy! 

The innovation of using a cocktail shaker to make iced teas began in the 1980's in Taiwan, when the founder of Taiwan's most popular tea house chain created his own original recipes. This "shaker tea" quickly gained popularity, generally referred to as "bubble tea" or "foam tea" (泡沫茶). This was further innovated upon when recipes using tapioca balls were introduced to make various concoctions of "pearl milk tea" (珍珠奶茶). When these recipes made their way to North America, "bubble tea"  or "boba tea" became the English translation of "pearl milk tea" in Chinese.

check out our short video of making this tea! 

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