Learn how to make the perfect glass of iced tea.

Open a fresh box or tin of tea. It should smell delicious. If your tea bags have been hanging around since last summer, it’s time to invest in fresh tea. The cost is small and the rewards are big.

Pick your favorite tea

We tried Luzianne’s, Lipton’s and Blue Durango’s blends for iced tea. Luzianne and Lipton are grocery store teas, and tasted very similar. And very good. They’re both a mix of orange pekoe and pekoe-cut black tea. We brewed a batch of each using their family-size tea bags (one family-size bag equals four regular bags).

Blue Durango is a restaurant-quality tea from Atlanta Coffee Supply Group. It’s served at dozens of places including The General Muir, H& F Burger and Hop’s Chicken. The retail version comes in half-ounce sachets, and while the package doesn’t list the ingredients, the tea smells a little darker and richer than Lipton and Luzianne.

Clean everything

Make sure everything you’re using to brew the tea is sparkling clean. One of the reasons restaurateurs like Linton Hopkins and Todd Ginsberg like Blue Durango is that it comes with the expertise of Atlanta Coffee Supply Group founder Jonathan Silver.

Both appreciate that the company is Atlanta-based and that means Silver is on hand to provide great customer service including training programs for restaurant staff. Hopkins credits Silver with helping affirm a commitment to the cleanliness of everything used in the brewing process.

Boil water

Follow the directions on your box of tea. Bring the right amount of water to a boil – yes, all the way to 212 degrees — then pour it over the tea bags. Do not add tea bags to a pot of water and then bring the water to a boil. You want the hot water to gently coax the flavor out of the tea. Blue Durango’s directions include the step of bringing the water to a boil and then letting it cool just enough to stop “rumbling” before pouring it over the tea.

Follow directions

Tea companies spent lots of time making sure you get the best tea from their products. Both Luzianne and Lipton suggest steeping the tea for three to five minutes. Blue Durango tea steeps for 6 minutes. Once steeped, you discard the tea bag or sachet. For some teas, you’ll add water or even ice at this point. If you’re going to sweeten your tea, now’s the time to add whatever you’re planning to use. Or keep it unsweet and let everyone add simple syrup to taste.

Tea is an extract from a plant and left at room temperature for too long,

it’s going to spoil. Restaurants serve a lot of tea and most discard their brewed room-temperature tea after two hours or four hours. Unless you’re going to serve your tea within a few hours, cool it and then refrigerate it. It should keep for up to 4 days.