Iced tea is a refreshing and flavourful drink that is perfect for hot summer days. It's made by brewing tea and then chilling it with ice. Iced tea can be served plain or with added flavors such as lemon, honey, or mint. Iced tea is a popular and healthy drink, and there are many different varieties to choose from.

The Best Tea for Iced Tea - Black, Green, and Herbal Infusions

The best tea for iced tea is a matter of personal preference. However, there are three types of tea that are commonly used. These are black tea, green tea, and herbal infusions.

Black tea is the most popular tea used to make iced tea. It has a robust flavour and can hold up well to the addition of sweeteners and other flavours. Some popular black teas for iced tea include Ceylon black tea, Darjeeling, and Earl Grey.

Green tea is lighter and more delicate tea than black tea. It has a slight vegetal flavour and is often used to make iced tea that is a bit more refreshing. Some popular green teas for iced tea include Jasmine, Sencha, and Dragonwell.

Herbal tea is not technically tea, but rather an infusion of herbs, fruits, and flowers. It's a great option for those who want a caffeine-free alternative to traditional tea. Some popular herbal teas for iced tea include mint, chamomile, hibiscus and various fruit teas.

Benefits of Drinking Iced Tea

In addition to being a refreshing drink, iced tea also has several health benefits. Fresh brewed iced tea is always better than carbonated drinks and processed juices. It will keep you hydrated and it’s a great source of antioxidants, which can help boost metabolism. Iced tea also contains less caffeine than coffee, making it a great alternative for those looking to reduce their caffeine intake. Additionally, the goodness of fruits in the tea and garnishing helps keep the immune system and skin healthy.

Infusing Iced Tea with Fruits and Herbs

One of the best things about iced tea is that it's incredibly versatile. You can infuse it with fruits and herbs to create a unique and flavourful drink. Some popular fruits and herbs to add to iced tea include lemons, oranges, strawberries, raspberries, mint, and basil. To infuse your iced tea, simply add the fruit or herbs to the tea while it's steeping. You can also add the fruit or herbs directly to the glass for a more intense flavor and as beautiful garnishing.

5 Delicious and Creative Iced Tea Recipes

Southern Sweet Tea: This is a classic iced tea that is sweet and refreshing. To make it, brew our South Melbourne Breakfast black tea and add sweetener of your choice. Add lemon slices and chill with ice.

Green Tea with Mint and Lemon: This is a refreshing and healthy iced tea that's perfect for a hot summer day. Brew Japanese Sencha green tea, add fresh mint leaves, and stir in honey. Chill with ice and add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Lemongrass and Ginger Iced Tea: This iced tea is packed with flavour and antioxidants. Brew Lemongrass Ginger tea, add fresh apple slices, a cinnamon stick, and a handful of mint leaves, and sweeten with honey. Chill with ice and garnish with a slice of orange.

Strawberry Basil Iced Tea: This iced tea is fruity and herbaceous. Brew English Breakfast black tea, add fresh strawberries and basil leaves, and sweetener of your choice. Chill with ice and garnish with a strawberry and a sprig of basil.

Peach Iced Tea: This is a classic iced tea with a sweet and fruity twist. We use oolong tea for this recipe. Brew Sweet Peach tea, add sliced peaches, and sweeten with honey. Chill with ice and garnish with a peach slice.

How to Make Iced Tea with Fruit Infusions

• Brew your tea using your favourite method.
• While the tea is still hot, add your preferred fruit or herb. You can also add sweeteners of your choice at this point.
• Let the tea steep for a few minutes until it's cool enough to add ice.
• Pour the tea into a glass full of ice and garnish.

Tips to Make Perfect Iced Tea Every Time

• Use loose leaf & brew it twice as strong. Eg: If you normally use 1 tsp of Lemongrass Ginger for a hot tea, use 2 tsp for your cold tea. And if you use a standard 230 ml of hot water, drop that down to 150 ml of hot water.⁠
• Go beyond standard green or black teas. Try fruit teas, rooibos teas and flavoured teas. Try different flavours. You never know what you will enjoy. ⁠
• Sweeten with juice or lemonade. Great alternative to sugar.⁠
• Go wild with fruit. ⁠
• Play with herbal infusions. Like fruit, herbs bring a lot of flavour. ⁠
• Just experiment. Unlike coffee, with iced tea if there’s a flavour you like, you can replicate it. You can have fruity, floral, savory, sweet, umami.

Your Perfect Iced Tea Recipe Awaits You!

Iced tea is a classic summer drink that is perfect for staying cool and refreshed. Whether you prefer black, green, or herbal infusions, there's a perfect iced tea recipe out there for you. Try infusing your tea with fruits and herbs for a unique and flavourful twist. Remember to use high-quality tea leaves and fresh ingredients for the best results. Cheers to a refreshing summer ahead!

Try out one of our iced tea recipes and let us know which one is your favourite!

Say hello to our brand new Artisan Drinking Chocolate. Full-bodied and incredibly luscious, this ultra-dark cocoa blend is simple to make and utterly delicious to drink - for the perfect hot chocolate experience in the comfort of your own home!

The Cocoa Blend

With a blend of 100% African Trinatrio & Forastero cocoa beans, and with double the cocoa butter of regular cocoa, it creates a rich and silky flavour that’s unmatched. The delightfully creamy texture is then perfectly balanced with chocolate flavours, deep earthy undertones and a hint of plum jam & toasted almond. 

A Touch of Sweetness

We take pride in using Australian ingredients when we can, with this blend featuring all-natural and sunkissed raw cane sugar straight from tropical Queensland, subtly lifting and sweetening our drinking chocolate to the perfect degree.

Blended in Melbourne 

Blended right in the heart of Melbourne with the highest standards of care, our specialty drinking chocolate is blended in small batches to ensure the perfect flavour is always achieved. We avoid using GMO ingredients, and value the importance of simple, high quality yet tasty products.

• 42% cocoa
• 100% Vegan Friendly
• No colours, flavourings or preservatives
• Gluten Free

So snuggle up at home this winter with a delicious cuppa of our hot chocolate & let your worries drift away with each satisfying sip!

Did you know that when we call spiced teas chai latte, in India chai is simply known as tea? A chai is a combination of black tea and spices. Chai Latte is a tea that simply shouldn’t be missing from any authentic tea-lover’s pantry.

Tea Drop Chai Latte Range

Hand crafted and blended to perfection, each of our delicious Chai options is a rich & harmonious marriage of whole leaf black tea and spices, creating a superior flavour that’s guaranteed to be the perfect drink any time of the year.

We source our teas and ingredients directly from origins and are made in small batches right here in the heart of Melbourne, so our chai is always fresh. Learn more about our cozy and delicious chai options below.

Traditional Chai Latte

This deliciously rich powder blend makes a creamy and aromatic chai bursting with traditional spices, comforting black tea flavours. The perfect pour as a gluten free latte or chai frappe.

Want to know how to make traditional chai recipe? Click here to find out more! Traditional Chai Latte - Watch Video

Honey Spiced Sticky Chai

Made right in the heart of Melbourne, this artisanal chai brew is blended in small batches and infused with whole leaf black tea, ginger, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, black pepper & Redgum honey sourced from the flourishing Redgum forests of Australia, to give the blend a whole new level of spice and an enhanced flavour profile.

 A light to medium sweetness that perfectly blends the black tea and spices together in a subtle smokey finish. So, prepare to experience pure bliss with every sip of our Honey Spice Sticky Chai.

How to make a traditional chai recipe using our Honey Spiced Sticky Chai

• Place 2tbsp of sticky chai to jug.
• Cover the chai with hot water (30ml) and allow to brew for 1-2mins.
• Pour in 150ml milk of your choice and steam to 68C.
• Strain into warm glass and garnish with chai sprinkles.

Watch Video

Chai Concentrate

If chai latte is your “go to” everyday coffee alternative, then our Chai concentrate is the perfect choice.

Our Chai Concentrate is a slow brewed blend of whole leaf single origin black tea, fresh spices and kithul treacle; a traditional Sri Lankan ingredient known as the maple syrup of the East. Left simmering for the perfect period of time, this Chai is strained and conveniently bottled in 100% recycled glass for an authentic quality taste ready to enjoy. No preservatives are added and its vegan friendly.

So easy and quick to make. No mess and don’t need to wait. If you have a little espresso machine even more so easier to make.

How to make a traditional chai recipe using Chai Concentrate

• Pour 35ml of Chai Concentrate and 140ml milk of your choice.
• Steam together to 68C.
• Pour into a warm glass.
• Garnish with chai sprinkles.

Watch Video

Malabar Chai Tea

If you don’t like having milk and looking for a chai tea or masala chai, this is the option for you.

Malabar Chai tea is one of Tea Drop’s signature classics. It is a tea of spicy & complex body, with a deliciously smooth finish. The superior flavor is due to superior ingredients including pure black tea, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, rose petals & ginger. Our Malabar Chai tea is available in plant-based pyramid tea bags or loose leaf tea.

Tips on frothing the milk at home

Most find frothing the milk the hardest step when making a homemade chai latte. You don't have to have a fancy espresso machine or a milk frother to whip up frothy milk. You can create the creamy texture simply by whisking or blending. Whisking works best for dairy-based milks while blending is best for soy, coconut, and nut-based milks.

• Whisk - Heat the milk on medium to high heat. Use a hand mixer or a metal whisk to vigorously beat the milk. It should take just a few minutes to have frothy milk.
• Blend - Use an immersion blender to froth your milk. For best results, blend the milk before heating it on the stove. Alternatively, you can shake the milk in a large glass jar or a cocktail shaker. Once you add heat, the milk will froth and foam in minutes.

 Health benefits of drinking a chai

• As the chai latte has black tea and contains caffeine. It’s a delicious pick me up for the day and an energy boost in the afternoon.
• Aids in digestion
• High in antioxidants
• Helps reduce pain and inflammation

Give it a chai

Explore and enjoy our range of healthy and delicious chai latte blends. Perfect for making them in the comfort of your own home. Get ready to spice up your day with these rich and creamy blends, that provide immune boosting effects and a clean kick of energy for the perfect pick me up. Give it a chai today.

Our My Melbourne is a fruity tea that highlights overtones of creamy vanilla. Crafted from a unique blend of single origin black tea, rose petals, rosehip, strawberry, and vanilla flavour, this is Melbourne tea.  

We would love to see you try this iced tea cube recipe and let us know what you think – share them on our socials @teadroptea.

Crafted with a thoughtful blend of chamomile flowers, rose petals, and lavender buds, Tea Drop’s  Chamomile Blossoms offers a soft bouquet of sweet floral notes with a whisper of green apple. It’s a pick-me-up, a wind-down, and a sensory delight all in one.

And what better way to bring out its refreshing elegance than in a vibrant, health-packed cooler? Enter the Ruby Blossoms Refresher, a colourful, antioxidant-rich drink that’s as beautiful as it is beneficial.

Ruby Blossoms Refresher Recipe

(Serves 4–6)

Ingredients:

• 1 beetroot, peeled and roughly chopped

• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 green apple, cored and chopped

• 1 litre cold-brewed Tea Drop Chamomile Blossoms tea

• Ice, for serving

• 1 orange, sliced into rounds or half-moons (for garnish)

• Fresh rosemary sprigs, for garnish

Method:

1. Cold Brew: Add 4 teaspoons of Tea Drop Chamomile Blossoms to 1 litre of cold water. Let it steep in the fridge for 6–8 hours, or overnight for a deeper flavour.

2. Juice It: Using a juicer, extract the fresh juice from beetroot, carrots, and apple.

3. Blend & Chill: In a large pitcher, combine the cold-brewed chamomile tea with your fresh juice. Stir well.

4. Serve: Pour over ice into glasses.

5. Garnish: Top each glass with a slice of orange and a rosemary sprig.

The Ruby Blossoms Refresher is more than just a drink; it's a wellness ritual. The beetroot and carrots offer a natural sweetness and a boost of antioxidants, while the green apple adds a crisp finish. Paired with the floral, calming tones of Chamomile Blossoms, this drink is your go-to for slow afternoons, garden brunches, or mindful moments.

We’ve partnered with MasterChef Australia Season 13 semifinalist Elise Pulbrook to create this vibrant Ruby Blossoms Refresher. Known for her Italian-Sri Lankan heritage and seasonal, garden-to-table approach, Elise brings a thoughtful balance of flavour and wellness to every recipe. With her culinary expertise and creative flair, she’s reimagined the calming notes of our Chamomile Blossoms tea into a refreshing, nutrient-rich drink.