Orange Iced Tea
Posted: November 4, 2025
Updated: January 18, 2026
Instinct Level 4 – Advanced Technique: Patience and precision shine here: complex steps, longer time, sharper skills required.
Instinct Level 3 – Intermediate Balance: A little layering, some timing, and a dash of judgment — you’ve got this.
Instinct Level 5 – Expert Challenge: Multi‑stage, high‑skill cooking with nuanced judgment — a true kitchen adventure.
Instinct Level 2 – Easy with Guidance: Simple skills, short prep, clear steps — just follow along and you’re golden.
Instinct Level 1 – Beginner Friendly: You’ll breeze through this: quick, easy, no judgment calls, barely any cleanup.
While a “recipe” for orange iced tea might seem a bit too simple, it is a great accompaniment to so many dishes and to have around to help resist temptation to drink other sugary, flavored drinks (sometimes alcoholic). It is so simple and just requires time to allow the teabags to steep to create a refreshing glass of cooling, refreshing tea.
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Boiling Method:
Hands-On Time: 2 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Steeping Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 32 minutes plus additional time to cool
Sun-Tea Method:
Hands-On Time: 2 minutes
Steeping Time: 1 hour (depending on temperature outside and sunniness)
Total Time: 1 hour and 2 minutes plus additional time to cool
Overnight Method:
Hands-On Time: 2 minutes
Steeping Time: 12 hours or more
Total Time: 12 hours
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Notes
Suggested Meals
Orange pairs so well with seafood, poultry, and meat. Serve as a drink option for any shrimp, chicken, or beef dish.
Storage & Leftovers
Store in a jar or pitcher in the refrigerator. The tea lasts at least 3 days if properly refrigerated.
Substitutions & Variations
You don’t have to use just one flavor of tea bags – feel free to mix and match. Different brands of orange iced tea such as Stash orange adds a different flavor. For an orange-mint variation, you can do 4 bags of Tazo orange iced tea and 2 bags of mint tea (I like Stash super-mint).
Some people are concerned about plastics in the teabags. The tea leaves can be emptied into a strainer and used instead of the teabags that they came in. There is likely to be some leaves floating around and the drink is a bit less clean-looking but the flavor is not impacted.
Sometimes, I will put in extra teabags to create a stronger concoction. I will use 8 bags and dilute the tea in the glass with water when serving (about a 2 to 1 ratio of tea to water). This helps the tea to last longer (more cups per jar).
For sweet tea, feel free to add your favorite sweetener either when brewing or after.
FAQs
Nutrition Facts
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* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000-calorie diet; your needs may differ.
Nutrition information is estimated using USDA databases and may vary based on ingredient brands and preparation methods.
The 2,000-calorie reference is used as a general guide. Individual calorie needs typically range from 1,600-2,400 calories per day for adult women and 2,000-3,000 calories per day for adult men, depending on age, activity level, and other factors.
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