Fresh Mango iced tea is my latest obsession, my friends!
The best part is that you can use whole mangoes or mango pulp to prepare this amazing beverage at home from scratch.
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Choose to prepare your basic mango tea with black tea leaves, green or even the precious white tea leaves!
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Who doesn't love iced tea?
I mean seriously, this is an omnipresent cold beverage which most people in this world enjoy, regardless of what flavor.
I think, all my childhood I saw most people in my surrounding drinking lemon or peach iced tea, or infused waters such as pineapple or strawberry water, instead of Coca-Cola and Fanta.
Iced Tea is refreshing and is definitely healthier when prepared from scratch.
The best part is, you can easily make your own iced tea at home and flavor it the way you want.
Today we will be making mango iced tea!
📜 A little more about Tea
Tea itself is a plant.
Yes, tea doesn't just mean a hot beverage with cooked plant parts.
No, the tea bags that you buy from your local store are filled with dried, cut and rolled tea leaves from the tea plant.
The tea shrub looks like this.
It grows in higher altitudes in India and China (mostly).
Did you know?....
When you prepare a "tea" from other plants such as chamomile tea it is also called a tea in English.
In some languages such as in French, these would have another name, instead of Thé, other plant teas are known as Tisane in French.
In French, the tea tree plant is considered energizing and any tisane variations are seen as promoting the well being of your health.
So this begs the question...
🔪 How is fruit Iced Tea or Mango tea made?
Mango tea is prepared with tea leaves and mango pulp.
Simple as that.
That means you can prepare a tea from scratch and add most fruits in the form of a pulp to your tea.
Of course, this might not work so well with fruits which don't dissolve such as banana pulp.
Besides, the flavor profile should fit as well.
That is why Mango is a great addition to any tea flavor.
These two are meant to be together!
So, you can just prepare a mango tea or you keep the tea to cool and add the mango pulp and serve it up as iced tea.
You can choose what you want to do.
Mango tree leaves to make tea?
There is something going around on the internet that mango tea is prepared with mango leaves.
I really can't believe that because mango leaves are considered poisonous.
In fact, most plants growing under a mango tree get damaged by some kind of a sap coming from the tree.
All plant leaves get little dots which looks like a slight acid attack.
Mango tree leaves are as poisonous as poison ivy,... I would keep my finger from that until further conclusive test have been published.
📕 What tea to use to make Mango iced tea?
We will quickly take a look at two major factors that you need to be aware of if you are serious about your tea flavors.
Skip this if you just want to make tea with what you have at home (disregarding health benefits)
This is going to be simple and not complicated, but you will get the best knowledge and choice!
You need to look out for:
- Type of tea - black, green, white, oolong and yellow tea
- The appearance of tea - bags, loose, Orthodox vs CTC
Tea Types
All tea types come from the same tea plant.
It's just that each has been processed differently.
Tea process and its appearance is an art.
Black Tea
Black Tea - That's what you will find in your tea bags.
Most generic tea. When you say or think tea, that's what you mean.
Green Tea
Green Tea - Popular healthy tea variation, richer in antioxidants because the tea leaves are not left to oxidize further.
Otherwise, they would turn into black tea.
White Tea
White Tea - Most expensive type of Tea and less known.
A step ahead of green tea, white tea includes even more antioxidants and is all the healthier.
The tea leaves are harvested in their youngest form when the tender leaves still have their little white hair.
Most minimal processed tea!
Oolong Tea
Oolong Tea - Is a tea variation somewhere between black and green tea.
Yellow Tea
Yellow Tea - Very rare Chinese tea, special preparation.
Don't get scammed buying this tea, there is a lot of fake sold.
Other Tea
In China, they also have a fermented tea variation but I honestly don't know much about that.
Feel free to add your knowledge to the comment section further below if you can share some knowledge about Chinese fermented tea leaves.
To make your Mango iced tea you can pick any of those.
However, I wouldn't necessarily use the yellow tea as it may be way too special on its own, it's like gold.
Tea Appearance
The appearance, so to say the way the tea has been processed and packed is important as well.
Tea Bags
Tea Bags are very common in the west.
Try to avoid tea bags to make mango tea.
Tea bags are handy when you want a quick cup of tea.
To prepare a mango tea you will need to cook the tea with other ingredients in a pot.
The bags are just in the way and reduce the flavor considerably and they give you less control on the quality inspection of your tea leaves.
Loose Tea Leaves
Try to use loose tea leaves only. Again you have a choice in this regard, you can get so-called...
CTC is the newer way and orthodox the original way of processing tea leaves.
CTC looks like granules and is usually used for milk tea and are crushed and curled.
Orthodox tea leaves are whole, dried, and rolled but not crushed or curled further.
Orthodox is considered the better of the two for water-based tea.
To summarize it: So to prepare your tea you might want to look out for whole dried rolled tea leaves either black, green, white, yellow, or oolong.
Maybe lookout for organic fair trade tea versions which are without any other flavoring.
Then, of course, you can pick from the various tea regions in the world.
In India, Assam and Darjeeling are known as the prime tea locations (because of the quality) but in south India, you get excellent tea from Munnar as well.
Chinese Tea is also of very high quality and you might want to take a look at Chinese tea regions as well.
Other tea regions are scattered around Asia and South America.
The point is, even when you prepare something like a mango iced tea, you might want to look into the tea quality as well.
Cheap teas are more bitter, high quality has a way of clearing the mind and is, in fact, healthy for you.
So when you prepare your Mango iced tea, why not add a certain health element to one of your favorite cold beverages?
More tea-related posts
- Fresh Lemongrass Tea
- Holy Basil Iced Tea
- Moroccan Mint Tea
- Indian Masala Chai
- Chamomile Tea and Orange Flower Tea
Dear Reader, which tea variety are you planning to use to make this mango iced tea?
📖 Recipe
Fresh Mango Iced Tea
Ingredients
- 34 fluid ounces Water
- 1 ½ Tablespoon Tea leaves *See Notes
- ice cubes
- Sugar
- 6-8 Tablespoons Mango Pulp
- ⅛ Cup Lemon Juice or Lime Juice
Instructions
- Place a Pot on the heat, add the water and the tea leaves.
- Mix the water with the tea leaves and bring to a boil.
- Then take the hot tea from heat, let steep and cool down completely.
- In a Jug or container to mix the iced tea, add the ice cubes.
- Strain the tea so that the clear tea pours over the ice cubes.
- Add sugar to your liking.
- If your mango pulp is having strings then strain the pulp with a strainer so that the clean pulp falls into a mixing bowl.
- Now, add the mango pulp with the lime/lemon juice to the iced tea.
- Stir and mix very well until all the ingredients are completely dissolved.
- Serve very chilled, add more ice cubes if needed.