There’s nothing better than a glass of iced tea when you’re thirsty. Don’t heat up your kitchen by boiling the water on your stove. Once you try my very best Instant Pot Iced Tea recipe you’ll never make it the old way again.
One Way to Make Instant Pot Iced Tea
It’s true that you can add tea bags to your electric pressure cooker with the water to make your favorite summer drink. Use 1 family-sized tea bag per quart of water, 3 regular-sized tea bags, or 2 tablespoons of loose leaf tea.
How many cups are in a quart? 4 cups in case you forget like I always do.
Then brew it all together for 4 to 5 minutes on high pressure and carefully manually release the pressure. If you don’t mind your tea stronger, let the pressure release naturally. I like this method best for herbal teas.
Making Instant Pot Iced Tea For Picky Iced Tea People
In the south we are super picky about our iced tea and I’m even pickier than most! In fact about 50% of the iced tea I buy out I don’t like. To me tea needs to be clear, fragrant, and have a clean refreshing taste.
When I make chai teaI use the method I talked about above , but I find it doesn’t make the same fresh tasting iced tea that traditional brewing does.
Save Room in Your Fridge by Making Instant Pot Iced Tea Concentrate
I don’t know about you, but my fridge is always full. I guess that’s just a hazard of being a recipe developer. Making tea concentrate means I can store it easier.
What is tea concentrate? It’s simply just double or triple strength brewed tea. Just add water to make it regular strength.
This is my favorite method during the summer when we’re drinking lots of tea.
How to Make Instant Pot Green Tea Vs. Black Tea
I would never make green tea with the throw the tea in and pressure cook method. You can get away with that using black or herbal tea, but green tea should only steep for 1 to 3 minutes or it becomes very bitter.
Make green tea with the heat the water in your Instant Pot method, just like the recipe below.
How Do I Make Southern Iced Tea?
If you aren’t familiar with southern tea it’s also known as sweet tea which gives you a hint. Traditional sweet tea is syrupy sweet and made with lots of white sugar. We’re talking one cup of sugar per 4 cups sweet!
You can use the sweetener of your choice if you’d like to sweeten yours. I’ve used maple syrup, agave nectar, and date syrup in mine.
I do find that fresh perfect tea doesn’t even need sweetener, so my ice tea method may be the one that gets you off the sugar in your tea!
How to Dress Up Your Iced Tea
- Muddle fresh mint or lemon balm in a glass, then fill with ice and tea. Stir well.
- Muddle chopped berries in a glass, then fill with ice and tea. Stir well.
- Add some rose water or orange flower water. Start with 1/4 teaspoon if you haven’t used them before and add more to suit your taste.
More Recipes to Try
- Instant Pot Strawberry Rosemary Infused Water
- Instant Pot Thyme Lemon Infused Water
- Instant Pot Chai Tea Concentrate
The Best Instant Pot Iced Tea
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 1 family size tea bag
Instructions
- Add the water to your Instant Pot. Heat it up on high pressure for zero minutes.
- This brings the water up in temperature without boiling.
- Release the pressure manually. Put in the teabag and let steep for 4 minutes.
- (If you are using green tea only steep 1 to 3 minutes depending on how strong you like it.)
- Remove teabag(s), let cool, and store in the fridge.
- Serve over lots of ice.
Kelly says
How do you heat on high for 0 minutes?
Kathy Hester says
You click the pressure cook or manual button and set the time for zero minutes by using the buttons. The fact is that it is heating up right until the time that it comes up to pressure, then it starts counting down.
Herb says
What is a “family size tea bag”? Where can they be bought? What is the equivalent number of regular tea bags? Thank You
Kathy Hester says
I think it’s 3 regular tea bags and I get mine at any grocery store.
Charlie Wilson says
I agree with you about finding well brewed tea at a restaurant. I have three restaurants where I eat that I think have good tea and I will always order tea from those places. If I order tea at any other place I know I am just taking a chance. My mother made sweetened tea when I was growing up, but it was way too sweet and to this day I will not order sweet tea anywhere. I buy unsweetened tea and then add my own sweeteners. So I do drink sweet tea, but I do my own sweetening. I am watching your IP tea video. Never even considered this.
Eve Nichols says
Kathy, although I do not have an Instant Pot, I do have a pressure cooker that I dearly love, so I totally enjoyed this video. It put me in remembrance of an idea I had a long time ago. Like you, I too, love a good tea. My grandmother made the BEST lemon merang pie and years ago, I thought wouldn’t it be great if I could make a “tea” pie. So I’m sharing this idea with you, you recipe-creater, you. Should this idea pique your interest, I’ll look forward to what you create. Maybe even some kind of a lemony, creamy topping or bottom might be a nice touch…. but for those of us who just love the tea flavor, well, I’m listening. 😁
P.S. I’m a plant-based eater and I Love your Easy Vegan ciikbook!
Kathy Hester says
I will see what I can do. Thank you so much for your support <3
Tammy says
Katie, I am having trouble with my tea bags opening up in the pressure cooker.. Any hints or tips for this?
Kathy Hester says
I haven’t really had that happen, but I have made it with loose tea. Then I just pour through a fine mesh strainer.