Summer breeds a particular kind of thirst. After three cold showers on a sweltering day, only iced tea (okay, maybe also air conditioning) will do. And while bulk Lipton tea bags will always be a classic choice—the flavor that reminds us of childhood summers hawking Arnold Palmers at roadside lemonade stands—these are our favorite teas to buy for summer steeping.
A power trifecta of green teas—toasted brown rice green tea, stone-ground matcha powder, and steamed green tea—come together to form editor-at-large Christine Muhlke's favorite tea for cold brewing, Samovar's Ryokucho. It's toasty, nutty, and majorly caffeinated, courtesy of all that matcha. Cold brew it overnight and never look back.
You've probably had it at Starbucks, it's true. But the cheap and easy peppermint, spearmint, and tarragon combination in Tazo Tea's green mint ices extremely well, because nothing is more refreshing than mint and summer herbs.
Tea expert Kathy YL Chan swears by white and lighter teas for chilling. She recommends the White Peony tea from Silver Needle Tea Co., which is grassy and faint in flavor. As it steeps, it releases a hit of natural sweetness. Buy it in tea bags or loose-leaf but just buy it. It's beautiful.
Low in caffeine and said to be the least processed of all teas, white teas shine in the summer time. This one, called Silver Needle (or Baihao Yinzhen), is another of Chan's favorites. No, it isn't cheap, but the delicate sweetness and the elegance it takes on the longer it steeps (instead of getting bitter) are worth your money. All of it.
Bigelow makes a light and easy jasmine green tea that never feels like you're steeping grandma's potpourri—so you can sip cup after cup on the hottest of hot days.
Pu-erh is all funk and toastiness—not exactly what would come first to mind for a hot summer day. But, when it's put over ice, it takes on the qualities of a lightly roasted drip coffee. When we're sipping iced pu-erh in the morning, we even drizzle some milk in it. Did we mention the tea will steep again and again and again? Without losing its flavor? We cannot say enough how good iced pu-erh really is—and Chan recommends American Tea Room's for icing above all the others.
Roasted buckwheat groats infused in hot water do in fact become a tea—a fantastic, caffeine-free tea, at that. This Nagano soba tea from Kettl in New York comes in satchels for simple steeping that infuses any water it touches with sweetness and depth of flavor (think nutty, toasted grains) in remarkably little time.
Barley tea, commonly drunk in China, Korea, and Japan, is soothing in the way that eating a grain bowl can be, but refreshing (and caffeine-free). Barley tea occupies a giant carafe in our fridge all summer.
Hot days in Mexico are punctuated by aguas frescas. And, other than horchata, aguas fresca de jamaica, a.k.a. hibiscus tea (usually sweetened) is the absolute best. The tart and highly drinkable pink liquid is a welcome break from the hot hot heat. For summer in the States, try this floral-spicy bagged Big Hibiscus tea from Steven Smith combines the hibiscus flowers with sarsaparilla, ginger, pink rose petals, and elderflowers.
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Juniper Ridge Douglas Fir Spring Tips tea.
Can't manage to find anyone to camp next to a bonfire with you under the stars? Stick your nose into a canister of this tea, and it'll bring the woods to you. The caffeine-free herbal tea only contains the needle tips from Douglas Fir trees, and tastes incredibly light and refreshing without a mosquito in sight.