Refreshing Rhubarb Iced Tea: Your Ultimate Homemade Spring Celebration Drink
As spring unfurls its vibrant colors and warmer days invite us outdoors, there’s a particular kind of refreshment that perfectly captures the season’s joy: **Rhubarb Iced Tea**. This isn’t just any iced tea; it’s a sparkling, subtly sweet, and wonderfully tart concoction designed for moments worth celebrating. Imagine the perfect accompaniment to your Easter brunch, a delightful treat for Mother’s Day, or a unique, refreshing drink for Father’s Day. With its stunning natural pink hue and invigorating flavor, homemade Rhubarb Iced Tea transforms any table into a festive display, promising a delightful sensory experience.
Embracing the Season with Rhubarb Iced Tea
When temperatures rise, there’s nothing quite like a cold glass of homemade iced tea to quench your thirst and invigorate your senses. While classic choices like orange iced tea or a blend of orange and lemon iced tea are always welcome, and the unique lime rose iced tea with fresh raspberries offers a delightful twist, I’ve recently fallen in love with a new contender: **Rhubarb Iced Tea**. This particular recipe elevates the homemade iced tea experience, marrying the distinctive tartness of rhubarb with the gentle notes of white tea and a touch of sweet honey.
The moment you pour this exquisite drink, its stunning pink-red hue instantly captivates, a testament to the natural beauty of rhubarb. It’s not just a drink; it’s a visual feast that sets the tone for a joyful gathering. For an even more enhanced summer effect, I always make sure to add vibrant lemon slices and a few sprigs of fresh mint from my herb garden. These simple garnishes don’t just add a burst of color and aroma; they elevate the refreshing qualities of the iced tea, making each sip a true pleasure.
Beyond its refreshing taste and eye-catching appearance, making your own iced tea allows for complete control over ingredients, avoiding artificial flavors and excessive sugars often found in store-bought versions. It’s a healthier, more flavorful option that’s surprisingly easy to prepare, making it a perfect project for a relaxing afternoon in the kitchen.
Rhubarb: A Cherished Springtime Delight
Rhubarb truly is a jewel of the spring garden, a vegetable often mistaken for a fruit due to its culinary applications in sweet dishes. Its season is wonderfully short, typically running from early spring through June 21st – the longest day of the year. After this date, it’s advised to stop harvesting the stalks, allowing the plant to rest and gather strength for the next season. This limited availability makes rhubarb even more special, a seasonal treat to be savored.
The distinctive tartness of rhubarb provides an exciting contrast to sweeter ingredients, making it an incredibly versatile ingredient for pies, crumbles, sauces, and, of course, this vibrant iced tea. Many home cooks, myself included, will often freeze a batch of rhubarb during its peak season. This ensures that even after the official harvest period ends, you can still enjoy its unique flavor in recipes like this homemade iced tea, extending the joy of spring well into the summer months.
Cultivating rhubarb in your own garden is a highly rewarding experience. It’s remarkably low-maintenance, a perennial plant that returns year after year with minimal effort. Once established, a rhubarb plant offers a generous yield of those beautiful, tangy stalks, making it an excellent investment for any gardener looking for both beauty and bounty. Not only will you have fresh rhubarb at your fingertips, but you’ll also appreciate the deep red and green hues of its growing stalks in your garden beds.
Key Ingredients for Your Homemade Rhubarb Iced Tea
Crafting this delightful Rhubarb Iced Tea requires just a few simple, high-quality ingredients. Each component plays a crucial role in achieving the perfect balance of flavor and visual appeal. You’ll find the precise measurements detailed in the comprehensive recipe card located at the bottom of this article, but let’s delve into what makes each ingredient essential:
- Rhubarb: The star of our show! When selecting rhubarb, ensure you use only the vibrant stalks and **never the leaves**. Rhubarb leaves contain a high concentration of oxalic acid, which is toxic if ingested. Look for firm, crisp stalks, preferably with a good amount of red color. These reddish stems, when cooked without peeling, impart a truly beautiful, natural pinkish-red hue to your iced tea, making it as appealing to the eye as it is to the palate.
- White Tea: For this recipe, white tea is the ideal choice. It’s known for its delicate, naturally sweeter, and less bitter flavor profile compared to stronger black teas. Its mildness ensures that it complements the rhubarb’s unique taste rather than overpowering it. While white tea is preferred, if you opt for a different type of tea like green tea or a light black tea, consider using just one teabag or a smaller amount of loose-leaf tea to achieve a similar subtle base. Rooibos tea could also work for a caffeine-free option, offering earthy notes that pair well with rhubarb.
- Honey: This natural sweetener balances the inherent tartness of the rhubarb beautifully. It’s crucial to add the honey only once the rhubarb iced tea has completely cooled. The reason for this is scientific: warm temperatures alter our perception of sweetness, making the same amount of honey taste much stronger in a hot liquid than in a cold one. By adding it to cold tea, you can accurately gauge and adjust the sweetness to your preference, ensuring a perfectly balanced flavor. The amount of honey needed can also vary based on when the rhubarb was harvested; early-season rhubarb tends to be less acidic and might require less honey than rhubarb harvested later in June.
- Vanilla Extract: A small amount of vanilla extract works wonders to round out the flavors, adding a subtle warmth and depth that enhances both the rhubarb and tea. The process of bringing the tea to a boil will cause the alcohol in the extract to evaporate, leaving behind only the pure vanilla essence. If you prefer to avoid alcohol or simply love the pure taste of vanilla, you can substitute the extract with a vanilla pod. Simply halve the pod lengthwise, scrape out the fragrant seeds, add both the seeds and the scraped pod to the drink, and allow it to steep for at least an hour to infuse its rich flavor.
- Optional Garnishes: While optional, fresh lemon slices and mint sprigs are highly recommended. They not only add a refreshing aroma and burst of color but also contribute additional layers of flavor that perfectly complement the rhubarb.
Gathering these ingredients is the first step towards creating a truly memorable homemade beverage that will impress your guests and delight your family.
Crafting Your Refreshing Rhubarb Iced Tea: A Step-by-Step Guide
Making this beautiful and delicious Rhubarb Iced Tea is a straightforward process, resulting in a sophisticated drink that tastes far more complex than the effort it requires. For a detailed recipe with exact measurements and easy printing, please refer to the recipe card at the very end of this blog post. However, here’s an expanded look at each step to ensure your success:
- Brew the Tea Base: Begin by bringing 4 ½ cups (about 1 liter) of fresh water to a rolling boil in a saucepan. Once the water has reached its boiling point, immediately remove it from the heat. Add two white tea bags (or 2 teaspoons of loose white tea leaves) to the hot water. Allow the tea to steep undisturbed for precisely 5 minutes. This steeping time is crucial for extracting the tea’s flavor without making it bitter. After 5 minutes, carefully remove the tea bags, taking care not to squeeze them. Squeezing the tea bags can release undesirable bitter tannins into your tea, which we want to avoid for a smooth, delicate flavor.
- Prepare and Infuse Rhubarb: While your tea is steeping, wash your rhubarb stalks thoroughly under cold water. Trim off any tough ends and discard the leaves, remembering they are not for consumption. Cut the rhubarb stalks into approximately 1-inch (2-cm) pieces. Add these rhubarb pieces and the vanilla extract (or vanilla pod and seeds, if using) to your freshly brewed tea. Return the saucepan to the stove, bring the mixture to a boil again, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Allow it to simmer for a full hour. This slow simmering process is key to extracting all the wonderful flavor and the beautiful rosy color from the rhubarb.
- Strain for Clarity: After simmering for an hour, the rhubarb will have softened considerably and infused its essence into the tea. Place a fine-mesh sieve over your iced tea pitcher or a large heatproof bowl. Carefully pour the entire contents of the saucepan through the strainer. Use a spoon or a spatula to gently press down on the softened rhubarb in the sieve to extract as much liquid and flavor as possible. Discard the cooked rhubarb solids. This straining step ensures a smooth, clear iced tea free of any pulp or fibrous bits.
- Cool and Sweeten: Allow the strained rhubarb tea to cool down to room temperature. Once cooled, transfer it to the refrigerator to chill thoroughly for at least 2-3 hours, or preferably overnight. The cold temperature is essential for the flavors to meld and for the drink to be truly refreshing. Once chilled, it’s time to sweeten it to perfection with honey. Remember our earlier tip: taste the iced tea when it’s cold, as the perception of sweetness changes with temperature. Start with a small amount of honey, stir well, taste, and add more gradually until you reach your desired level of sweetness. The amount of honey required will largely depend on the acidity of your rhubarb, which varies throughout the season.
- Garnish and Serve: Just before serving, add fresh lemon slices and mint leaves to the pitcher for an extra touch of freshness and visual appeal. Crucially, add ice cubes directly to the pitcher or individual glasses only at the very last moment before serving. Adding ice too early will cause it to melt and dilute your perfectly flavored iced tea, diminishing its vibrant taste. Enjoy your sparkling, homemade Rhubarb Iced Tea!
Did you make this delicious recipe? Tag #byandreajanssen via Instagram! I love to see what your creation looks like and regularly share the most beautiful photos of you! Did you like this recipe? Then leave a rating on the recipe card! Your feedback helps other home cooks and me enormously.
Need more inspiration?
- You can find video recipes on my YouTube channel.
- And don’t forget to save the recipes on Pinterest, so you can easily find them again next time!
📖 Recipe
RECIPE CARD
Andréa
Pin Recipe
Equipment
-
Juice jug or carafe 2 liters
Ingredients
- 7 cups water
- 2 bags white tea, or 2 teaspoons of white tea leaves
- 6 stalks rhubarb
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- honey , to taste
Garnish (Optional)
- 1 lemon , sliced
- ¼ oz. fresh mint leaves
- handfull ice cubes
All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.
Instructions
-
Take 4 ½ cups liter of water and bring it to a boil.7 cups water
-
Turn off the heat and add the two bags of white tea to the water and let them sit for 5 minutes.2 bags white tea
-
Remove the bags.
-
Wash the rhubarb and cut it into pieces of 1 inch (2 cm).6 stalks rhubarb
-
Put the rhubarb in the tea and add 3 cups (750 ml) of water and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-
Bring the tea to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour. Strain the tea and fill up to 7 cups (1500 ml) with water (if necessary).
-
Allow cooling in the refrigerator.
-
Flavor to taste with honey
(TIP: test the flavor of the ice tea when it’s cold, because the same amount of sweet tastes different in a warm tea and in cold ice tea)
honey
Notes
Use the stems and not the leaves (they contain too high a concentration of oxalic acid which is poisonous). Rhubarb sold in the supermarket has nice red stems and those stems give a very nice red color to the ice tea when cooked (if you don’t peel them).
2. – White tea
White tea is sweeter and less bitter than black tea and less pronounced compared to rooibos tea. If you want to use a different type of tea, use 1 teabag to get the same effect.
3. – Honey
The sweetener in the tea. Only add the honey when the rhubarb ice tea has cooled down because the same amount of sweet tastes different (stronger) in a hot tea than in cold iced tea.
The amount depends on when the rhubarb was harvested. Rhubarb harvested early is less acidic than rhubarb harvested around June. You need more honey for that.
4.- Vanilla Extract
Bringing the tea to a boil causes the alcohol in the vanilla extract to evaporate. If you don’t want to use vanilla extract, replace it with a vanilla pod. Half the pod and scrape out the seeds, add the vanilla seed to the drink, and add the pod as well. Let that soak for 1 hour
5. – Serve
Add lemon slices and mint, if desired. Just before serving, add ice to the pitcher (not earlier, otherwise the iced tea will thin out too much by the melted ice).
6. – Storage
- Refrigerator – Store the iced tea covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. It is better to keep it airtight so that it does not take over odors from the other ingredients in the refrigerator.
- Freezer – You can freeze iced tea in a freezer box, without garnish. If you have already added some garnish, then strain it out beforehand. This way the rhubarb iced tea will keep for up to 2 months. Make sure to leave enough space (about 1 cm) in the box, as the iced tea will expand as it freezes. Let the iced tea thaw in the refrigerator.
7.- Nutritional value
The nutritional values shown are per glass of iced tea, without lemon/mint.
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!
More Rhubarb Recipes to Explore
If you’ve fallen in love with the unique flavor of rhubarb through this refreshing iced tea, there’s a whole world of delicious rhubarb recipes waiting for you to discover. This versatile spring vegetable shines in both sweet and savory applications. Here are a few more delightful ideas to inspire your culinary adventures with rhubarb:
- Rhubarb Vanilla Cupcakes with Sour Cream
- Sweet Soufflé Omelette with Rhubarb Compote
- Sparkling Rhubarb Champagne Cocktail
- Rhubarb Custard Dessert with Meringue
Final Thoughts on Your Rhubarb Iced Tea Journey
From the first sight of its vibrant color to the last refreshing sip, homemade Rhubarb Iced Tea is an experience that delights. It embodies the essence of spring, offering a perfect blend of tartness and sweetness, all while providing a beautiful, natural alternative to sugary store-bought drinks. Whether you’re hosting a festive gathering or simply enjoying a quiet afternoon in the sun, this recipe offers a simple yet elegant way to celebrate the season’s bounty. Experiment with different garnishes, adjust the sweetness to your liking, and make this unique iced tea a staple in your spring and summer repertoire. It’s more than just a drink; it’s a taste of homemade joy, bottled and chilled to perfection.