It's time.
It's time for spring flowers, sunshine, and peach season! It's time to make homemade peach tea, peach iced tea, peach syrup—just all things peachy and lovely! Grab your tea, grab some peaches, and a bit of sugar, and we're off!
It's time to make the perfect summer beverage!
Is Peach Tea Real Tea?
When making your peach tea, you may be wondering; Does this qualify as real tea? The answer isn't quite as simply stated, but in a nutshell, yes! The in-depth answer is no. How's that one for a head spinner?
The reason for this is that the basis of this peach tea recipe is in fact tea. Think of it like making a stronger tea and flavoring it up with a lovely peach mixture. However, when it comes to truly defining what teas are considered real teas and what ones aren't, I encourage you to read this article.
You get a little variance in choosing the type of tea for your brewed tea base that you would like, whether that be green tea, black tea, or a combination of the two. You're even welcome to use a nice base blend such as our House Blend Black tea, which comes in regular or decaf!
It's so dreamy with a dollop of creamy vanilla!
You're welcome to use tea bags or loose-leaf tea for your recipe. What I love about making this homemade peach tea recipe is that you get to be the chef in your own kitchen! I'm here to give you some info, tips, and pointers, but you get to be the master and tie it all together to create your own work of drinkable art!
Types of Peach Tea
Plum Deluxe offers a plethora of peach teas. We love our peaches and so do our beloved customers! You're welcome to use one of these black peach teas, or the oolong tea, as a base for these recipes, for an added peach boost, or choose a more basic black or green tea to build off of when you craft your drink.
When I said plethora, I meant plethora—Peach Bellini herbal tea, Peaches n' Cream oolong tea, Afternoon "High Tea" white tea, Tranquil Peach herbal tea, and Sweet Georgia Peach black tea.
Both Peach Bellini herbal tea and Tranquil Peach herbal tea are caffeine free and offer up an abundance of fresh fruit pieces. Both are also great as iced teas and make superb spring and summer drinks!
Afternoon "High Tea" white tea has a beautiful light white tea base, with peach and apricot pieces, orange peel, marigold petals, and pear essence. It's as beautiful as it is lovely to sip!
The Sweet Georgia Peach black tea is a big hit around here, as it should be! With hints of caramel and walnut, the smell of this tea alone will sweep you off to beautiful groves of peach trees with the smell of summer in the air. I simply can't get enough!
How to Make Peach Iced Tea
It's time to get into the good stuff—a homemade peach iced tea recipe! Personally, I really enjoy doing a cold brew tea for this iced tea recipe. It makes everything a bit easier by allowing me to throw my tea and hot water together the night before, provides a very smooth taste, and finishes with an already chilled drink—fewer ice cubes needed.
Start by combining four heaping teaspoons of loose-leaf tea, or four tea bags, in four cups of cold water. Cover and set aside to steep overnight.
After you set up your tea to steep, or you could do this the day off and simply chill with ice cubes, you're going to make your peach puree with ripe peaches, sugar, and water. In a large saucepan over medium heat, you're going to combine two cups of chopped peaches, fresh or frozen (thawed), along with half a cup of cane sugar, and one cup of water.
Stir consistently to ensure your sugar is dissolved and you don't scorch it. If you've made simple syrup before, you will recognize the process is much like making a simple syrup—almost exactly—we're just fast-forwarding through the process a bit quicker and not allowing it to get as thick and syrupy.
As your mixture begins to come to a boil, you're going to want to take your best potato masher and really work those peaches, mashing them down, getting them to soften, and getting the peach juice to infuse into the mixture. This is what is going to give this peach iced tea its perfectly-peachy flavor that makes for the most refreshing drink!
I like to continue to keep my peach puree at a low boil while I keep mashing for about three minutes. Remove from heat and let your peach mixture sit for about 10 minutes to cool and thicken just a bit before running it through a fine mesh strainer, ensuring you squeeze out all of the peachy flavors from your fruit mash. *Feel free to save this—there are ways to use it!
The next day, go ahead and remove the tea bags or your loose-leaf tea and discard them. Add in your fresh peach puree and stir to combine well. If you're serving your peach iced tea soon after making your peach puree, you will want to add ice cubes to each cup, otherwise, you should be okay to just add a few into your pitcher, or place in your refrigerator to cool.
How to Make Peach Milk Tea
Ready for another peach tea drink? We're on it with this lovely peach milk tea—which can be served up as an iced tea or a hot peach tea.
When it comes to making peach milk tea, you will need to start by steeping two teaspoons of loose-leaf black tea (of choice) for the appropriate amount of time, usually three to five minutes in boiling water.
I recommend our Sweet Georgia Peach black tea for an added depth of peachy flavor, or Vanilla Latte Tea for a touch of delicate spice. If you're looking for a nice solid foundation, then I'd go for the Housewarming Blend black tea. Any are fantastic choices!
This recipe will make about four regular-size cups, so if you don't plan to divvy out all four right away, put about a quarter of a cup of the brewed tea in a mug for a hot peach milk tea. If you're making it iced and you have some time to let it cool first, I'd recommend letting your tea cool off in the refrigerator first. Otherwise, put a few ice cubes in a tall glass and add about a quarter of a cup of your brewed tea.
The depth of your peach tea flavor comes from your homemade peach syrup (recipe below). You're going to want to add in two to three tablespoons, depending on how sweet you like your peach tea. Remember, you can always add in a little extra honey, granulated sugar, or even maple syrup if you'd prefer not to add in more of the homemade peach syrup, for an extra sweet tea.
To top it off, if you're making this as a hot peach tea, feel free to steam your milk if you'd like, or if it's being served iced, then top off with some milk, or a dairy-free alternative, until it's the perfect creaminess you desire.
Feeling a little fun and adventurous?
If you're making an iced tea, feel free to go ahead and add in some tapioca pearls to make this a peach bubble milk tea. Some fresh peaches atop this iced drink finish it off beautifully!
Things to Add to Peach Tea
Are you looking to spruce up your peach tea a bit? Perhaps add a few fresh mint leaves, maybe some other fresh herbs, or even some other options for sweeteners?
I've got you covered in this section—so let's get rollin'!
Fruit Mash
Remember the leftover peach mash from earlier when we strained the peach juice from it?
This is where that juicy fruit mash comes into play to really liven up your peach iced tea!
Feel free to take that peach fruit mash and add (however much you'd like) into your pitcher of peach iced tea, stir, and you're set! This will add an extra flavor boost and really looks appealing on a hot summer day—all those peaches!
Homemade Peach Syrup
Above we made a peach juice for our homemade peach iced tea recipe. As I mentioned there, the process of making a peach simple syrup is very similar to making that peach juice. The major difference is simply the cooking time, and whether you mash the fruit down or not.
In the recipe shared here, we're not mashing down our peaches, so we'll end up with a nice and clear peach syrup, that will last two weeks when stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
We are going to use the same recipe as above for this peach simple syrup, but change the process a bit. Start by combining two cups of chopped fresh or frozen (thawed) peaches (about three), along with two cups of water, and half a cup of cane sugar in a large saucepan. Over medium-high heat, stirring consistently so that everything combines evenly and the sugar dissolves, bring your mixture to a boil.
Once it's come to a boil, turn your burner down to medium-low to allow the mixture to come to a simmer. Let it simmer for five minutes, then stir your mixture, and then let it simmer again for another 10-12 minutes. During this time, you really want your peaches to soften.
Once it's finished cooking, remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 20 minutes. Run through a fine mesh strainer.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen—a perfectly peachy peach simple syrup!
Sweeteners for Peach Tea
The sweetener options for peach tea are (nearly) endless! It really comes down to personal preference on taste, or even dietary preference or restrictions.
We used cane sugar in our homemade peach iced tea recipe and peach simple syrup recipe. I've also made a simple syrup recipe using brown sugar, which could be substituted for a bit more of that molasses flavor. One could also go the route of using granulated sugar as well.
Each will provide a different flavor profile as each carries varying amounts of molasses, with granulated sugar being the least intense and brown sugar being the most.
If you're looking to sweeten your peach tea after it's made, adding honey or maple syrup are both great options as well, and will add another layer of complexity to your drink.
Honey can have a wide range of flavors, depending on if you're choosing raw, wildflower, or monofloral honey like buckwheat. Most honey falls into the realm of warm, floral, and maybe a bit fruity. Honey is sweeter than sugar as well, so most people use less.
Like honey, maple syrup has a unique flavor to it, and like honey, maple syrup has varying flavors depending on its grade and what time of the season it was collected in. Maple syrup can add beautiful nuances to your peach tea if you like its flavor, however not everyone does. Notes of maple syrup include caramel, vanilla, nutty, and depending on the roasting, can even include hints of burnt notes.
If you're looking for sugar-free alternatives I'd recommend monk fruit, stevia, or erythritol.
Herbs
If you're looking to spruce up your peach iced tea just a bit, I have a few ideas I'd like to share with you!
For your peach iced tea, why not add a little fresh lemon juice? Take a fresh lemon and squeeze one half to add a little citrus burst to your pitcher! If you'd like to make it even more of a refreshing drink, try adding a few sprigs of mint and let sit before serving. Another great herbal add-in can be done while you're making your peach juice, or once your peach iced tea is complete.
Feel free to add a few slices of fresh ginger into the pan while you're cooking your peach mixture to draw out some of the spicy ginger, for a bit of a zippy peach iced tea drink. If you'd prefer a slightly more toned-down effect to this, just add a couple of slices into your pitcher once you've finished making your iced tea.
