Earl Grey Iced Tea

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Made with only a handful of ingredients, this earl grey iced tea is a refreshing drink to enjoy any time of the day! Cold brewed-styled tea paired with lemon and simple syrup, this homemade iced tea is so easy to make!

You might recognize the term cold brew from cold brew coffee. Similar to cold brew coffee, cold brew tea is steeped in cold water instead of hot over a long period of time.

Two glasses of earl grey iced tea with a cutting board with a sliced lemon in the background.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

I love cold-brewing tea as steeping it in hot water brings out the tannic, bitter flavors in tea, and when you chill it after, it gets even more bitter, so cold brewing it leaves you with a refreshing, light, and sweeter cold tea. Bonus: you pretty much can’t overstep cold brew iced tea.
It’s easy to make! You literally add everything to a mason jar and pop it in the fridge.
You only need a few ingredients! Even less if you’re not a fan of the added sweetness.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Ingredients needed to make earl grey iced tea.

earl grey — loose leaf or tea bag is fine.
lemon — I love adding some lemon slices to the iced tea for nice tangy, citrus flavor.
simple syrup — I add a bit of simple syrup to make the tea sweeter. If you’re not a fan of sweetened tea, feel free to skip it. You can use store-bought or homemade simple syrup. To make simple syrup, simmer equal parts sugar to water.
water — my Brita and I are besties.

How to Make Earl Grey Iced Tea

Set of two photos showing earl grey iced tea ingredients added to a mason jar then steeped.

Add the tea bags, lemon slices, and water to a pitcher or mason jar. (Add the simple syrup now or later individually to each serving)
Transfer the drink to the fridge and allow the tea to steep overnight.
When ready, serve with ice with more lemon slices and simple syrup, if desired.

Before and after earl grey iced tea steeping.

Recipe Tips and Notes

If you are using loose-leaf tea, you can re-cold brew it once you are done with the first batch! Get your money’s worth by using it a couple of times before tossing it out.
While honey is great, it might not dissolve as well in cold water.
Don’t forget to wash your lemons as they’re going in, peel and all.
Feel free to squeeze some of the lemons into the tea for more lemon flavor.

Make Ahead Tips

Meal prep: keep the iced tea in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freezer: freeze a batch of tea in an ice cube trays and then serve the tea with tea ice cubes!

What’s the difference between loose-leaf and bagged tea?

Loose-leaf tea is dried, large, individual loose tea leaves. Whereas the leaves used in most tea bags are the “dust and fannings” from broken tea leaves and are much smaller “leaves” than the whole leaves. When steeped, they release more tannins than whole loose-leaf tea, making the tea a bit more bitter in comparison. However, not all bagged teas are the same! Also, I like using bagged tea for cold brewing since cold brewing makes the tea taste less bitter in general.