On a warm afternoon, a cold glass of peach iced tea brings together freshly brewed tea and the aroma of ripe peaches. The fruit is cooked into a syrup that sweetens the tea and gives it its peach flavor.

Making the syrup and brewing the tea separately lets you control how sweet the drink is without changing how you brew it. Both components can be made ahead and refrigerated until serving time.

Ingredients

Choose ripe, fragrant peaches for the syrup and set aside a peach for slicing. For the syrup, the tea, and serving, you’ll need:

- 200 g granulated sugar

- 250 ml water for the syrup

- 4 ripe peaches for the syrup

- 4 tea bags

- 2 liters boiling water for the tea

- 1 ripe peach for garnish

- 2–3 ice cubes per glass

- 15–30 ml cold water per glass, optional

- 30–60 ml sparkling water per glass, optional

This makes about 12 servings.

Preparation and Cooking Time

Allow 10 minutes for preparation and 5 minutes for cooking the peaches. Most of the time is hands-off: the mashed peaches sit in the syrup for 1 hour, and the brewed tea needs about 1 hour in the refrigerator after it cools. Brew the tea while the peaches are soaking.

Steps

Make the syrup and brew the tea before mixing the batch:

1. Wash all the peaches. Remove the pits from the peaches for the syrup, then chop the flesh into small pieces so it’s easier to mash. Pit and thinly slice the remaining peach, then cover and refrigerate the slices for serving.

2. Pour 250 ml of water into a medium saucepan and add 200 g of sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Bring the syrup to a gentle boil before adding the fruit.

3. Add the chopped peaches to the saucepan. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The fruit is ready to mash when the pieces are soft enough to crush easily with a fork.

4. Take the saucepan off the heat and crush the softened peaches into the syrup with a fork or masher. Cover the pan and let the fruit sit in the syrup for 1 hour at room temperature to develop the peach flavor.

5. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a clean bowl or jug. Pour the peach mixture through the strainer and press the fruit gently with the back of a spoon to collect the liquid. Let the strained syrup cool, then refrigerate it in a covered container.

6. Put the tea bags in a large heatproof jug and carefully pour in 2 liters of freshly boiled water. Remove the bags after 4 minutes, steeping too long can make the tea bitter. Let the tea cool, then cover the jug and refrigerate it until cold.

7. Pour the chilled tea into a serving jug and stir in the peach syrup gradually, tasting as you go. About 360 ml is a guide for the whole batch, not a second amount to add at serving. Stop when the tea tastes sweet enough.

8. Put the ice cubes into each glass just before serving and pour in about 200 ml of tea. Add a splash of cold water if the tea tastes too sweet, or top it with sparkling water for some fizz. Finish each glass with a few of the reserved peach slices.

The softened fruit left in the strainer doesn’t have to go to waste. Spoon it over a bowl of oatmeal or serve it with ice cream instead of adding the pulp back to the tea.

If guests prefer different levels of sweetness, leave the tea unsweetened and set the chilled syrup beside the jug. Let each person stir syrup into their own glass to taste.