Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea 香港凍檸茶

By Ellen L.Published: 2014-06-27

In Hong Kong where summers are long, hot and exhausting, there is that one and only quintessential Hong Kong drink that can really quench that terrible summer thirst: Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea, or  凍檸茶.  You can order this refreshing drink at almost all local Hong Kong style diners, i.e. cha chaan tengs 茶餐廳.  I love this deliciously icy drink enough to miss it terribly when I'm away from Hong Kong.  There's really nothing quite like walking into a cha chaan teng, feeling the blast of ice cold air conditioning, folding yourself into one of the tiny booths and slowly drinking up a Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea.  The only thing that I don't like is that I know that they probably use high fructose corn syrup for sweetening the tea.  Recently as it's been getting hotter and hotter in Hong Kong as the days swing into the long summer, we have been longing for something cool and refreshing to drink at home.  So we thought, why not try to make our favorite Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea at home?

It turns out that the Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea is really quite easy to make.  And it tastes pretty darn close to the real thing, or maybe even a bit better because of we used Himalayan honey as the sweetener.  This Himalayan honey is amazing in taste, a clear, pure sweet taste, not at all heavy like a lot of honey.  (See the photo of crystallized Himalayan honey bottom left.  For more info see our  Himalaya Wild Honey post.)

For the tea you have to use Lipton Yellow Label Tea , which comes in bags and also loose leaf.  You have to use this tea bag because this is exactly what the cha chaan tengs use in their Iced Lemon Tea!  If you use this tea you can get that exact same fragrance and taste at home.  (It's Orange Pekoe tea, if you're curious.)  Everything else is straightforward, just water and fresh lemons and ice.  Easy Peasy!  

The great thing about this Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea is that, before, we are always struggling with the question of what to drink at home.  I mean we drink the occasional pops and juice boxes when we're out and about, but those are not things we want to have at home.  Especially not the pop.  So it's nice to have something a bit more 'real', healthy and also yummilicious to drink when we're at home!

Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea Recipe  凍檸茶

(Prep time: 2 mins  Cook time: 15 mins)

Glass Pitcher (1 liter capacity)

Ingredients 

7- 10 bags Lipton Yellow Label Tea

4 1/4 cups boiling water

2 lemons

4 tbsp sugar (or more to taste)
Ice

Directions:

Boil water and pour into your glass jug.  Immerse tea bags in the water for 10-15 minutes.  Add sugar and stir a bit while the water is still hot so as to melt the sugar.  Once you think the tea is strong enough for your taste, remove the tea bags.  (In Hong Kong, this tea is made quite strong.)  Allow the tea to cool.  Slice four slices of lemon.  Add ice to your glass (long and tall is preferred), then place lemon slices over.  Fill up glass with your sugared tea and serve!

Tip:  In Hong Kong Cha Chaan Teng ( or Hong Kong style diners)  this Iced Lemon Tea is served along with a spoon and a straw.  The spoon is for pressing down on the lemon slices to release lemon juice into the iced tea.  How much you press is your preference.  Personally I usually don't press very much, finding that the presence of the lemon slices already creates enough of a lemony fragrance.

More Hong Kong Local Foods stuff on The Hong Kong Cookery:

Belly Button Biscuits 肚臍餅

Hong Kong Hawker Traditional Fruit Candy

Hong Kong Organic Milk 

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