The Original Instant Pot Iced Tea
This quick and easy Instant Pot iced tea recipe is your new summer staple. Use this recipe to make iced tea concentrate in your Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
You're outside relaxing comfortably on the lounge chair, enjoying the warm kiss of the summer sunshine. The air is warm, sticky and smells like August.
You're hot, and thirsty, and you totally care about keeping hydrated. Reach down to the shade beneath your chair and grab a glistening, sweating, bottle of home brewed, organic iced tea.
I grew up drinking iced tea rather than pop. I call it pop, because I’m Canadian, I think that’s a pretty Canadian thing? I’d love to know what you call it, and where you’re from! I’ve heard cola, soda, etc
Step aside cold brew coffee – Instant Pot Iced Tea is here. There’s a new sheriff in Drink Town!
This recipe is dedicated to keepin cool. In more ways than one.
Tips + Tricks
No. 1 –> Yes, you need to try this. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it really is great! Brewing Instant Pot sweet tea is quick and totally hands-off.
No. 2 –> Cream sounds a bit weird, but it adds a really rich mouthfeel. Makes it really decadent, like a good cold brew!
No. 3 –> Buy good tea and use good water. There are so few ingredients in this recipe, but it will make a big difference in the final product if you use the good stuff.
BE AWARE: this recipe produces more of an Instant Pot iced tea concentrate than actual iced tea! So just know that it’s like rocket-powered tea, it’s much better on ice, and I preferred it with cream.
Try this: Sweeten your iced tea with copycat Starbucks vanilla syrup!
Ingredients
- Teabags
- Filtered water
- flavour boosters, optional.
How to make
- Add water to Instant Pot, bring to a simmer.
- Add tea, baking soda, and chopped fruit and herbs if desired.
- Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add sweetener once it’s done cooking
- Enjoy!
Flavour boosters
This Instant Pot ice tea recipe is really versatile, it can handle just about any fruit/ herb combo you wanna throw at it. OR, if you’re into the classics, it can handle no adds too. The world is your oyster!
I’ve done apple, berry, peach, peppermint, and other fruits and herbs! All of them have been delicious. I’ve also added jam, honey, a bit of sugar.
I’ve given you the bones, now you take them and let your creative foodie flag fly!
If you like this Instant Pot recipe, you’ll probably love my NEW Instant Pot Lemonade recipe!
Why Baking Soda
Baking soda is 9 on the pH scale, because of its alkalinity baking soda is able to effectively buffer acidity.
There are a few schools of thought on the acidity vs bitterness vs astringency taste sensations. In totally basic terms, only bitterness and acidity are sense of taste, where astringency is the sense of touch.
- Acidity gives off crisp, sour flavour. Think of lemons, and vinegar.
- Bitterness is sharp and pungent – think of leafy greens or grapefruit.
- Astringency is a sensation – think of a good bottle of red wine, and how it drys your mouth right out and leaves you with a parched feeling. That is astringency! And also a damn good glass of wine!
Does buffering acidity mean that the baking soda can also buffer astringency? Not necessarily, but proponents on both sides swear their side is right.
For me, I just split the difference and add my little pinch and pretend I’m making science! You can decide!
Love your instant pot? Try these!
If you tried this Instant Pot Iced Tea recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Printable Recipe
Instant Pot Iced Tea
Ingredients
- 5 tea bags, I used Pure Leaf black tea with vanilla
- 6 cups filtered water
- pinch of baking soda, optional
- chopped fruit or herbs, ex. apple, mint, strawberry
- Maple syrup, or honey, to taste.
Instructions
- Add water to pot of pressure cooker, set to reduce, and bring to a simmer.
- Once simmering, add the tea bags, baking soda, and fruit/herbs, if using.
- Close lid and valve. Cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally.
- Strain the tea into a large container, add sweetener 1 tbsp at a time, tasting in between. Tea will be a bit bitter when hot, so be cautious not to over-sweeten!
- Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.
- Serve over ice, and add cream if desired.
Recipe looks great. Think I’ll try it with fresh peaches. I did have to laugh though when you talked about sun tea because I live in Phoenix, Arizona and I can make sun tea in the summer time in about an hour and a half literally.
Oh gosh, I wish, Jill! We’ve been to Phoenix in the middle of winter and worn shorts because it was so beautiful! HAHA
I can’t complain too much, though, yesterday was 82*f here! Here’s hoping we have a long, hot summer in Alberta 🙂
Sorry, forgot to rate on last post. Your recipe was a great starting point. I forgot how good sun tea is.
I’ve tried a few different versions.
Found good ratio, 5 tea bags(any variety) to 8 cups water.
High pressure 4-minutes, NPR 10-minutes
Tea is stong enough to stand up to ice.
Hey Cliff! Thanks for the tip! I’ll try that next time 🙂
Can this be made without sweetener? I’m an unsweetened tea kinda person. ?
Anne, of course it can! I try to use health(ier) options for sweeteners, but you can definitely omit!
We called it coke too in Indiana. Coffee creamer or regular whipping cream?
Hey Pam, I always use 18% coffee cream!
Thanks for sharing! What does the baking soda do?
The baking soda helps to cut the bitterness
I’ve heard it also keeps it clear. i’m from michigan and it’s pop, but my parents were from the south, so i can remember having sweet tea in my baby bottle!
This looks great with cream! We don’t add cream to tea here in Oklahoma but I think I’ll try it. We say pop also.
That’s awesome! I always have time for trying new things! I’d love to hear what you think!
Hi! Can you tell me what type of cream you add? I, too, have never had tea with cream but it looks delish!
Hey! In Canada we call it table cream. It’s 18%. I might be biased, but it’s perfect for any cream needs! Rich enough to give the silky mouthfeel but not as rich as whipping cream or as thin as half and half!
Hi – my pressure cooker doesn’t have a “reduce” button. I have the Ultra. Any ideas what setting I should use instead?
HI Paula, any setting that will bring the water up to temperature will work!
Hey there! I have the Duo 8 Qt and just used my “sauté “ setting. Worked perfectly!
I’m always looking for new ways to use my pressure cooker and I love iced tea. How much water do you use? Are your tea bags regular or large size?
I call it soda. Not sure if I got that from upstate New York, St. Louis or Pennsylvania. Pretty sure it wasn’t from my brief time in Texas.
Thanks.
HI Karen, I use regular tea bags! And 6 cups, or 1.5 litres of water!
You have lived in a good chunk of the country!
Here in Texas – everything is a Coke. “What kind of Coke do you want? Dr Pepper, root beer, sprite?”
This tea sounds amazing!!
HAHA! The people at Coca Cola must LOVE Texans! I’d love to hear what you think of the recipe, Becky!!
What part of Texas? I grew up in Austin and live in Dallas. Everyone I know calls it soda. As an aside, I also love tea. Not sweet tea so much so I love the thought of adding fruit. I think I’ll add peach or mango. Yum.
Yes I’m from TX too & that’s what we always called every kind of soda: Coke! Lol! But as more people moved in from other states it was confusing for them so we had to change it up to soda. Hehe
LOL that’s awesome. Yeah, if you said Coke in my house, you’d get a can of Coca Cola! Haha
I’m in Arizona and everything is also coke here. LOL.
I’m born and raised Arizona and have never ever heard anyone call any “soda” coke haha, only coca cola!
But almost all people from az are from somewhere else, so I have always heard either soda or pop, probably equal amounts.
I like my tea strong and plain. I normally boil a gallon of water and put 20 tea bags in it and leave it on low for about 10-12 hours. How strong is this recipe? What would you recommend?
I’ve never had tea that strong, Tammy – I think I’d be awake for a month straight! So I couldn’t tell you! BUT you could always add a few extra bags and just water it down should you find it a bit on the strong side?!
This sounds very interesting also, live in Nebraska and we call it pop
If you are using looseleaf tea leaves as opposed to teabags, any idea how much I should use?
Hey Missy, I’ve done it with loose leaf as well! I just tossed in a good sized tablespoon for each bag and strained it once it was done brewing! Hope that helps 🙂
Yes, thanks so much!!! Going to give this a try now! Would you recommend low or high if I don’t have a medium setting for pressure? And should I do a little longer or high shorter in duration?
You know, I’m not 100% sure! I bet low pressure would be enough to extract the flavour 🙂
You could wrap the loose tea in a coffee filter and use avtwist tie to keep closed. That’s what I do when I make a cup of tea with loose tea. Refused to pay what they want for a tea ball.
Do you have to throw in the apples? I’d just prefer plain old sweet iced tea. My sisters would like your recipe so I may pass it on to them. Thanks!
Hey Dawn, certainly not! If you don’t like apples, omit them or replace with a fruit you love! Thanks for sharing!
That looks amazing. Now I need to get myself one of these and make some maple flavored Iced tea!