Craving a colorful and refreshing drink? Matcha Hibiscus iced tea with mint and lemon is vibrant, pretty, super refreshing, fun and easy to make at home.
This colorful iced tea has three layers:
- Mint and lemon sweet layer, like simple syrup but not as rich and sweet.
- Hibiscus layer with a few drops of lemon and some sugar.
- Matcha layer without sugar.
You can make the two bottom layers when you have some extra time, store them in the fridge for up to two days and use when you want to make iced tea in a matter of minutes. Always make the matcha layer fresh before serving.
Ingredients for making Matcha Hibiscus Iced Tea
This recipe is for a 10-12 oz serving glass.
Matcha tea powder
You will need ½ teaspoon of matcha powder. Use either everyday ceremonial grade matcha or an all-purpose matcha. You can prepare it with hot or cold water. However, matcha prepared with hot water will have a deeper flavor. To prevent clumps, pre-sift matcha before whisking it. If you are using hot water, bring water to a boil and let it cool to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also use 1 oz of hot water to make matcha, then top it up with 2-2.5 oz of cold water to cool it faster.
Hibiscus, dry flowers or tea bags
Hibiscus is an amazing ingredient for making iced teas and goes really well with matcha tea powder. It’s tart but not sour as lemon and has a beautiful purple color. Add a few drops of lemon juice to balance out the flavor. Adding sugar and letting it simmer for a few minutes is essential for making this layer and keeping it from mixing with matcha layer.
Fresh mint
Fresh mint has a milder and fresher flavor than dried mint. Wash mint leaves and very gently bruise them using pestle and mortar. This will help release more flavor, making it more minty. You’ll also need to add sugar and about 1-2 teaspoons of lemon. Lemon will add a hint of sourness and make the color brighter. When assembling the drink, use about 1 oz of mint “syrup” if you made it with sugar only, or 1.5 to 2 oz if you made it with agar agar.
Sugar
Add 3-4 teaspoons of sugar to the mint layer and a teaspoon and a half to the hibiscus layer. Do not add sugar to matcha tea. If you want to use less sugar in the mint layer, you can use some agar powder instead. Agar agar is a vegan friendly alternative to gelatin. It’s used for making jellies and other desserts and it’s really easy to use. Agar will set very fast, which makes it a superb choice for making treats when you are in a rush. In general, 1 gram of agar agar is needed per 100 ml of liquid, or more depending on which ingredients you use and how firm you want the jelly to be. However, for this recipe you only want to change the texture, without making a proper jelly. Therefore, adding only a tiny bit of agar agar will help keeping layers separated while keeping the mint layer more liquid. Use not more than ¼ teaspoon of agar per 3.5 oz of mint tea.
Lemon
You’ll need ¼ of fresh lemon only. Make sure you remove all the pulp and seeds from a freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Learn how to make refreshing matcha iced tea with different ingredients here.
