Recipe by Jodie Smith

Mango and Passionfruit Iced Tea Jug

Name: Mango and Passionfruit Iced Tea Jug
Prep time: 10 min

Prep10 min

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Whittard of Chelsea Instant Tea - Mango & Passionfruit (450g)

$24.95

Hand-packed and dispatched from our Corio, Victoria warehouse, with free delivery Australia-wide on orders over $100.

Instant tea is a powder that dissolves. There is nothing to steep, nothing to strain and no syrup to dilute by eye, which makes it the easiest base there is for a jug you leave on an outdoor table. Mango and passionfruit, lime, ice, and about ten minutes of work. Fills a 1.5 litre jug, six glasses.

Ingredients

Makes 1.5 litres, about 6 glasses. Prep 10 minutes, no cooking, plus 2 hours chilling. The one measurement we will not invent for you is the powder: the tub carries its own dosing guide and that is the number to use.

The concentrate
Enough for 6 mugs	Whittard of Chelsea Mango and Passionfruit Instant Tea, measured as the tub directs
500ml	warm water, hot from the tap rather than boiling
The jug
1 litre	cold water, or half water and half soda water
2	limes, juiced, about 60ml
1	lime, sliced into rounds
1 tray	ice, and more standing by
On top
2	passionfruit, halved and spooned over at the last minute
1 handful	mint, clapped between your palms once before it goes in
What to pour it into
1	Royal Ascot Acrylic Scallop Pitcher
6	Royal Ascot Acrylic Tumblers

Why the dosing comes off the tub and not off us

Instant tea powders are not standardised between blends, and a tub is 450g of powder rather than a fixed number of servings, so a spoon measure copied from another brand is a guess. Read the guide on the tub, work out what it gives you for one mug, and multiply by six. Make it up in 500ml rather than the full 1.5 litres, so what goes into the jug is a concentrate and the ice can melt into it without turning the whole thing to water.

Warm water, not boiling and not cold. Powder dropped into cold water clumps and sinks, and you end up stirring grains around a jug for five minutes. Hot water from the tap dissolves it in about thirty seconds of stirring.

It is worth knowing what you are buying before the first tub arrives: this is a flavoured tea powder made in the United Kingdom, not leaf tea and not a cordial. The Whittard of Chelsea range also runs to loose leaf and tins, including the Christmas Tea clip top tin, which is a different job entirely.

Method

Measure the powder for six mugs, as the tub directs, into a jug or a large bowl.
Pour on 500ml of warm water and stir for about thirty seconds, until there is nothing grainy left on the bottom.
Leave the concentrate on the bench for 20 minutes, then refrigerate it for 2 hours. Pouring warm tea onto ice melts the ice and you lose a third of the strength before anyone has a glass.
Juice the two limes and strain the juice to keep pips out of the jug.
Fill the pitcher two thirds with ice. More ice than looks sensible is the right amount, because a jug that stands in the sun for an hour needs it.
Pour the cold concentrate over the ice, then add the lime juice.
Top up with the cold water, or half water and half soda water if you want it to fizz, and stir once.
Taste it now, before anything decorative goes in. If it is thin, add more concentrate. If it is strong, add water. This is the only step that matters.
Clap the mint between your palms and drop it in, add the lime rounds, and spoon the passionfruit over the top just before you carry it out.

Serving it outdoors

Glass and a lawn full of bare feet do not go together, and glass beside a pool is worse. The Royal Ascot acrylic tumblers at $7.95 each and the matching scallop pitcher at $39.95 look like cut glass at arm's length and cannot shatter on a paver. They live in acrylic drinkware with the rest of the outdoor set.

Put the jug in the shade rather than on the table in full sun. Tea and citrus both dull as they warm, and the passionfruit seeds start to look tired within the hour.

Common questions

What is instant tea and how is it different from tea bags?

A tea bag holds leaves you steep for a set time and then take out. Instant tea is already soluble, so it goes into water and dissolves, with nothing to time and nothing to strain. For a jug that matters, because the thing that usually spoils home made iced tea is leaves left in the water past their welcome, and there are none here. The full ingredient list is printed on the tub, so read it there, or call us on 1300 936 406 and we will read it to you before you order.

How much powder do I need per jug?

Whatever the tub says for six mugs, dissolved in 500ml rather than six mugs of water, then let down to 1.5 litres over ice. We have deliberately not printed a spoon measure here because it varies with the blend, and a number invented for the internet is worse than no number at all. Taste at step 8 and adjust there.

Can I make this the night before?

Make the concentrate the night before and keep it covered in the fridge. Build the jug on the day. A finished jug left overnight goes flat and watery as the ice melts, the mint blackens at the edges, and the passionfruit loses its perfume, so those three go in at the last minute every time.

For the people who are not drinking

This is one of the few jugs on a Christmas table that nobody has to explain or apologise for, and it holds its own next to a wine glass. Our guide to non-alcoholic Christmas drinks covers the rest of that thinking, and the alcohol free Christmas mojito jug is the herb and lime version of the same trick. For the same tea served hot and turned into a pudding, see our Christmas tea poached pears.

Whittard of Chelsea Mango and Passionfruit Instant Tea is $24.95 for a 450g tub and sits in tea and coffee, alongside the tea and coffee gifts and the festive entertaining essentials. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post.