Instant Pot Spiced Iced Tea

I know, I know! Enough is enough! Just boil water and brew the dang tea! But when I saw someone post a chai-spice tea (yes, yes, “chai” means “tea”) made in the IP, I had to try it, and now this tea is life.

The recipe is inspired by 2 posts at Two Sleevers blog, one just strong tea and the other masala chai for the spices. Of course, I’ve futzed with it a little and made it my own with a couple of minute tweaks. Using the Instant Pot means I can “set it and forget it” – I don’t have to wait for water to boil, and time the brew, and stuff.

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Chai Spiced Iced Tea in the Instant Pot

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Ingredients

• 2 liters of water, divided
• 1 quart/family sized Luzianne tea bag
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 2 cloves
• 4 cardamom pods*
• 4 slices of ginger
• stevia
• home brewed Mexican vanilla extract
• Instant Pot
• 2 1-liter glass bottles
• funnel and ladle

Instructions

1

Pour 6 cups of water in the Instant Pot

2

Put cardamom*, ginger and cloves in a tea strainer and add to the water

3

Add cinnamon and Luzianne quart tea bag

4

Manual high pressure for 4 minutes

5

NPR - at least 15 minutes and it took more than 30 to release on its own. I've been leaving it for 1 hour.

6

While it's brewing, put 1 cup of water in each of 2 1-liter bottles.

7

Add vanilla and stevia to taste.* I do this in the bottle instead of the IP.

8

Once it's brewed, remove spices/tea and using a ladle and a funnel, pour into the liter bottles, then top with water. Because I use a mesh tea strainer ball in the IP, I don't have to strain the brew.

9

Seal, shake, refrigerate, pour over buckets of ice. I go through about 1 liter a day while working from home.

Notes

* I had both black cardamom and green "fancy" cardamom pods. The black ones are smoky and strong; the green ones much subtler. The first batch, I used 4 black and it was a strong, smoky flavor; then I tried 4 green. The last batch I used 1 black and 3 green, which might be the closest Goldilocks version.
* The masala chai recipe also uses fennel seeds, which I don't have and didn't really want the flavor anyway.
* I have been using a liquid stevia with a dropper, so about 2.5-3 droppers-full in each bottle.
* Yes you can reuse cinnamon sticks! Rinse with clear water, and let dry. Use a grater to refresh the bark a bit for more flavor.

The author of the original recipe offers this explanation for using NPR instead quick release:

“Under pressure, water doesn’t boil at 212F. What pressure does is it raises the boiling point of liquids. So things heat up, but don’t boil.” When you use a quick release, it starts to boil vigorously, “…if you let it NPR, it is less likely to boil. So your tea is being steeped in high degree water–but not being boiled.”