How To Make Your Own Twisted Tea

Twisted Tea might just be one of the most refreshing alcoholic beverages currently being sold by the bottle in liquor stores. The drink, which is called a "hard iced tea," is an alcoholic version of your favorite summertime drink.

It's a great malted beverage that gives you a buzz, cools you down, and also doesn't have the urine-like taste of beer. For people who are shy of drinking beer at parties or want a malted beverage that's not bitter, Twisted Teas are a must.

Unfortunately, at around $13 for a 12-pack, having Twisted Tea isn't always a very party-friendly option. That's why many different groups of DIY aficionados on the net have been working on finding out how to make your own Twisted Tea.

If you're a cash-strapped fan of this canned cocktail, don't worry. We'll help you learn how to make your own home version.

If you love the beer-like flavor of Twisted Tea, it may be a good idea to try to brew your own.

One of the biggest groups trying to learn how to make your own Twisted Tea is the homebrewing group on Reddit. This is because Twisted Tea is technically a beer and is made via fermentation. So to a point, it only makes sense that people who enjoy home brewing would give it a shot.

According to Reddit's brewing community, you can actually make a very similar malted Twisted Tea by using tea instead of water, adding honey as a fermentable, then brewing it like beer.

Posters also noted that they had similarly good experiences brewing malted hard iced tea using storebought iced tea as a base. Either way, it seems like it would be a really good way to avoid going broke for five gallons of Twisted Tea.

However, this approach really isn't for everyone. If you're new to brewing, or if you don't have brewing equipment, it might not be a good option for you.

Brewing equipment can be pricey, and actually learning how to brew your own beer without a distinct recipe may end up being more time-consuming and costly than you'd expect. Well, at least, this is the case for people who just want a short-term solution to their Twisted Tea cravings.

The other option that you have, if you want to learn how to make your own Twisted Tea, is to make a tea-like cocktail.

This is the easier route to making your own Twisted Tea, and it's actually one which often can scale up to the number of people who will be partaking in the hard iced tea goodness, too.

The only issue you might have with this form of Twisted Tea mixology is that it totally skips on the malted flavor. However, it's safe to say that there's a decent chance that hard iced tea cocktails will be gluten-free due to the lack of wheat in them—so there's that, right?

One recipe we found that works well is Katie's Twisted Tea. This celebrity chef recipe is actually closer to the classic vodka-spiked tea you'll see in bars. Even so, it's a good recipe that has a strong tea flavor.

Another option that might better suit your needs is to just focus on the idea of a Southern spiked tea recipe, instead. This can be done by just getting some good whiskey, rum, or bourbon, and adding it to the tea.

Unfortunately, there's no official guide on how to make your own Twisted Tea, so you will have to make due unless you buy the real stuff. C'est la vie!