Combine the 180ml of water and 90g of honey in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely dissolved without boiling — preserving honey's aromatic volatile compounds. Remove from heat. Add the lemon zest. Cover and steep for 5–8 minutes. Strain and cool completely.

Heat the 500ml of water to 90–95°C. Do not use boiling water — the same temperature-management principle applied to white and green tea in this collection, here applied specifically to ensure a clean, pleasant tannic extraction from black tea rather than the harsh, astringent result of full-boiling-water steeping. Black tea's tannin extraction at different temperatures follows a specific curve: at 90–95°C the desirable theaflavins and thearubigins that provide black tea's characteristic warm, amber, lightly tannic structure extract clearly within 2½–3 minutes. At 100°C (boiling), harsh tannin extraction begins almost immediately and accelerates with each additional minute. For a preparation where the tea is specifically a supporting character rather than a primary flavour, extracting pleasant structure without harsh bitterness is the most important technical decision in the tea component. Add the tea bags — 2 for a barely-there tea background that most specifically supports the lemonade, 3 for a more clearly present tea backbone where both lemonade and tea are detectably present as equals. Steep for exactly 2½–3 minutes. Remove the bags without squeezing — squeezing releases the concentrated, most astringent liquid held within the bags. Allow to cool completely to room temperature.

Segment 2–3 lemons with all seeds, membranes, and pith removed. Add to the large pitcher and mash gently. Add the 240ml of fresh lemon juice, 120ml of the cooled honey-lemon syrup, the 500ml of completely cooled black tea, and the 500ml of ice-cold water. Add the pinch of fine sea salt. Stir thoroughly. The total liquid volume at the base quantities is approximately 1.36 litres — producing 8 servings of approximately 170ml before ice dilution, which produces the specified 200ml per serving after ice contact in the glass. Taste with the lemonade-first assessment. The dominant flavour impression should be lemon — bright, clean, specifically citrusy. The tea should be present as a warm, slightly tannic depth behind the lemon: a quality that makes the drink feel more structured and more specifically interesting than plain lemonade, without being identifiable as primarily a tea drink. If the tea's tannin is prominent above the lemon's brightness — the tea is over-steeped, too many bags, or needs dilution with additional cold water. If no tea character is perceptible at all — a small additional cold-steeped tea component can be added. Adjust: more honey-lemon syrup if additional sweetness or floral depth is needed; more cold water if concentration is too intense; more lemon juice only if the tea's warmth is specifically obscuring the lemon's structural acid brightness.

Refrigerate for 1–2 hours. The tea and lemon integration during the cold rest produces a specifically more cohesive result than the immediately combined version — the tea's tannic compounds distributing through the honey-lemon medium over time in a way that integrates them with the lemon's acidity rather than leaving them as a separate, slightly harsh background note. Fill glasses with ice. Pour the chilled iced tea lemonade over the ice. Garnish with a lemon slice. Serve immediately.