How to Cold Brew Tea Easily and Safely

The best way to cold brew tea easily and safely at home. Cold brew tea is a major trend in tea because it's simple to brew and creates smooth subtle flavors.

Boutique teahouses and even foodservice tea outlets are offering cold brew options for iced tea.

The reason for this popularity is the smooth and subtle flavor profile from the cold brew method. Combined with the ease in preparation, making cold brew tea is a perfect summertime choice.

But how can you cold brew tea at home safely?

Cold Brew vs Sun Tea

Cold brewed iced tea is as simple as ‘sun tea’ but much safer when done properly. With sun brewed tea you risk microbes developing as the product sits in the hot sun for hours. Although, the brewing principle is the same. You’re eschewing the kettle along with the hot water to brew tea.

Cold brew tea is just another way of extracting flavor from the tea leaves. It’s simply a longer and slower process, often 6 - 8 hours. The flavors are released slowly resulting in smoother tea, leaving the bitterness behind.

The reason a cold infusion results in a mellower, sweeter flavor is because you aren’t pulling out the same chemicals as hot brewed tea, some of which can be bitter.

Important note: Cold infused tea must be refrigerated during the brewing process. Do not simply use cold water for brewing and then let the tea sit on the countertop to infuse.

How to Cold Brew Green Tea

Iced green tea is the perfect thirst-quencher when you're craving green tea and it's getting a little too steamy for hot tea. A nice Jasmine Sencha is the perfect green tea for cold brewing.

One of my favorite green teas is a naturally scented jasmine green tea from Kusmi Tea. I happen to like the delicate jasmine flavor lightly extracted by the cold brewing method.

Kusmi tea makes a green tea delicately scented with jasmine that I'm particularly fond of. The muslin tea bags are eco friendly and make it exceedingly easy to brew in the refrigerator overnight.

Brewing Method:

• • Use 1 teabag per 6 ounces of cold filtered water.
  • Place tea bags in a glass pitcher.
  • Refrigerate for 8 hours.
  • Remove tea bags and serve cold.

I love their Jasmine Green tea, it's a classic blend. The leaves of this green tea are dried in direct contact with the jasmine petals, creating the light scent.

Tea Chemistry

There are distinct chemical differences between cold brewed tea and hot brewed tea. For hot brew, the tea is typically steeped in hot to boiling water for 3 - 7 minutes. In comparison to the well-established hot brew methods, cold brew methods are still being developed.

Many of the same pleasant chemicals extracted from the tea leaves during a hot brew cannot be easily extracted with cold water. To combat this extraction problem, the amount of tea leaves used is often increased and also the steep time is drastically altered.

Cold brew tea produces a different flavor of tea, pulling out fewer catechins and tannins. Tea tannins are typically substances that can make the tea taste bitter. It is not clear yet how the caffeine content is altered.

Time and Temperature Effects on Tea

The brewing technique influences the taste of the tea and the concentration of flavanols in the case of teas brewed from Camellia Sinensis.

When brewing tea, the higher the temperature, the higher the diffusion speed. A higher temperature leads to greater effects when the steeping time is short.

The effect of temperature is more obvious for the heavier molecules. The hotter the water the more catechins and tannins are drawn from the tea leaf.

Related: Brewing Tea: The Ultimate Guide

With a cold tea infusion, you will notice the resulting liquor is very clear with little to no sediment at the bottom. This is because you are pulling out less of these heavier molecules that have a tendency to settle out of solution and sink to the bottom.

How to Cold Brew Iced Tea

You can cold brew any type of tea. This method works particularly well with green teas, including matcha. You can even infuse Darjeeling tea this way. Herbals also work very well for a cold brew tea.

I often steep oolong tea in the refrigerator in the summer months. It's delightful!

The trick to extracting a fuller flavor is to one and a half times the amount of tea you would normally use for hot brewing. So if you use one teaspoon or 3 grams of loose leaf tea for a hot brew, use one and a half teaspoons or 4.5 grams for a cold brew.

Cold Brew Tea Makers

• • Infuser Tower: This relatively new innovation suspends a vessel of ice over a small container of tea. Underneath the container is a pitcher to catch the brewed tea. As the ice melts, it soaks the tea, one drop at a time.

The tea leaves are very slowly saturated. Each drop is highly concentrated as the infusion drips down into the awaiting pitcher. The entire process takes anywhere from 2 - 5 hours, depending on the tea type.

• • Refrigerate in a Pitcher: This is the easiest and most practical method for home brewers. Simply grab your favorite glass pitcher, fill it with cold filtered water, and add the appropriate amount of tea leaves.

Place the pitcher in the refrigerator overnight for around 8 - 12 hours. This Urban Tea Tumbler from The Tea Spot is awesome for making cold brew tea on the go. I like that it's made from borosilicate glass.

• • Mason Jar: Take a mason jar, add tea leaves, and place in the refrigerator for several hours and you’ll have yourself a nice glass of iced tea.

• • Cold Infusers on The Go: Any type of hot tea infuser will work. Simply add your tea of choice to the basket or the container, fill the tumbler with cold filtered water, and pop in the fridge overnight and you’re ready to go the next morning with a nice refreshing iced tea.

Related: 8 Best Ways to Travel with Tea

This is great to carry around in the summertime instead of bottled water.

Pro Tips:

• • For this recipe, I used an organic tea blend of Chinese white tea, rosebuds, and jasmine pearls -  a very high-grade green tea from China's Fujian region. This particular blend is from The Tea Spot and is called Meditative Mind.

Related: 10 Best Online Tea Shops

• • The results are amazing. The brew tastes like honeysuckle.

• • Cold brewing tea is not an exact science. You have to experiment a little with brewing times and tea quantity. Much of this depends on the type of tea you are brewing. So steep what you love.

• • Lighter teas like green, white, and oolong will take less time than black tea. Select a tea that you enjoy unsweetened, as it's difficult to fully incorporate the sweetener. Flavored teas make a nice infusion.

Cold Brew Tea Recipe

Cold Brew Tea Bags

Buyer beware!

Instant cold brew tea, as seen in some popular brands of tea bags, is not the same. The instant variety is usually patented because the tea product is altered in some way.

The commercial invention of instant cold brew tea encompasses a tea leaf product that rapidly infuses in cold water. The goal is to produce a beverage with the same color and flavor characteristics identical to hot brewed iced tea beverages.

Related: 6 Steps to Make The Best Iced Tea

Although these products do contain tea leaves, they may include the addition of instant tea powder or coat the tea leaves with tea extracts.

If you read some of the patents on these products, you will find that the cold brew tea products may use powders, extracts, or colorants to quickly infuse tea in cold water. The goal is to produce an iced tea beverage with the color and flavor comparable to iced teas prepared by hot brewing methods.

Natural cold brew tea takes hours to infuse, not five minutes. There are no shortcuts.

Cold Brew Matcha

The only tea that you can infuse instantly in cold water is matcha. Matcha will infuse immediately into cold filtered water. I’ve even made it with sparkling water and it’s very refreshing.

Related: Matcha Green Tea Breakfast Drink

At home, we drink tea every day all day. I always have a backup pitcher of iced tea in the refrigerator ready to go. The amazing part of the cold brew method is that it seems you can’t over steep the tea.

I love experimenting with different teas. What teas do you like to cold brew? Share in the comments.

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