Cold Brew Tea

A simple, super easy recipe for Cold Brew Tea that uses only two ingredients to produce a mild, sweet, clean tasting, less bitter tea.

What is cold brewing?

Cold brewing utilizes cold or cool water to extract flavor (eg. coffee or tea) slowly over a period of time.

It is also known as cold pressing or cold extraction.

Using cooler temperature water reduces the amount of tannins (the polyphenols that give tea its bitterness) that are extracted, which gives the tea a milder, sweet, less bitter flavor, similar to making cold brew coffee.

Unlike tea espresso which uses hot water and pressure to extract the tea quickly, cold brewing tea is a gentle process of extracting the tea flavor slowly.

Why you'll love this recipe

This recipe for Cold Brew Tea is:

Easy to make: just combine two ingredients together and let it steep over time in the fridge.

Uses only two ingredients: your choice of tea leaves and cool temperature water or cold water.

Requires no heat: no kettle, no boiling required!

Versatile: you can do this with any type of tea, blend of teas, herbal/floral teas, and with loose leaf tea or with teabags, which makes this method of brewing tea truly accessible!

Ingredients you'll need

• loose tea leaves or tea bags: your choice
• water: you can use room temperature or cold water; not hot water as we're not doing a hot brew tea.

Equipment you'll need

• mason jar or glass vessel for storing the tea: I prefer glass as it is inert and doesn't absorb any odor, however, you could also use a stainless steel pitcher

If you have a tea infuser, you can use that, but it is not entirely necessary. However, if using loose leaf tea, you'll also need a small sieve or strainer.

How to make cold brewed tea

Add the tea bags or looseleaf tea into a mason glass jar or vessel.

Pour the water over the tea, cover with a lid and give it a little shake.

Place the jar into the fridge and let it steep for a minimum of 12 hours or overnight.

Types of tea to cold brew

You can do this with many types of tea, including:

• black tea
• oolong tea
• green tea
• herbal/floral tea (eg. osmanthus, chrysanthemum)

Tea bags or loose leaf?

Tea bags are convenient since you can easily remove and discard them afterwards.

With loose leaf tea, you will need to strain the tea through a sieve before enjoying.

Water temperature

The temperature of the water will correlate to how long you'll need to steep the tea.

Brewing tea with hot water = quick, 1-3 minutes steeping time.

Colder water = longer steeping time, so if you're using cold water, plan for at least 12 hours or overnight.

Room temperature water = 8-10 hours or longer.

Ways to use cold brew tea

Use the cold brew tea in iced tea drinks such as Iced Lavender Blueberry Jasmine Tea, jasmine milk tea, or bubble tea.

Or use cold brew green tea as a base for jasmine tea sorbet, shaved ice or poached pears.

Add a little sparkling water for fizziness and fruit such as strawberry and lychee for a refreshing fruit tea.

How to store

Store the cold tea in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Freeze the tea into ice cubes for iced tea.

Expert tips

The cold brew process won't apply to powdered tea, such as matcha or hojicha tea as those teas are technically fine particles that are suspended in water and should be prepared just prior to serving.

For even more stronger tea flavor, you can freeze the cold tea into ice cubes, and then add the frozen tea into your cold brew tea to make cold brew iced tea.

Don't throw out the tea bags/tea leaves -- re-steep the same leaves (cover with cold water) for another round of extraction, although it will be less strong. 

You'll want to brew the tea stronger than how you'd typically enjoy it -- I prefer mine on the stronger side as I usually add ice, but you can adjust the amount of tea to your strength preference. 

Easily scale up the amount to make more and keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week.

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