2 super easy ways to cold brew tea

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Can you brew tea in cold water? Yes, and it’s much easier than the traditional hot water method!

I have a vivid memory from my childhood of my mom ordering a cold green tea at a restaurant. We all had quite the laugh when the server brought out a glass of ice with a tea bag inside. How was the tea supposed to brew without hot water?

While a cup of ice definitely won’t get you a refreshingly cool cup of tea while waiting for your food, it turns out my family wasn’t completely right either about thinking you need hot water. Turns out, you don’t need hot water for tea to brew—just some patience and water.

What you’ll need to cold brew tea:

• Tea leaves

• Water

• Either…

  • Bottle with an infuser OR

  • Bottle and a steeper

Steps to cold brew tea

1. Add 2-3 Tbsp tea to a bottle or pitcher of choice
2. Refrigerate the tea for 1-8 hours
3. Strain the tea leaves and enjoy as-is or iced

Why make cold brew tea instead of chilled hot tea?

For the longest time, my method of making chilled tea was to boil water to make hot tea then wait around until the tea was room temperature to throw in some ice cubes. Because the ice would dilute the tea, I would compensate by using a bit more tea leaves, sometimes making the tea more bitter as a result. A common tea beginners’ mistake.

Cold brew tea, it turns out, eliminates the risk of bitterness and astringency that happens when oversteeping tea [1]. A study published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology also found that cold brewing extracts a higher level of healthy molecules like antioxidants than hot brews after a longer time [2].

Overall, cold brewing tea gives a fantastically refreshing and crisp flavor perfect for any iced tea. The best way to describe the difference between hot brewed tea is that cold brew tea is smoother.

How to cold brew tea in the fridge (overnight method)

Tea expert and online education director at The Beverage Group, Donna Fellman, explains that “heat is energy that has been put into water. That causes the molecules in the water to move faster. The faster they move the more energy they have. The more energy they have, the more capable they are of knocking things loose from the tea leaf into the water.” [3]

This is why boiling water makes tea steep much faster than a long cold brewing method. However, to achieve the same or better health benefits, it’s best to just stick your cold brew tea in the fridge overnight to maximize the antioxidants and robust taste.

1. Use a pitcher, mason jar, or bottle. I like to reuse empty glass milk bottles.

2. Fill the container with two tablespoons of tea leaves. I find that using loose tea leaves over tea bags gives a much richer, higher quality flavor. Here, I used a Japanese black tea called benifuki from Zen Tea Fusion, a tea brand I discovered at my local farmers market.

3. Online tea company The Tea Spot recommends steeping your cold brew tea for at least 2 hours in the fridge. However, in my opinion, leaving it overnight has a much tastier result.

4. With a tea strainer or sift, pour your fresh cold brew tea into a glass and enjoy chilled as is or over ice! No steeper? No problem - check out how to steep tea without an infuser.

While the tea leaves’ flavor will come out faster at room temperature, storing your cold brew tea in the fridge while you wait for it to be ready to drink is a safer option. A tea brewing method called “sun tea”, which involves leaving a pitcher of tea to steep for hours under the sun, can be risky because the lack of refrigeration over time can welcome bacterial growth in tea leaves [4].

Refrigeration will also maximize your tea’s shelf life.

How to cold brew tea in 10 minutes (express method)

Using a bottle with a built in tea infuser like this one from the Tea Spot makes cold brew tea easy wherever you go.

If you have a special bottle for steeping tea on-the-go, you can make cold brew tea just about anytime and anywhere with tea leaves and water. Here, I use the Cold Brew Tea Sports Bottle from the Tea Spot.

1. Add a few teaspoons of tea leaves to your bottle’s tea infuser. My all-time favorite to use for cold brew tea is sencha, a type of Japanese green tea. Maeda-en is a quality loose leaf tea brand that’s easy to find at many Asian supermarkets. However, if you’re looking to upgrade to a fancier quality, Senbird Tea is a great option to buy farm-direct sencha green tea online.

2. Add cool water.

3. Screw the cap on, shake the bottle, and wait 10 minutes! The flavor is still a bit light after 10 minutes, but if you’re on the go, the flavor gets progressively richer if you wait another hour or so.

If you’re looking to get more mileage out of your cold brew tea, try steeping it in an insulated tumbler. I use the Tea Spot’s 32oz Himalayan Tea Tumbler if I know I’ll be out for a while and won’t have access to a fridge. And because you can’t oversteep cold brew tea and get that icky bitter taste, you can leave the tea leaves in all day.

Updated May 5, 2022

• REFERENCES

  [1] Bolton, Dan. “Cold Brew Tea.” World Tea News, 25 Apr. 2016, www.worldteanews.com/Insights/cold-brew-tea.

  [2] Lantano, Claudia et al. “Effects of alternative steeping methods on composition, antioxidant property and colour of green, black and oolong tea infusions.” Journal of food science and technology vol. 52,12 (2015): 8276-83. doi:10.1007/s13197-015-1971-4

  [3] Eldridge, Cory. “A (Chemically) Different Cup of Tea.” Fresh Cup Magazine, 31 July 2018, www.freshcup.com/a-chemically-different-cup-of-tea/.

  [4] Smith, Jenna. “The Dangers of Sun Tea.” University of Illinois Extension, 5 July 2018, extension.illinois.edu/blogs/simply-nutritious-quick-and-delicious/2018-07-05-dangers-sun-tea.

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