Iced tea is just as cool (and delicious) as iced coffee. And we want to make sure that you can enjoy it whenever you feel like it. If you’ve tried making iced tea before, you may have had your iced tea bitter or not flavourful enough. That may also have prevented you from making it again.
When you pour hot tea over ice, or make it hot and let it cool afterwards, it typically leaves the tea tasting rather odd and astringent - without giving you the real iced tea experience.
From how much tea we recommend that you use to why cold tea is much more convenient to consume than hot tea, this is everything you need to get started. You’ll also pickup a few neat tips and learn everything there is to know about cold brew and ice brewed tea.
Less Caffeine + Smoother Taste
For starters, it’s worth noting that cold brewed tea is less caffeinated than your typical hot brewed cup of tea. So if you’re worried about caffeine intake, you’re better off drinking cold tea! Furthermore, the colder temperature does not steep out the tannins (responsible for giving tea its dry, somewhat bitter flavour and providing colour in certain types of tea) the same way hot water does, so cold-brewed tea is actually less astringent (if you’re wondering what that means: it’s the puckery or drying sensation created in the mouth and throat).
Cold Brewing
Start by adding your favourite tea leaves (more than a tea bag’s worth, so about one or two teaspoons of tea leaves for every 250ml) in (room temp) water for 4-5 hours, then throw it in the refrigerator overnight, for at least eight hours. Pretty simple right?
In the morning, all you have to do is strain the tea leaves and then just like that, you can enjoy it right away. Feel free to sweeten it or add your favourite fruits for a more exciting creation. For sustainability purposes, you can re-steep high quality tea leaves another time for the upcoming night; just let it sit for a little longer than the first time (16 hours vs. 8 hours). You will notice that the flavour will be a little bit lighter, but you'll still get a great cold brew, with the same tea leaves.
If you’re wondering what the best teas are to use, it’s those that are on the sweeter side, like our oolong, because cold brewed tea usually ends up being sweeter than hot brewed tea - and this allows you to fully appreciate the natural sweetness of the tea.
It may take some time to master the cold brewed tea method, so take some time to experiment with different batches and see what works best for you. In the case that you mess up your first few batches, there are a few ways to save them. Too strong for your liking? Just add some more water and you’re good to go. Too light? Repurpose it for some fun cocktails (roasted teas go well with rum or whisky, whereas green and oolong teas pair well with gin or vodka) or simply use it as a lightly flavoured water. It’s really up to you and how you choose to enjoy your tea. Just know that however you enjoy it, we’re happy knowing that you’re enjoying your lovely cold brewed tea.
Super Easy To Make It Yourself!
A lot of people may be intimidated by this concept of Cold Brew, thinking that it may require complicated equipments, but this is not the case at all. Cold brew mountain tea is actually a rising popular drink in Taiwan that is super easy to make. Although everyone has their preference for how they like to make their cold brew tea, but here is how we like to make our cold brew tea with our tea bags:
- 1g of tea leaf for 100ml of water (our tea bags are 3g each!)
- Put your tea bags in your water bottle and pour the water in
- Let the bottle sit in room temperature for 4-5 hours
- Put the bottle in the fridge and let it sit for 10 hours
-
Enjoy your delicious cold brew Taiwan mountain tea!
