Best Teas for Iced Tea?
I’ve been using a teavanna English Breakfast (high grown) but when I make it hot-brewed it sometimes comes out pretty bitter if I steep it even at it’s suggested time. I love the taste much more cold-brewed, but then I waste a little more tea, it’s a little weaker, and it takes much much longer. So I ask: What do YOU like to make iced tea with, and how do you prepare it?
You can use the tea leaves from the first steep and do the second steep as a cold brew.
Really use whatever you want. It is like your tastes with hot tea, everyone will like a different tea as a cold/iced tea.
I find cold-brewed rooibos, hibiscus, and Japanese green teas very refreshing. Iced masala chai – brewed via stove-top then chilled in the fridge – is also quite delicious.
It definitely varies, but for me personally green teas are friggin’ delicious coldsteeped. Verdant’s Laoshan Bilochun Green blew my mind last summer, so unbelievably good on a hot day. Yum.
I also find most flavored Ceylons, which I don’t care for much hot, make good coldsteeped tea. I had a handful of Culinary Teas early last year I was underwhelmed with hot that were scrumptious coldsteeped—Peaches and Cream and Baroness Grey come to mind. Whispering Pines’ Manistee Moonrise is also wonderful that way; I get a lot more nuanced flavor from it coldsteeped.
I usually toss leftover leaves from a hot steep into a mason jar, same ratio of water as when hot, and let it sit at least overnight, sometimes as long as 3 or 4 days (!) for certain black teas. Occasionally when it’s really hot out and I don’t want to drink hot tea much I throw fresh/dry leaves in, same ratio. Easy peasy. One of these days I’m going to try the martini shaker flash chill method…
I have to admit I’m a bit lazy (?) and usually cold steep teas that I find too fruity and/or bitter hot, or I use one of Frank’s blends (52 Teas/ Southern Boy Iced Teas). I have a large glass pitcher with infuser that I just throw the tea into, add cold purified water, and then leave it overnight until the morning. I check it then to see if it’s strong enough, needs something, etc. and go from there.
I only cold brew in the warmer months, but I use Lupicia’s Handy Cooler for when I do. It’s basically a glass pitcher that has a removable brew basket inside. I like to use their Momoko because it makes for a refreshing iced green peach tea. I’ve also used their Grapefruit Green and Pineapple Oolong.
Thats cool, I just bought a pitcher that I plan on using for cold brews that basically strains as you poor.
I find that most fruity white and green teas tend to make the best iced teas. (I rarely coldsteep, I’ll usually do the usual brew at correct temp, let it cool on the counter for a few hours (Covered so bugs can’t get into it.) then stick it into the fridge.
Some herbals with fruit in them do great, I havn’t really found rooibos to be that great iced.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.