Cold Brew Tea

Growing up in Kentucky we almost always iced tea in the refrigerator during the summer, and often in the winter, even when we had plenty of soda and lemonade and water and whatever else. I learned to make iced tea at such a young age, it feels like I've always known how.Even in college I found ways to make iced tea. I suppose I considered it a necessity or just what one does. 

At some point though I stopped making iced tea. I'm not really sure why or even really when. I love tea - hot or cold. But traditionally made iced tea started to feel more like sugar with a little tea in it as I increasingly needed more sweetener to drink it. I didn't like that.

Then one day I saw something about cold-brewed tea that piqued by curiosity. So I researched the idea. Within hours, we had 3 pitchers of different teas - a flavored green, a flavored black, and a flavored white -  cold-brewing in the refrigerator. Yes, I can go a bit overboard when I get excited, and I was excited!

They each turned out pretty good, but it took a little bit of experimentation to get them to meet our preferences. That's part of cooking - experimenting, testing, tasting, and being willing to adjust.

What I discovered is that for us, the following works best.


Cold Brew Tea

2 tablespoons loose leaf tea* of your choice
Water to fill pitcher**
Time

Place tea leaves in the bottom of a pitcher. 







Fill pitcher with water (filtered is best if possible). 







Place in the refrigerator and leave at least 8 hours, 12 is better.







Serve by pouring tea through a tea strainer to catch the leaves. 






Place the leaves back in the pitcher. Refill pitcher with water.***



** I haven't listed the amount of water or the size of the pitcher because I've found this amount of tea seems to work fine up to at least 60 ounces. That's the most I've tried it in so I don't know beyond that.

*** I usually get 2-4 pitchers out of 2 tablespoons of tea leaves depending on which tea I make.

Note: I use organic ingredients whenever possible.



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