The secret to making the best iced tea is to cold brew it, steeping tea in cold water for a few hours. Get tips and step-by-step directions on how to make refreshing cold brew tea at home from a Tea Sommelier.
What is Cold Brew Tea?
Cold brewing is a slow and gentle process where tea steeps in water for hours in the refrigerator.
Cold brew tea makes absolutely the best iced tea. It’s also the easiest way to make iced tea, but it does take several hours.
Cold brewing makes a sweeter, smoother tasting tea since tannins, which make tea bitter, aren’t steeped out of the tea in cold water the way it does in hot water.
This means no more bitter iced tea!
Because cold brewing doesn’t involve hot water, it’s perfect to make in the hot summer months.
RELATED: Raspberry Iced Tea
Ingredient Notes
- Loose tea or tea sachets
Any and all kinds of tea can be cold brewed. - Water
Use filtered water for a better tasting cold brewed tea.
Photo Credit: williams-sonoma.com
Step-by-Step Instructions
For complete brewing guide, full ingredients, and instructions, scroll to the bottom.
- Put tea and water in a pitcher or glass container. Cover and place in refrigerator to cold brew.
Use cool or room temperature filtered water. No need to boil any water to make cold brew tea. - Strain out tea leaves.
Use a mesh strainer if using loose tea or just take out the tea sachets or tea bags.
Expert Tips
- Ice is optional since the tea is already chilled, but add ice to keep it colder for longer.
- Not all tea is cold brewed for the same amount of time. Green tea in general is trickier to cold brew. It can taste bitter if not made properly so always check brewing guides. Black tea, oolong tea, and herbal teas are the easiest to brew since it’s harder to mess up and should be cold brewed for 12 hours.
- Instead using a strainer, the easiest way to cold brew tea is in a cold brew maker since you can just take out the infuser instead of straining the tea into another container.
- Make and store your tea in glass containers. Plastic tends to stain and leave behind odors.
- Keep cold brewed tea in constant rotation by starting a new brew 1-2 days after starting the first.
- Cold brewed tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Questions You May Have
Unless it’s an herbal tea, there’s caffeine in cold brewed tea. There’s less caffeine in a cold brew tea (about half) than tea steeped in hot water.
Yes!
Up to 4 days. After that, it loses quality and starts tasting off.
Cold brew made from loose tea is so much better and more flavorful since loose tea is a much higher quality tea. Tea sachets are great for cold brewing too.
If you want to sweeten your iced tea, use simple syrup. It’ll be the easiest to incorporate into your tea since it’s liquid. Also try flavored simple syrups to sweeten and flavor your iced tea.
Conversion Chart
| TO MAKE | WATER | TEA |
| 1 serving | 1 cup | 1.5 teaspoons loose tea or 1 tea sachet |
| 2 servings | 2 cups | 1 tablespoon loose tea or 2 tea sachets |
| 4 servings | 4 cups (1 quart) | 2 tablespoons loose tea or 4 tea sachets |
| 8 servings | 8 cups (2 quarts) | 4 tablespoons loose tea or 8 tea sachets |
Related
- Cold Brew Coffee Made Easy
- Thai Iced Tea
- Quick & Easy Iced Tea
- Bubble Tea
- 30 Refreshing Iced Tea Recipes
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Easy Cold Brew Iced Tea
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon loose tea or 2 tea sachets or tea bags
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put tea and water in a pitcher or glass container. Cover pitcher and put in refrigerator for at least 12 hours.Use cool or room temperature filtered water. No need to boil any water to make cold brew tea. Use filtered water for the best tasting cold brewed tea.
- Strain out tea leaves.Use a mesh strainer if using loose tea or just take out the tea sachets or tea bags.
NOTES
Cold Brewing Guide
- TEA: 1 ½ teaspoons loose tea or 1 tea sachet or 1 tea bag
- WATER: 1 cup (8 oz.)
- WATER TEMPERATURE: Cold water
- STEEP TIME: 6-12 hours in the refrigerator depending on the type of tea
Cold Brew Time
- White tea: 6 hours
- Green tea: 3-6 hours
- Oolong tea: 12 hours
- Black tea: 12 hours
- Herbal tea: 12 hours
Tips
- Ice is optional since the tea is already chilled, but add ice to keep it colder for longer.
- Not all tea is cold brewed for the same amount of time. Green tea in general is trickier to cold brew. It can taste bitter if not made properly so always check brewing guides. Black tea, oolong tea, and herbal teas are the easiest to brew since it’s harder to mess up and should be cold brewed for 12 hours.
- Instead using a strainer, the easiest way to cold brew tea is in a cold brew maker since you can just take out the infuser instead of straining the tea into another container.
- Make and store your tea in glass containers. Plastic tends to stain and leave behind odors.
- Keep cold brewed tea in constant rotation by starting a new brew 1-2 days after starting the first.
- Cold brewed tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
hi jee,
i wanted to know if I could put slices of lemon in the cold brew iced tea
Hi Trisha, yup! It’s always nice to add a little something fresh like lemon slices or fresh mint leaves.
I was wondering if its possible to make cold tea like cold brew coffee where I still add my milk and sugar? I love my orange pekoe tea but its just getting a bit warm for it. Any suggestion?
Hi Laura, you can make the cold brew tea then add milk and simple syrup since the sugar won’t dissolve into the cold tea easily. Here’s how to make quick simple syrup: https://coffeeatthree.com/simple-syrup-iced-coffee/
hai lee, any tips for cold brewing flowering tea? how many to use anyway? thank you!
Hi Lucky, I would start with 1 flowering tea to 1 cup of water — the same as how you would brew it hot.
Can we reuse the tea leaves? How many times can we use this?
Hi Ratanpriya, you can definitely reuse the tea leaves. I usually use it once more and cold brew it for 15-24 hours instead of the usual 12 hours.
Does it matter what kind of glass container I use as long as it’s glass? And thank you for the recipes!
Hi Anna Marie, doesn’t matter what kind of glass container. You can use any glass container you have!
Hai Lee, thank you for your helpful information about cold brew tea.
actually I’m just wondering if I mix the kinds of tea like chamomile and earl grey (e.g) will the tea loose the benefits? as we know tea has its own benefit.
thank you.
Hi Fransiskus, by mixing teas, it won’t cancel the other out and instead, you’ll get the benefit of both.
what is the weight in grams of 1.5 teaspoons of loose tea? Very difficult to measure large loose leaf green tea? Would be much more accurate to put in weight in grams.
Hi Dani, it is difficult to measure large loose green tea. I would put in 5 grams if you’re using a scale. I don’t usually put in information by weight since not a lot of people have tea scales at home.
Hi, Jee,
If I plan to make a milk tea, how much more extra tea per cup should I use so as not to dilute the flavor?
Hi Olivia, I like to use hot brewed tea then cool it down when it comes to milk tea, but if you want to make it cold brewed, use double the amount of tea, so 1 tablespoon for 1 cup of water.
Hi Jee,
I live in the Netherlands, where the tap water quality is much better than in some other countries (I feel like the water in the USA has a very strong chloride taste, for instance). To me, the taste of our tap water is similar to that of bottled water. I believe the amount of calcium is higher in tap water though.
Would you still recommend filtering water in my situation?
Hi Jitske, if the quality of your tap water is excellent, no need to use filtered!
I purchased a GLASS ICED TEA JUG WITH BASKET INFUSER, 68 OZ. and the tea leaves constantly leak through the strainer, is this normal?
I also use the ratio recommended and the tea seems too weak?
Hi Melissa, sorry to hear you’re having problems with the tea jug. The leaves definitely should not be leaking through the strainer although if they’re super tiny, they may, but that shouldn’t be an issue. If the cold brew seems too weak, I would make it stronger by adding 2 teaspoons or 1 tablespoon of tea per cup, especially if you add ice to it which will dilute it.
I like my tea hot! Would it work to cold brew the tea, store it in the fridge, and just heat a cup when I want it?
Hi Sandra, it would be best just to make hot tea instead of heating up the cold tea.
Can these glass cylinder quart/liter jars be bought on Amazon.? If not then where do I find them? I tried looking based off the previous comments but still hard to find.
Hi Elizabeth, the bigger jars weren’t sold on Amazon the last time I checked. I only see the smaller asparagus jars which I’m using in the photos: https://amzn.to/36TQLba
What strainer did you use here?
Hi Christopher, it’s this one: https://amzn.to/2u6YfKi
Thank you for the great post. Exactly what I was looking for after hearing some recommendations for cold brew tea.
Regarding the tea brewing bottles used here:
Williams and Sonoma is blocking access to their website for folks outside of the USA so the link for us expats does not work.
If anyone wants these nifty ice tea brewing jars they are Weck Model 908 (1 liter) or 905 (.5 liter) cylinders.
On some sites the 1 liter weck 908 is listed as 1040ml and the 905 as 600ml but my box of 908s says 1 liter. So if searching on 1 liter weck cylinder does not give you any good hits, search on 1040ml weck cylinder.
https://weckjars.com/product-category/cylindrical/
(note the 908s are listed as out of stock indefinitely but the german page is stating they will be back in stock this spring)
When ordering make sure you are also getting the covers and metal clips (mine shipped with glass covers but no clips) or order the clips separately.
Alternatively for something not as pretty but way easier to work with Weck sells plastic “keep fresh” covers for the jars. 80mm for the 1l and 60mm for the .6l.
https://www.amazon.com/Weck-Fresh-Plastic-Medium-models/dp/B073SM4LTJ/
Thanks again for the wonderful post on how to make cold brew ice tea!
Thanks so much Gian for your thoughtful and helpful comment!
I am drinking some cold brew iced tea right now, and it’s so refreshing and delicious (despite it being January haha!) I’ve never tried to cold brew iced tea, but I got the idea because I wanted to use up some loose leaf tea that had been lingering in my pantry. I ended up tripling the recipe, because the pitcher I used was a lot larger. The possibilities are endless to the blends I can come up with now!
Hi Faith, sounds wonderful!