cold brewing

I've been brewing tea all summer overnight in the refrigerator. It tastes good; I don't know what nutrients it holds, however. Brewing on the windowsill (sun tea) might be dangerous in terms of having too many bacteria. Now that autumn is almost here I'm shifting back to hot tea. Toci

In the summer, I often brew tea leaves in room-temperature water. It takes longer than hot water, of course, and the taste and mouth feel of the liquor tends to be different: no astringency, less bitterness.

/Lew

i don't know, but, even if it is the refrigerator, isn't overnight a bit too much? i mean in terms of brewing quality, not bacteria as you point out.

i see. does any of you any preference regarding type of tea - leave, or it just does not matter?

The type of tea really doesn't matter, they can all be cold-brewed. Some very delicate teas will result in an extremely delicate brew which will only have a hint of the tea leaf's flavor but which can be very enjoyable. Some will brew almost as normal, and some will offer up a new/different result that can't be achieved through normal brewing.

brewing can take an hour or even hours not minutes, so overnight is not an issue.

- Dominic

I agree with Dominic. Teas basically behave the same when brewed in tepid water temperatures ie desirable flavors like catechins and oxidized tannins are released eventually by solubility without insoluble tannins that cause astringency. Many of us extract additional brews by infusing spent leaf all day.

Jim

I knew a Taiwanese lady that always took 2 or 3 balls of the High Mountain tea she sold and put them in a bottle of cold water and stuck it in the fridge. She would let it sit overnight and would drink it the next day in the summertime. It worked pretty good for the heavily roasted stuff, I thought.

I get the best results with delicate greens, but that may just be my palate. I think it's worth trying with pretty much all teas.

/Lew

The teas I've had most for iced tea are the Assams and the Assam descendants- Java, Ceylon, Nilgiri, and African. Toci

thanks again to all for your replies, i've found them all meaningful.

toci, you mention the word "iced tea". to me, iced meant a hot brew splashed on ice, so that it does keep well and does not form disgusting floating things. i thought cold water brewing was different to that. i wonder if there is a theory on that.