more instant green tea

Well, if I were trying to save the swamp water, the first thing I'd do is try it with lemon juice added. If that didn't work, I'd toss it (or give it to a sister-in-law), but there might be other thing to add. Upton suggests iced tea brewed double strength with cold water in the refrigerator- look on their centerfold. Apparently they think this works with any leaf; I'd try the cheapest first. Toci

...

At my grand-ma. I have hated tea all my youth thanks to that.

One way is to brew about 3 times the quantity of leaves with hot water and when it's steeped pour it immediatly in a pitcher or cups full of ice. That works with any tea. Another way is to put tea leaves in cold water and let it in the fridge. That takes 2 hours for most leaves of Chinese green, sencha... For gyokuro or sencha+matcha, that can be done in 20 minutes (I put the pot in the freezer).

On a road trip, I'd try the cold brew : Put leaves in your travel thermos, add cold water about 2 hours before the time when you want to drink it, then make a stop at a place where you can get ice cubes to refresh the drink before having it. You can let the leaves in the pot, they don't overinfuse much if it's cold. So you can refill as much as you need.

Kuri

If you think this is nasty, you should just try Lift instant black tea. It's like someone soaked old leather in a cup.

My experiences with instant teas have all been limited but quite universally unpleasant.

--scott

It depends on what you mean by *cold*. I don't usually drink iced drinks unless I'm really suffering from the heat. In the summer, I often brew green teas at room temperature for maybe 15 minutes. There's no astringency, and often a creamy mouth feel.

/Lew

Dear Lara, I'll make you a deal. You are on the right path but just haven't taken the step of chucking the stuff down the toilet. If you promise to throw it out, I will send you the equivalent weight in decent quality fairly fresh Chinese green tea (Long-Jin). Just e-mail me your address (P.O. box, work or friend's address fine). Believe me, it's caffeinated. Alternatively, since I'm visiting Boston in a couple of weeks, you could send your instant green tea to me and I'll chuck it into the harbor. It will be patriotic.

Best wishes,

Rick.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick Chappell, Ph.D. Professor, Dept. of Statistics and of Biostatistics & Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin Medical School

thank-you group.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been lurking here for several months, and a few flame wars aside, I've found this group to be helpful, interesting and quite pleasant. But of course, that is inherent in tea drinkers, isn't it?

I think I will go for a large nalgene bottle, many cold bottles of spring water and my loose sencha, dragonwell, and some lu an from last year that has lost some of its punch for my road trip. But its the ritual of tea drinking at home that I will miss--putting water on to boil, my favorite tea cup, a nice morning breeze on the deck . . . but I digress.

Perhaps I should take Rick up on the offer to toss the instant stuff in the harbor, but then I don't know if I want to be involved with toxic waste pollution. However, the instant tea and the harbor water probably don't taste that much different.

Thank-you again. When I get back, I will have to start inquiring about pu-er. Didn't know much about it, but all the posts have intrigued me.

Thanks aga>

I cold brew tea all the time by the gallon, almost always with black teas. Start with cold (40-45F) water, go overnight (8-10 hours) in the fridge. Works great.