Cold brewing: put leaves & water in bottle, put it in the fridge, wait hours/days for infusion.
Hot brew and cool down: prepare tea separately, pour it in the bottle, store in fridge.
Sun brew: havent tried this.
so while #1 takes longer to brew, #2 takes a while to cool :)
any info on storage problems- how long can we store our diy bottled tea for? i suppose it depends on temperature of the fridge and any inadvertent bacterial contamination.
i notice rtd bottled teas most have ascorbic acid (vit c), thats to preserve taste? even tho it has a taste of its own. does anyone know what other chemicals they put in the rtd teas to preserve it longer, any effect they might have on taste?
I make my own brewed tea all the time - a little concentrated if I need an extra boost of energy (but it also means adding more sugar, to pare down the bitterness).
I would never use cold brewing or sun brewing. Hot brew and cool down is the way to go. Why? Because you can better control the steeping time, and thus the flavor of the tea. You just get a better flavor of tea with that method.
By the way, for this type of brewing, I would only use teas that I wouldn't otherwise be drinking - ie. not very good teas that don't taste very good as hot brewed tea; or old teas, etc.
Since I don't have a refrigerator (sounds kind of strange - but I really don't). I just let the teas cool to room temperature, or drink it slightly warmer. It can sit in the pitcher for about 6-8 hours. After 24 hours at room temp, the bacteria starts to make the tea bubble up, so it's non-drinkable by then. But usually, I drink it within 4-6 hours max anyway.
Of course, ideally, it's best to store it in the fridge and have cold tea. Pouring it into a tall glass, and adding a few ice cubes would be good too. But that's a luxury where I am.
If you stored bottled tea in the fridge, I would drink it within 2 days. You could always make more anyway. Back when I had a fridge, I used to make 4 pitchers of tea. Some I would pour into 1-liter, or even smaller size clean water bottles and put in the freezer. Then, when I went on a trip, or had to do some yard work or something, it could sit out in the sun and let it defrost a little. And I drank it as it melted. That way, it was icy and refreshing.
I agree that "hot brew cool down" is the way to go. If you're in a hurry, use less water and pour the infusion over ice (or add cold water). Tea made in this manner can be stored for a week in the refrigerator. See
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If you make sun tea, drink it that day. Sun tea is brewed in the optimum temperature range for bacteria growth. See
I respectfully disagree. I have always had amazing results with a cold brewed iced tea:
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My tea always tastes great, it doesn't get cloudy when chilled (even when adding simple syrup or agave nectar) and while I've heard some people harp on 'optimal temperature,' I have not noticed any significant differences in my iced teas (perhaps because i save the high quality leaves for my hot tea and use a basic English Breakfast or oolong for my iced tea). Just my $0.02....
Thanks for the info. You're right. Hot and cold brewing both produce good iced tea. Hot brewing is my personal preference because I'm not disciplined enough to wait for cold brewing. The main point of my post is that sun tea is a petri dish and hot (or cold) brewing produces a tea that can be kept for a reasonable amount of time.
I made some iced tea from Den's Tea's cherry sencha. It was too fruity for my taste as a hot tea, but is very light and refreshing as an iced tea. And I need that here in the desert (Tucson, AZ).
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