How to Make Cold Brew Tea

Learn how to make cold brew tea using either our organic loose-leaf tea or our pyramidal non-GMO tea bags, and our Iced Tea Maker. Refreshing smooth iced tea to cool off on those hot summer days.

Summertime Refreshment with Zero Calories

What’s your favorite summertime beverage? Hands down, there is nothing like having a crisp, icy cold tea to quench your thirst on a hot sunny day. Did you know that Fraser Tea blends have zero calories? You can enjoy this healthy delicious, iced tea beverage any time of the day to meet your health goals.

Cold Brew Tea Benefits

When you heat up tea the traditional way, it can bring out the tannins or bitter flavors of tea. In contrast, cold brewing tea is the process where you allow the tea to slowly infuse in the cool water while refrigerating it for several hours. The result of cold brew tea is a delicious smooth and refreshing tea without any bitterness, no matter how long it is brewed.

How to Make Cold Brew Tea?

Making iced tea at home is super easy. Check out our video to learn how to make cold brew tea in our ice maker. 

 The four items you will need are…

1. Your favorite Fraser Tea organic tea blend either in tea sachets (bags) or loose-leaf tea.
2. Room temperature or cool water
3. Iced Tea Maker is optional but makes the process easier and beautiful way to serve cold brew iced tea. This gorgeous, iced tea maker makes 6 delicious servings of iced tea. In addition, it comes with an integrated ice holder to keep your tea cool all day long without watering down your tea. The Assunta iced tea maker glass pitcher is heat-resistant and the plastic tea infuser and ice holder is BPA free. Therefore, if you prefer to make traditional iced tea or sun tea, you can make it in the iced tea maker too. (In addition, we have also included instruction on how to make cold brew iced tea without an iced tea maker below.)
4. Ice

Step by Step Process Using the Iced Tea Maker

How to Make Iced tea with Loose Leaf Tea?

• Place 1.5 tablespoons of your favorite Fraser Tea blend in the tea dispenser. Screw the lid back on the tea dispenser.
• Fill the glass container up to the line if you are planning on using the ice holder. If not using the ice holder, fill with 6 cups cool water. We prefer to make the full 6 cups of tea and just serve out one cup before placing in the ice holder.
• Place the filled tea dispenser in the glass iced tea maker with the water.
• Chill in the refrigerator. Here are our recommended cold brew steep times. If you steep longer, it is A-okay as the tea will not get bitter. However, if you steep it for less time, the flavor may be weak.

Type of Tea	Cold Brew Steep Time
Green and White Tea	6 to 8 hours
Oolong Tea	8 to 10 hours
Pu-erh tea	10 to 12 hours
Black Tea	8 to 12 hours
Herbal Tea	12 to 14 hours

              Figure 1 – Cold Brew Steep Times

• Remove tea dispenser with loose leave tea. Remove metal lid.        Sometimes, a few of the loose leaves settle to the bottom of the iced tea maker.
• If using the ice dispenser, fill with ice and screw back on the metal lid. Place the ice dispenser with the lid into the iced cold brew tea. Make sure to point the lid with the pour spout over the lip of the glass iced tea maker.
• Serve cold brew tea with or without ice as desired.

How to Make Iced Tea with Tea Bags?

1. Cut the tags off 6 of your favorite Fraser Tea blend sachets (bags). Place the tea sachets in the tea infuser. Screw the lid back on the tea dispenser.
2. Fill the glass container up to the line if you are planning on using the ice holder. If not using the ice holder, fill with 6 cups cool water. We prefer to make the full 6 cups of tea and just serve out one cup before placing in the ice holder.
3. Place the filled tea dispenser in the glass iced tea maker with the water.
4. Chill in the refrigerator. Please use chart above for cold brew steep time recommendations.
5. Remove tea dispenser with the tea bags. Remove metal lid.
6. If using the ice dispenser, fill with ice and screw back on the metal lid. Place the ice dispenser with the lid into the iced cold brew tea. Make sure to point the lid with the pour spout over the lip of the glass iced tea maker.
7. Serve cold brew tea with or without ice as desired.

Covered Cold Brew Iced Tea can last in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Traditional Iced Tea and Sun Tea

Our glass iced tea maker can also be used to make the traditional iced tea quick method or sun tea. However, these methods are not cold brew. If you are short on time, then making traditional iced tea or sun tea may be a faster alternative.

If making traditional iced tea, please refer to our article on How to Brew Your Tea for water temperature requirements and steep times.  The temperature of the water and steeping time are different for each type of tea. For example, when making black tea, the water temperature should be heated to 195 degrees F (90 degrees C) and steeped for 3 minutes. However, when making green tea the water should be heated up to 175 degrees F (79 degrees C) and steep for only 2.5 minutes for best results. After the proper steeping time, remove tea bags or loose-leaf tea. Allow tea to cool and serve over ice.

Sun Tea can be made by letting the tea steep in the iced tea maker in the sun for 3 to 5 hours. Then, allow to cool and serve sun tea over ice. 

How to Make Cold Brew Without an Iced Tea Maker?

1. You can use any container or even a quart mason jar with a lid to make cold brew tea. A pitcher with a lid of even a glass pitcher with plastic wrap work well too.
2. The ratio of tea to cool water is 2 tea sachets (bags) for every 16 ounces of water. Alternatively, the ratio of loose-leaf tea to water is 3 teaspoons of loose-leaf tea for every 16 ounces of cool water. Depending on the size of your container, you will have to measure accordingly.
3. Please reference the recommended cold brew steep times in the Figure 1 chart above for the type of tea and time to brew. If you end up leaving the tea steep longer, it will not get bitter.
4. If using tea bags, we like to hang them over the edge and use the lid to prevent the tag from falling in the water. For loose leaf tea, you can put the loose-leaf tea directly in the water.
5. After the brewing time in refrigerator, remove the tea bags or strain to remove loose leaf tea.
6. Serve over ice and enjoy!

  

How to serve?

Plain Iced tea is a cool and refreshing beverage. Do you want to kick up a few notches and impress your family and guests? Add some fresh fruit slices, berries, mint leaves or even serve frozen with Healthy World Cuisine’s recipe for Rainbow Berry Rooibos Ice Pops.

If you like sweet cold brew iced tea, add a little simple syrup or dissolved sugar alternative of choice to suit your needs. As cold brew is already chilled, honey, granulated sugar and all alternative sweeteners will need to be dissolved first before adding to your tea.

Make the most out of this beautiful spring and summer weather! Learning how to make cold brew tea is an eye-opening experience. Once you try it, we bet you will be excited to try new iced tea blends.

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