Want to try something cold, refreshing, and healthy? Summer is one of the best seasons to enjoy a cup of cold tea. Cold tea is not only a healthy and refreshing drink for those hot days – preparing cold tea is also a unique way to discover new tones and tastes of the tea. Let us share 4 easy ways to prepare a perfect cup of cold tea.
Tea+ ice cubes
For: every day and parties
The most common technique to prepare a cold tea in Western countries is to make it with hot water, cool it down and pour it on the ice cubes. A cup of cold tea is super easy to make and can be a great colorful accent for your summer party.
How to make a cold-brew tea?
- Make a concentrate of your favorite tea. Make it stronger than usual – use 3 teaspoons of tea leaves with 250 ml of hot water and leave it for 8 to 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, strain the tea.
- You can put it in the fridge or drink it straight away.
- Fill a glass with ice cubes or frozen fruits and pour the concentrate into it. Serve. You can decorate your cup of tea with different fruits and berries.
How to prepare a cold brew matcha tea?
- Make a cup of matcha tea as usual, just using 40 ml of water instead of 80 ml. You can find the full guide for matcha preparation here.
- Pour matcha on the ice cubes.
Ideas for cold brew matcha drinks:
Matcha lemonade – sweeten your matcha tea with a favorite sweetener, pour it on the ice cubes, add some carbonated water and garnish with some mint, berries, lemon, or cucumber.
Matcha with coconut milk– pour matcha on the ice cubes and add 40 ml of coconut milk.
Cold-brew mint matcha – prepare a mint or peppermint tea and use it instead of water while making matcha. Pour the tea on the ice cubes.
A method for making a cold-brewed tea– mizudashi
For: Every day and parties
Mizudashi is a cold-brewing technique in which cold water is used and which takes from 4 to 6 hours. This is one of the most popular methods for making tea in Japan. While prepared with cold water, green tea has much less caffeine and bitter tasting catechins. The amount of theanine stays the same, therefore the tea has a sweet, light umami aftertaste. You can make this tea in the evening, just keep it in the fridge and enjoy this drink the next day. This is also a great way to reuse tea leaves that have been used for preparing a hot-brew tea.
How to make a cold-brew tea?
- Add around 8 g of tea leaves into Hario or a similar type of bottle with a tea strainer.
- Pour 750 ml of room temperature water.
- Leave it in the fridge for 4 to 6 hours or overnight.
Which types of tea to use?
- Japanese green teas such as sencha or kukicha. While cold-brewed, their taste will be lighter and sweeter compared to hot-brew tea. You can reuse tea leaves that have been used for hot-brew before. You can garnish it with a piece of cucumber or lemon.
We recommend using Osada-san premium sencha.
- Roasted green tea hojicha. The taste is very expressive and pleasant. Roasted notes are well-expressed.
We recommend using Akky-san hojicha.
- Japanese black tea wakoucha. Even if you are not the biggest fan of black tea – Japanese black tea is a great choice for cold brew. It creates a sweet and refreshing drink without the usual bitter aftertaste of the black tea.
We recommend using Osamu-san black tea wakoucha, or smoked black tea by Matsumoto-san.
Koridashi – Brewing Japanese tea with ice.
For: slowly enjoying the process and finding a new point of view towards the tea.
This tea-brewing technique is also coming from Japan. We recommend using this technique for real enthusiasts of Gyokuro. The essence of this method is in its simplicity. For that reason, you do not need to use any extraordinary teaware, only a glass or a teapot is enough. Depending on the room temperature, it takes 1 to 2 hours for the ice to fully melt – but the result is worth waiting. Koridashi method offers the unusual taste and precious aesthetic moment of ice melt over the tea.
How to brew?
- Put around 2,5 g of tea leaves into kyusu or a martini glass.
- Add 3 middle-sized ice cubes.
- Serve after the ice is fully melted.
What tea to use?
Usually, green teas such as Gyokuro or kabuse sencha are brewed on this method.
We recommendusing gyokuro by Master Uejima-san or sencha by farmer Akky-san.
Ice-drip method
For: slowly enjoying the process and finding a new point of view towards a tea.
We believe that good old tea-brewing methods are the best. But who can create new ways if not we? While analyzing tea or coffee culture, we can notice a difference between the diversity of coffee-brewing techniques. We came up with the idea of if we could use coffee-brewing equipment such as a Siphon coffee maker, Chemex, V60, an ice-drip method for making tea. The latter one was a real discovery! Same as Koridashi, we recommend using this method for whose want to have an experience of tea-brewing at a completely different level. To brew 100 ml of tea could take 3 to 4 hours but the result is worth waiting. The taste of tea prepared on this technique will remind a very concentrated sweet umami flavored Gyokuro.
There is a special device for the ice-drip method but also you can try this by using items at home.
How does a device for ice-drip work? The upper part of it is filled with ice or a mix of ice and cold water. This part comes with a dripper mechanism that allows adjusting the rate of water drops which is 1 or 2 drops per second. Icy water drops fall on tea leaves where it runs to the pitcher.
How to brew?
You need:
- A dish for putting ice. It should be with a hole for melted ice to drip. A dish for putting ice. It should be with a hole for melted ice to drip.
- A dish for a brewed tea such as a teapot. We used Chemex for our experiments
- A tea-strainer. It should go easily into a dish for a brewed tea. We used a cone-shaped metal strainer Chemex.
- Put 5 g of tea into a tea strainer.
- Add 7 middle-sized ice cubes into a dish for ice.
- Leave it for 3 to 5 hours and enjoy!
What tea to use?
You will feel the best taste of Gyokuro tea. You can also use other covered green teas such as Kabuse sencha.
We recommend using gyokuro by Master Uejima-san, sencha by farmer Akky-san.
