When the summer heat sets in, we often crave a cool, light, and refreshing drink. Iced tea is an indispensable choice on hot summer days! Iced tea isn’t just a healthy and delicious drink—it’s also a great way to discover new tea flavors. Here are four techniques for making iced tea.
Tea+ ice cubes
For: every day and parties
This is the most common method of making iced tea in the Western world. When using this method, the tea is brewed with hot water, allowed to cool, and then poured over ice cubes.
This method can be used to prepare all types of tea, as well as herbal and fruit infusions. It is especially recommended for teas that, due to their specific characteristics, require water at a lower temperature, such as matcha or sencha. This method is also suitable for preparing flavored teas or simpler, lower-quality teas, which are typically “rinsed” before drinking.
How do you make cold tea from fresh leaves?
- Prepare a concentrate of your favorite tea—that is, a slightly stronger brew than usual. To make 250 ml of concentrate, use about 3 teaspoons of tea and let it steep for about 8–10 minutes. Remove the strainer or pour the tea into another container.
- 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?
- Prepare matcha tea as usual, but use about 40 ml of hot water instead of 80 ml. You can find out how to prepare matcha tea using the farmer’s method here.
- Pour matcha on the ice cubes.
Ideas for cold brew matcha drinks:
Matcha Lemonade – Sweeten the matcha tea with your favorite sweetener, pour it over ice cubes, and add sparkling water. You can garnish it with mint, berries, lemon, or cucumber.
Matcha with Coconut Water – Pour the prepared matcha over ice cubes and add about 40 ml of coconut water.
Iced Mint Matcha – Prepare a mint or peppermint infusion and use it instead of water when making matcha tea. Pour the prepared tea over ice cubes.
Brewing tea with cool water – mizudashi
For: every day and parties
Mizudashi is a method of preparing cold tea in which tea leaves are steeped in cold water for 4–6 hours. It is arguably the most popular way to prepare tea in Japan. Green tea brewed in cool water releases less caffeine and catechins but retains its theanine content, so tea prepared this way loses some of its bitterness and has a sweeter, lighter flavor enriched with umami. You can prepare this cold, refreshing drink the night before—just let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and enjoy it the next day. This is a great way to reuse tea leaves that were previously used to make hot tea.
How do you make iced tea using the mizudashi method?
- 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. The flavor will be much lighter and sweeter than when brewed with hot water. You can reuse the tea leaves. You can also flavor the brewed tea with cucumber or lemon.
We recommend: Master Akky-san’s Sencha, Master Osada-san’s kukicha.
- Roasted green tea Hojicha. When brewed cold, hojicha has a particularly distinctive and pleasant flavor. Its roasted notes come through beautifully.
We recommend: For a rich, roasted flavor— Master Akky-san’s hojicha, hoji-genmaicha
- Japanese black tea—wakoucha. An excellent choice even for those who may not consider black tea their favorite drink. When served cold, wakoucha has a sweet and refreshing taste, without the bitterness typical of black tea.
We recommend: Master Matsumoto-san’s smoked black tea.
Koridashi – tea prepared with ice
For: slowly enjoying the process and finding a new point of view towards the tea.
Here’s another method for making iced tea that originated in Japan. We recommend this method to gyokuro tea lovers—for its unconventional flavor and the aesthetic pleasure of watching the ice melt and blend with the tea leaves. It’s all about simplicity, so you won’t need any special dishes—you can use a teacup or a glass. The ice will completely melt in 1–2 hours, depending on the room temperature, but it’s definitely worth the wait!
How do you make iced tea using the koridashi method?
- 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.
Which types of tea to use?
Green teas are most commonly used for this brewing method: for example, gyokuro or kabuse sencha really come into their own.
We recommend: Master Uejima-san’s Gyokuro, Master Akky-san’s sencha.
Ice-drip method
For: slowly enjoying the process and finding a new point of view towards a tea.
We believe that time-tested methods of making tea are the best, but who, if not us, will seek out new ones? While analyzing tea and coffee culture, we noticed that there are countless different ways to brew coffee—each method brings out distinct flavor nuances. We wondered: what if we tried brewing tea using coffee equipment—a siphon, Chemex, V60, or the ice drip method? The latter was a real discovery! Just like koridashi, we recommend this method to anyone who wants to take their tea experience to the next level. Brewing about 100 ml of tea can take around 3–4 hours, but the result is definitely worth the wait! Tea brewed this way will resemble a highly concentrated elixir of gyokuro with a sweet umami flavor.
There is a special device for the ice-drip method but also you can try this by using items at home.
How does the ice drip device work? The upper part of the brewing chamber is filled with ice or a mixture of ice and cold water. This part of the device has a dripper that allows you to adjust the rate at which water drips—1–2 drops per second. These drops of icy water fall onto the tea leaves. After passing through the tea leaves, the water drains into a separate container.
How do you make iced tea using the trickle-over-ice method?
You need:
- A container for holding ice, which should have a hole for the melted ice to drain out, e.g., a V-shaped funnel
- A vessel for serving prepared tea, such as a teapot. We used a 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.
How do you make tea?
- Place 5 g of tea in the strainer
- Add 7 middle-sized ice cubes into a dish for ice.
- Let the tea steep, and after 3–5 hours—enjoy your tea elixir!
What tea to use?
Gyokuro tea will shine with its most vibrant flavors. You can also use other shaded teas, such as Kabuse Sencha.
We recommend: Master Uejima-san’s Gyokuro, Master Akky-san’s sencha.
