Home Brew (Iced Tea)

[Napoleon]

I didn't come from a tea family in Texas, but a friend of mine's mom would do the "Sun Tea" at the Lakehouse and I always loved it.

Fast Forward to Los Angeles where Tejava is relatively cheap ($0.99/liter bottle) at Trader Joe's and ever-so-refreshing.

Getting Tejava in Buenos Aires isn't possible. It doesn't make sense to the folks down here, so they will never import it. Instead, I've started brewing loose-leaf tea (currently "red", but I'll be switching to "black") and then either putting my liter kettle in the fridge or pouring it into a liter bottle and putting it in the fridge.

So the question is: Who else home brews tea and then chills it?

Any special tricks? I'm interested. (We do have a Chinatown, so getting fairly decent tea is possible.)

 

[Ag with kids]

Well, sun tea IS the best way to go, but, seeing as how it's winter down there...

We usually just boil some water with the tea bags in it...then pour into a pitcher and fill with water...we've got nice, cold, clear well water at my house, so that's nice...

 

[l00p]

Mint leaves, fresh.

 

[GHoward]

I have found that using boiled water give the tea more of a bitter, "burnt" taste. This is why sun tea is the best. It slowly heats up, and won't get up near the boiling point. If it is winter, (well I normally don't drink iced tea in the winter) but I have put a large saucepan on the stove, filled it with water, and slowly brought it up to heat, never to boiling.

 

[THEU]

I am not knocking sun brewed tea, because I agree that it is GREAT stuff.
I will however be a pragmatist here and say the best for ease tea is to put tea bags in our coffee carafe and have the hot water from the coffee pot fill it. I actually l think that the temperature of a coffee pot's water is just about perfect for brewing. It isn't boiling, and there is no way for it to accidently boil. Not only that, you can take it off of the warming plate as soon as the water finishes filling the carafe. Not too hot, but hot enough.

 

[GHoward]

So do you have a special coffee maker specifically for brewing tea, or do you just deal with the coffee taste? I actually do this at those mini coffee makers you see at hotels. works pretty good.

 

[alden]

I usually have a pitcher of brewed tea in my fridge.
I either leave it brewing on the kitchen counter for 8 hours, or in the fridge for 18-24. I tried putting it in the sun once, with poor results. I'm not sure what the "sun" in "sun tea" is for, aside from maybe heating it to brew faster.

Using good tea leaves definitely improves things. I've just started experimenting, but so far everything tastes better cold brewed.

BTW, I'm not a regular, but I make cold brewed coffee too. It's way delicious.

 

[MGS]

I have a pretty straight-forward method for my tea, using loose-leaf Lipton(black) that you can find in any grocery store:

1. Heat water in a small pot on the stove until it just boils.
2. Turn off the burner, and dump a tablespoon of the tea in there.
3. Cover and let it sit overnight.
4. Drain it through a paper towel into a 2-quart pitcher.
5. Add 1/3 cup of sugar and enough water to fill the pitcher, while stirring.
6. Put it in the fridge.

 

[Napoleon]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[DallasCowpoke]

Fast, foolproof and delicious.