What is the difference between cold brewing and hot brewing then adding ice?
I have been cold brewing a few teas (leaving them in water in fridge overnight) , it is easy but I was wondering if there is much of a difference between doing that and just making hot tea and then adding a bunch of ice. I usually do black teas over ice, just cuz thats what I prefer. But maybe someone has a tip.
I find there are taste differences between cold brewed and iced teas. Cold brews extract different amounts of the flavor than iced. It can be used to reduce bitterness that would come out when hot brewing, but sometimes the flavor is less well rounded though. It’s good to experiment with the teas you have. Just like how some teas are good iced, some teas take better to cold brewing.
In the case of sencha and gyokuro cold brews can end up very buttery, and a lot less grassy then iced tea. Sometimes they get so buttery and mouth coating that it’s unpleasant.
You can definitely hot brew and then add ice at the end.
Perhaps you want to add a little more tea leaves to compensate for the extra water due to the melting ice.
i would say brewing hot then icing would water down your drink rather than cold brewing…
You just brew with more leaf/water to start with so after dilution you’re where you want to be. That’s what restaurants here do when making HK milk tea. They use a super strong tea base
Personally I like to hot brew followed by an overnight chill. Just make a giant pitcher of hot tea, let it cool on the counter for a bit, and then refrigerate overnight. It eliminates the watering-down effect of pouring over ice. That being said, I do cold-brew some teas, but most of them are made to be cold brew (iced-tea blends etc.)
As Gooseberry Spoon said, cold brewing extracts different flavors from the tea. The hotter the water temperature the more flavor compounds are extracted, including bitterness. Tea that’s steeped hot and poured over ice will has a fuller flavor than cold steeped tea.
I cold steep almost exclusively now because I enjoy the mellow flavor and it’s dead simple.
For me I find that cold steeping works well and is very simple. One rule still applies. Use good water when you cold steep. Don’t use tap water. Use filtered or bottled water.
Another method is to hot brew and then chill the tea in the refrigerator overnight. This gets similar results to hot brewing and then adding ice. For this method you would make the tea normal strength not extra strong like hot brewing and then adding ice.
Thank you all. This sounds the easiest. I have always noticed something kind of weird tho when I leave my teas out for long…If I hot brew them, then let them sit for 20-60 minutes or so and come back, they are always darker. I wonder if the chemistry of them is changing or what is going on, but I guess the fridge would help that to not be harmful or whatever.
Ill try this first, good suggestions. Or just throw some ice on it right away.
I’m no expert on this topic, so someone else may have to let you know if this is correct, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere that teas such as green tea and white tea can actually oxidize after steeping. So the darkening of the tea as it sits is the steeped tea oxidizing. Once again though, I don’t remember where I read this or how accurate a statement it is.
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