Kiaharii said

"Over steep" cold brewed tea?

Is this possible? I’ve cold brewed some green and white teas and had some bitterness in the end product. Is this just the tea?
I also haven’t had a ton of green/white tea so maybe I’m just not used to the taste.

14 Replies
JC said

Hey there. There’s no way you can ‘over steep’ your tea using cold brewing method; BUT, you are using a white AND green teas. The reason you might be getting bitterness is because it might be brewed past the point of you liking, you should be able to resolve it by adding water.

I do have a comment/note about what’s happening, I think the leaves might just be getting oxidized and gives you that metal/stale flavor. If you leave black/oolong/puerh tea in a container after steeping (cold or hot) you can come back anytime you want and it should be OK and the flavor should not be affected to the point you don’t enjoy it. However, white and green teas seem to have a fairly shorter ‘life’ after it gets wet. What I do is that I do back to back steeping with white and green tea to avoid this, all other types are a LOT more forgiving. Hope this helps. (I said oxidation because it sounds like the most probable thing, but does anyone have the actual answer to why this happens?)

Kiaharii said

Thanks for the help. I’ll try them for shorter periods. Do you do back to back with cold brewing too, or just hot?

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I cold brew white and green teas a lot and for my own personal tastes I find that the iced tea tastes not so great after leaving the tea leaves steep for over 48 hours. I usually steep green and white teas for 12-24 hours. If I don’t finish the tea before that time period I will just take all the leaves out and try to finish it before 48 hours. I also do not reuse the tea leaves. I hope this helps you.

Kiaharii said

They were in that time range, maybe it is just personal taste, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with green and white tea. Maybe they just aren’t my thing. I think I’ll try it for shorter time periods like some have suggested. Thanks for your help. :)

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Ditto above! I like to coldbrew my White/Green teas only for a few hours – otherwise they get too bitter for my tastes :)

(I’ll brew Black/Herbal teas overnight, but green for only a few hours)

Kiaharii said

I will definitely try this next time, thanks!

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Alphakitty said

I’ve cold brewed greens up to 16 hours with no issue, how long did you leave them in? And what kind of water are you using? I’ve found cold brews more sensitive to water quality (probably because it’s not heated), they can get a weird metallic/bitter taste if you use tap water that isn’t filtered—even though my tap water is actually quite nice usually.

Good point! Very good point – I’ve had the same experience with tap water and use filtered water to coldbrew as well.

One time I coldbrewed a jug of delicious oolong with tap water. Oh the humanity! Such a tradegy haha

Kiaharii said

I always use filtered water for any tea related stuff, and they were in from the afternoon to morning.

Alphakitty said

Hmm, if it’s not the water or the steep time it might be the ratio of leaves to water. Or maybe it’s just a tea that doesn’t cold brew well?

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tigress_al said

I don’t usually cold brew greens or white for more than 8 hours.

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ifjuly said

I’ve never managed to oversteep black teas using the cold brew method, and Upton even recommends steeping blacks a minimum of 4 days (!) that way. But lots of Steepsters have mentioned in various iced tea threads it’s easy to oversteep greens and whites, and maybe even oolongs. So it seems to depend on the type of tea you’re using.

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How long should you cold- brew a black/ green blend?

Lala said

Really it is to your preference. I find if I cold brew a green for longer than 12 hours, it gets bitter to me, I prefer greens at 8. Some black I like at 12 hours and some at 24. I find the taste does get stronger the longer you cold brew but not as bad as if you were hot brewing. If it is a blend i would sample it after a length times and see at which time it tastes good to you. I do not like cold brewing anything for longer than 24 hours, it’s just my preference.

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