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Cold brewing is one of the most amazing things that’s happened to me this summer.

So, I made 3 cups of this a few days ago and drank half of it. I left the rest in my container in the fridge WITH THE LEAVES until, oh, say…1 hour ago? And it was still really freaking good. Even better, really, than the first time – it is stronger but not bitter, and even seems a little sweet – enough so that I can drink this with no added sweetener, anyway. Quite yummy, both hot and cold. Woohoo!

Now, I wonder which tea I should try cold brewed next….

Tried this cold brewed – 18 hours steep time with 3 tsp. of leaf for 3 cups of water. Sweetened with less than a tsp. of simple syrup.
This makes an absolutely beautiful cold brew. The smell is just absolutely intoxicating, and the taste is spicy, but gently so. It still is cooling, despite some underlying pepper taste. I am going to resteep these leaves and see how it turns out – but so far this is one of my favorite cold brews!

Tried this cold brewed using 5 tsp. of leaf to 750 ml. water. Steeped in the fridge for around 18 hours, and sweetened with a tad of simple syrup.
I definitely taste some strawberry pie right here and oh my gosh I am loving it! The cold brew seems to make the pie flavor pop out moreso than the strawberry but it is a good balance. I think I’ll try these leaves in a resteep and see how they fare.
Yum!

YOU GUYS. So, I’ve liked the idea of cold brewing forever with the problem that I sweeten my tea. Not with a lot of sweetener, mind you, but enough that drinking cold brewed black tea with nothing else didn’t quite cut it for me. And add in the fact that I know sugar won’t dissolve in cold tea, and cold brewing just seemed like it wouldn’t be an option for my palette.

Enter in lightning moment that just randomly hit me: SIMPLE SYRUP! So I made a batch, let it cool over night, and cold brewed some of this earl grey (4 tsp. for 3 cups water) for around 10 hours to try it out this morning.

I probably can lighten up on the amount of leaves for next time because the vanilla is STRONG, both in smell and in taste. And, why hello there bergamot! These two flavors are quite bold together – the tea base only manages to make itself known over the back of the sip. A wake up tea this morning, for sure.

In conclusion: cold brewing is awesome. Seeing as I have months and months before I can stomach hot tea again (even in the morning) this will serve quite nicely in keeping the tea brewing alive around here.

Made 1/2 gallon iced using 16 g. leaf at parameters stated below.
I think a shorter steeping time might actually have been a little better – it seemed to get a little astringent towards the end of the sip. I left it unsweetened and added it into a fabulous smoothie after my run, though, and the astringency was lost, thank goodness.

I do so love this tea cold!

Prepared 1/2 gallon according to package directions and then iced.

So there is a nice sencha background to this tea. But I’m not getting the pear. It’s going to sound really weird but when I opened the bag all I could smell were those circus peanuts – you know, the orange marshmallowy candy shaped like peanuts? It was strange. And it also, unfortunately, didn’t go away – I feel like I’m drinking circus peanut flavored sencha. Not quite what I wanted.

I’m glad I only got a sample size of this – I’ll stick with the peach black or strawberry sencha instead. Now to talk myself into finishing that half gallon…

Oh, steepster! I’ve missed you!

I went on a last minute cruise with my family to the bahamas and sadly, cruises have terrible drinking water that is not fit to waste tea leaves on. While the beaches were great I will definitely travel there by some route other than boat next time – it was hard being tea less for a week!

Anyway, just before I left I cold brewed this (3 tsp. to 27 oz. water) to drink on the car ride to the boat. It was SO GOOD, even unsweetened. The tea smelled wonderfully strawberry and yet still had a strong green background and I have a feeling that adding sweetener in my traditional amounts for an iced tea will be amazing!

I have a bunch of this to use up and I am SO, SO GLAD!

I only got an ounce of this to try iced – I have been wanting some fruity iced teas lately and ordered this with the long island strawberry sencha and pear sencha to hopefully enjoy over the summer.

I made half a gallon of this (using 8 level tsp. of the tea) and added about 8-9 tsp. of sugar to the 8 cups of tea once steeped, which is how I traditionally drink my iced teas. Before steeping the leaves smelled peachy – very naturally and pleasantly so. My boyfriend smelled the leaves when dry and remarked that he wanted to eat them because it reminded him so strongly of a peach.

It was SOOOO good! I used enough sweetener that it really just managed to bring out the peach to the foreground. I may have overbrewed just a tad as there is some slight astringency on the tongue, but overall the taste is a combination of peach juice and black tea. A definite winner, and a definite re-buy during the remainder of iced tea season!

Made up a half gallon of this iced – steeped 4 tsp. in 4 cups of leaves, then resteeped in another 4 cups to get that half gallon. Added some honey to sweeten.

This is not bad iced – it certainly tastes very much like the pineapple and coconut shavings that were in it. The honey nicely sweetens and compliments the tea (I cannot put granulated sugar in a green tea – it just…seems wrong) and it is very refreshing.

I’m not sure I can drink this with meals, though – it seems more of a stand alone beverage. Luckily it’s getting hot enough that I’ll be needing something to keep cool in the afternoons…

The last of the samples I ordered from Rachel!

This one sounded good in theory – I like honeybush, I like spearmint, and I like white chocolate. And it is both tasty and accurate to each of these flavors – however there’s something about the aroma that is really off putting. I don’t know what it is specifically, and why I only get it in the smell and not the taste – but it’s really taking away from what would be a pleasing late afternoon drink.