Comments on: Cold Brewing Tea

By: veritas

veritas — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:02:40 +0000

Cindy – Depending on the type of tea (green, white, oolong, or herbal) you’re going to steep at the recommended temperature with the loose leaves directly in the Amandine pitcher (using more tea, usually double, since it’s an iced tea) then add ice when the recommended brewing time is complete. The addition of ice slows/stops the brewing that the hot water was doing. I recommend adding sugar to the hot steep, then adding ice when the sugar is dissolved/recommended brewing time is completed, or make a simple syrup to add to the brewed tea (found here http://www.heavenoftea.com/tea-recipes/sweeter-side-how-to-sweeten-iced-tea/). I find this brewing method works well for all teas.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:28:38 +0000

I’m new to iced teas made with loose tea. I ordered the Amandine Decanter and made my first pitcher of Raspberry Iced tea using Hot Water and then adding ice. It worked very well. I actually used a large tea bag for steeping and the removed it after the 3 min. steeping time was reached. I would love to leave the loose tea leaves in the pitcher but won’t this make the iced tea bitter? Can I just leave the loose tea leaves in the pitcher until I am finished drinking the tea? Thanks. I am a little confused.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:34:14 +0000

In how to brew tea it appears that timing is everything in order to avoid bitterness so how to these pitchers work if the leaves sit in the water for perhaps hours?

By: veritas

veritas — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:52:30 +0000

Debra – if you use warm water (175 degrees) you’ll get it to brew, and it will be a much longer time until it becomes bitter.

By: Debra

Debra — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:50:48 +0000

leaving the leaves in won’t make it oversteep?

By: loose leaf tea lover

loose leaf tea lover — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:09:15 +0000

I never thought of cold brewing tea. Sun brewing was an interesting new concept too. But I have to agree with Teavana in that killing germs with hot water is the safest way for plain loose leaf tea.

By: veritas

veritas — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:55:47 +0000

Sandy – Since this idea is fairly new to the U.S. our store staff is being educated with this recommended method, but may not be completely familiar with the proper guidelines. I advocate using the method recommended above.

By: veritas

veritas — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:52:16 +0000

Melissa – Rest assured adding near boiling water (175-208 degrees)and then directly adding ice to the pitcher will not crack or break the Amandine Decanter. Teavana’s Verre Illumine glass collection is made from borosilicate glass which is much more resistant to heat/cold than normal glass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:32:53 +0000

I bought the Amandine Decanter at the store in Woodfield Mall, IL because I saw how pretty it looked in the store. I asked the staff how to brew cold and they say they use cold water and brew it for the whole day. After 6-8hrs, then they throw out the leaves. I asked if they used hot water, they said no. So I’m confused with the cold brew technique. I also have a phobia that the Amandine Decanter will crack if I use 175f degrees water in it and add ice. Will it crack? But it looks beautiful and it does a great job straining the tea!

By: Sandy

Sandy — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:04:39 +0000

I’m confused. The last time I was at Teavana, the sales person recommended I try cold brewing tea exactly the way this article says not to do it. What’s the deal?