Until recently, iced tea was synonymous with a drink with a lot of sugar and some tea (extract). But there is another way. Make your own cold brew iced tea with your favorite tea.

What is cold brew tea?  

Cold brew literally means cold brew. Instead of hot water, you use cold water to brew the tea. This requires some planning as the tea needs to infuse for at least 6 hours. Cold brew tea has a number of advantages over traditionally brewed tea.  

• It extracts less bitter substances from the tea leaves than tea made with hot water. This results in an infusion with a mild taste.  
• Less bitter means that less or no sweetener needs to be used. Cold brew tea therefore contains far fewer calories than iced tea as you buy it in the shops.  
• When made with cold water, white tea contains more antioxidants than when made with hot water.  

How to make cold brew tea?  

Making cold brew tea is so simple that it hardly needs to be called a recipe. We will share with you two ways to make cold brew tea.  

Recipe cold brew tea:  

• Put 1 litre of filtered water in a large sterilized pot or glass bottle.  
• Add 10 to 13 grams of loose tea  
• Flavor the tea with fresh ginger, mint, lemon or other fruits and herbs if desired  
• Optional: add sweetener as you like. This is not necessary.  
• Stir all ingredients well  
• Put the cap on the pot or bottle  
• Place the tea in the fridge for at least 6 hours  
• Strain the tea leaves from the tea  
• Enjoy your homemade cold brew tea!  

 Method 2, cold brew tea according to the 'Erkens method  

Our colleague Gabriëlla took a tea course with Dutch tea sommelier Mariëlla Erkens. During this course she learned how to make tea according to the 'Erkens method'. With this method you make a tea concentrate that you can dilute with hot or cold water.  

Step-by-step plan for making tea concentrate:  

• 20 grams of tea (or 4 grams per 100 ml of water)  
• 500 ml cold filtered water  
• Put the tea and water in a sterilized pot  
• Important: do not stir. If some leaves are still floating on the water, carefully turn the closed pot over so that the last tea leaves also become wet  
• Allow to infuse for at least 6 hours in the fridge  
• Strain the tea  
• Keep the concentrate in the fridge for a maximum of 3 days  
• Making tea with tea concentrate:  
• Pour 40 ml of tea into a glass  
• Pour 120 ml cold flat or sparkling water  
• Garnish with some fruit or fresh herbs  
• Enjoy!  

Which tea to use for cold brew tea?  

For Cold Brew tea, we recommend tea which grows in our higher plantations. The grade of this tea is: Broken Orange Pekoe. This tea has a refined taste which results in a delicious iced tea. Herbal infusions such as Rosehip & Hibiscus or Elderflower tea are also very suitable. To make it easy for you, we have collected all these teas on a Cold Brew iced tea page. All the teas on this page are suitable for making iced tea.  

Cold brew tea on the go  

Are you often on the move? Then make your cold brew tea in our double-walled tea bottle to go. This bottle contains a filter, so no loose tea gets in your mouth while drinking. The double wall of this bottle makes sure your tea stays cool longer.  

Cold brew dilution  

We have a very lazy colleague who always comes up with hacks to get through life effortlessly. She makes a strong cold brew that she lets steep for a little less time, drinks three quarters of it and refills the bottle with cold water. The second brew needs less time to infuse because the tea leaves have already unfolded and developed.