I recently went to Red Blossom Tea Company in San Francisco to get some good teas, and they told me a really cool method of brewing green tea. Going with the rule of the hotter the water, the shorter the brewing time; she said you can brew tea at room temperature for 6-8 hours without it getting bitter. Green tea shouldn’t be bitter at all if brewed correctly. Most of us us have been served brutally bitter green tea from unnamed establishments (Starbucks) that has been boiled for 5 minutes, and then you can’t drink it for another 10 minutes because its still boiling hot, which causes it to get even more bitter! I digress. Most green teas should be brewed at 160-175 degrees for at most 1-2 minutes. This way you don’t burn the tea, and it’s drinkable in its prime brew period.
This brings me to cold brewing. Since cold water doesn’t burn the tea, you can cold brew green teas for 6-8 hours and it will be very smooth and retain the unique qualities of the tea. I’m playing around with the idea of using a mason jar with a pea sprout lid (Here is the Amazon Link). This way I can brew, pour it in my glass, and refill all day until the tea is used up. Its a great drink for the entire day. Very mild and can be sweet if you use a tea like jasmine. Just don’t let it sit for longer than 8 hours at a time, or it could get bitter.
Please try some really nice organic teas from a place like Red Blossom Tea Company, redblossomtea.com. They might seem expensive, but let me explain. Loose leaf teas can be more expensive than tea bags BUT you get 4-5 infusions out of a single serving. Since tea bags are lower quality blends of tea, they can only be infused ONCE. So you can basically quadruple the price of tea bags, and now compare it to loose leaf teas. They are also sold by the once, but one ounce goes a very long way if brewed properly.
Fun Fact: The first infusion from a loose leaf green tea is caffeinated. All other brews after that are decaff. If you see decaf green tea, its because they just brewed it once and sold it to you. If you are sensitive to caffeine, you could hot brew a cup in the morning for a mild caffeine boost. Then coldbrew the same tea after that for flavor without the caffeine.
Thats like sun tea, let the sun cook it for you.
I have some loose tea from teavana, if I use 1-2 tbs of the loose tea how many times can I re use it and how soon does it need to be used (or where to store it) to keep it fresh? Thanks!
Depending on the quality of the tea, you can reuse it up to 4 times that same day.