Over the summer, tea time often looked like this:

I discovered cold brewed tea and had a fun time experimenting with different types of tea and infusions. The benefit of cold brewing is that, rather than quickly forcing the flavor out of the tea leaves like hot brewing does, the cool water slowly pulls the flavor out. This brings out different aspects of the tea and can change the flavor.

I tried cold brewing a few different types of tea, some with added ingredients, some by themselves. The first combination I tried was black tea infused with peaches. After mixing them together, I left the mixture to brew for about eight hours. Any longer than that and it began to get a bitter tinge to it. I was a little disappointed with this one because the peach taste was barely discernible at all. Overall, though, I really liked the different taste that cold brewing brought out in the black tea. It's much softer and sweeter than when hot brewed.

Next i tried an oolong tea. Didn't end up drinking this one...the dried fruit in the tea made it look murky and unappetizing. I'll have to try again with a plain oolong sometime!

My favorite of all of the infusions was definitely the rooibos with mint. Because the rooibos doesn’t get bitter if left too long, I left it for a day which allowed the mint to come out alot stronger. Plus, the color of the tea is an awesome deep red which I always love. Interesting fact: A huge amount of rooibos tea is grown in South Africa and 'rooi bos' means 'red bush' in Afrikaans.

Have you ever tried cold brewing tea? What was your favorite?

Thanks for reading!

- Steph