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Saviolo

(3,270 posts)
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 10:54 AM Jul 2020

Cold Brew Coffee and Sun Tea Iced Tea Recipe

Bit of a basic one this week. We made cold brew coffee and sun tea to make iced tea with! It's been deliriously hot here, so we wanted some nice cool drinks. Also, we've got a video on tiramisu coming up, and we used the cold brew instead of espresso to flavour the ladyfingers.

The nice thing about both of these methods is that the slower extraction with the lower temperatures means your end result will be smoother and you will avoid any of the strong bitter and acidic off flavours from oversteeping. We tend to make both of these pretty strong, because we like to pour them over a bunch of ice, and as the ice melts, it will dilute your drink a bit. You can also make coffee or iced tea tea bags.

You can sweeten these with a little bit of simple syrup or maple syrup if you like. The cold brew coffee can also take a bit of milk of cream if that's how you prefer it. You can also add some fancier teas to the sun tea, and you can buy those do-it-yourself teabags and loose tea.

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Cold Brew Coffee and Sun Tea Iced Tea Recipe (Original Post) Saviolo Jul 2020 OP
big glass jar on window ledge with water , several bags of your fav tea AllaN01Bear Jul 2020 #1
Great party drink, too. Saviolo Jul 2020 #3
partly southern here so I live on "sweet" sun tea all year Kali Jul 2020 #2
We prefer the tea unsweetened, Saviolo Jul 2020 #4
I would strongly suggest not using a container with a tap at the bottom Warpy Jul 2020 #5
We don't make it in the tap container Saviolo Jul 2020 #6
I have gone back to making sun tea. I like it much better yellowdogintexas Jul 2020 #7
Yeah, we love it. Saviolo Jul 2020 #8
use plastic-free tea bags NJCher Jul 2020 #9
Good info, thanks! Saviolo Jul 2020 #10

AllaN01Bear

(17,383 posts)
1. big glass jar on window ledge with water , several bags of your fav tea
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 10:59 AM
Jul 2020

, let steep for several hours and presto. sun tea. havnt done that in years .

Saviolo

(3,270 posts)
3. Great party drink, too.
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 11:16 AM
Jul 2020

We usually make a huge batch of it if we're having people over for a summer party, and put it on one of those big Brita water filter tanks (without the filter of course) with a spigot, so people can just serve themselves.

Kali

(54,990 posts)
2. partly southern here so I live on "sweet" sun tea all year
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 11:10 AM
Jul 2020

3 family size bags in summer for a couple hours, 4 in winter most of the day, between a 1/2 and 3/4 cup of sugar before refrigerating.we can go through 2 gallons per day if there are no sodas in the house. I try to avoid those (though I love them) but since the others quit drinking I do buy for them.

Saviolo

(3,270 posts)
4. We prefer the tea unsweetened,
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 11:21 AM
Jul 2020

but it's totally a personal taste sort of thing. I'm not a coffee drinker, but hubby drinks the cold brew with some cream in it. Otherwise we prefer them plain!

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
5. I would strongly suggest not using a container with a tap at the bottom
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 12:40 PM
Jul 2020

I do suggest using a glass jar for sun tea and cleaning it with bleach every few batches. Apparently some rather nasty intestinal bugs have been traced to the hard to clean taps in official sun tea brewers and jars in constant use.

Sun tea, however, is wonderful stuff.

(Can't speak for the coffee, it all tastes like battery acid to me)

Saviolo

(3,270 posts)
6. We don't make it in the tap container
Thu Jul 23, 2020, 01:04 PM
Jul 2020

We just pour it in there to serve it if we're having a get together. Fill it with ice and sun tea and let people serve themselves, and it gets a serious cleaning after use. This is a once in a while sort of thing. If we're just making it for ourselves, it is just a glass jar with a good seal.

yellowdogintexas

(22,119 posts)
7. I have gone back to making sun tea. I like it much better
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:15 AM
Jul 2020

My husband is a Diet Dr addict but he will drink my tea at least part of the time

NJCher

(35,434 posts)
9. use plastic-free tea bags
Thu Jul 30, 2020, 01:56 AM
Jul 2020

snip
The researchers found that one plastic tea bag released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into brewing-temperature water.

"These levels were thousands of times higher than those reported previously in other foods," according to a statement from the American Chemical Society.
snip

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tea-bags-may-release-microplastics-into-your-cup-of-tea-scientists-say/

Here's a list of plastic free teabags, but since this report, some mfrs have lowered or gotten rid of the microplastics in their teabags, so Google yours to find out. Also, another thing you can do is simply take the tea out of the bag and brew it without the bag. Use a strainer to remove the tea grounds.

15 plastic-free teabags

Saviolo

(3,270 posts)
10. Good info, thanks!
Thu Jul 30, 2020, 09:23 AM
Jul 2020

When I make tea, it's typically loose leaf. I've got a tea pot with an integrated metal strainer, and I just put the loose tea in there to steep, works like a dream. For the sun tea, we sometimes even get those fill-your-own tea bags, and use some nice tea in them instead of the sweepings you usually find in tea bags. I'll have to keep an eye out for some plastics-free tea bags for future brewings.

Though sun tea does not use brewing-temperature water, so hopefully that has reduced my potential exposure over time.

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