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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on September 14, 2009 at 9:39pm

the best tip i can give you is to put in a pinch of baking soda (you guys call it bi-carb i think) when you're brewing it. i like straight black sweet tea with a bit of lemon, but a bit of bi-carb removes a ton of bitterness from all teas

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Permalink Reply by Noah Hekhuis on June 30, 2011 at 9:25am

Im still working out ied ta process for my coffee shop as well but one tip that I was given was to brew the tea into a pitcher of ice then put the tea packet into the pitcher with the tea and put it in the fridge. I tried it that way using my Bunn coffee brewer to brew the tea and then serve the tea over ice and it actually came out pretty good. I also found that agave nector as a sweetner works quite well in iced tea.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on June 30, 2011 at 3:08pm

I'll give a +1 on the brew hot and chill. For a 1 gallon batch, do half a gallon of hot water with the correct portion of tea for a gallon (temp varies by tea, just follow recommendation for your tea), infuse for 3 minutes, remove the tea leaves, then add ice to yield a gallon. Stash it in the fridge. Any sweetening should be done while still hot. You could do the same thing with your 2-person jar concept, just use the appropriate amount of tea and the same hot water/ice ratio.

 

You can make some interesting combinations by starting with a decent base tea and adding a little complimentary herbal tea prior to infusion. That said, one of our best-sellers is a straight-ahead silk-sachet Japanese green blend.

 

Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Casey Loseth on June 30, 2011 at 3:39pm

We brew ours hot in a Brewt a little strong and a little short for a cup, and then chill it in the Brewt with ice before pouring it over ice in the cup. Seems to work alright, It's a quick single cup method, only problem is we have more waste with them using more tea per cup.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on June 30, 2011 at 6:03pm

BTW, we brew said green tea in quart Mason (canning) jars. 4 bags of tea, a heavy pint of water, steep for 3, pull the bags, fill with ice. A pint jar with 2 bags would work well for your concept.

Brady said:

I'll give a +1 on the brew hot and chill. For a 1 gallon batch, do half a gallon of hot water with the correct portion of tea for a gallon (temp varies by tea, just follow recommendation for your tea), infuse for 3 minutes, remove the tea leaves, then add ice to yield a gallon. Stash it in the fridge. Any sweetening should be done while still hot. You could do the same thing with your 2-person jar concept, just use the appropriate amount of tea and the same hot water/ice ratio.

 

You can make some interesting combinations by starting with a decent base tea and adding a little complimentary herbal tea prior to infusion. That said, one of our best-sellers is a straight-ahead silk-sachet Japanese green blend.

 

Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on June 30, 2011 at 6:05pm

I'll try that. Any advice given by a southerner on properly brewing iced tea should be taken very seriously!

Jared Rutledge said:

the best tip i can give you is to put in a pinch of baking soda (you guys call it bi-carb i think) when you're brewing it. i like straight black sweet tea with a bit of lemon, but a bit of bi-carb removes a ton of bitterness from all teas

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