Ice brewing different types of tea
You might be familiar with cold brewing tea but have you tried ice brewing it?
As the name suggests, ice is involved, as opposed to steeping tea in room temperature water and transferring it to the fridge for several hours or overnight. In Japan ice brewing is reserved for high quality green teas like gyokuro and it is known as koridashi or kouridashi. I have tried it before with Japanese shincha, the first crop of green tea. Here’s the link to that post, Ice brewing Japanese shincha.
I’ve only ever seen ice brewing applied to Japanese green teas and I was curious to experiment with it, which is why I decided to test this method for different tea types from different origins.
Here’s the lineup of teas I experimented with:
Taiping Houkui - green tea from China
Silver needles - white tea from Nepal
Meizhan yancha - oolong tea from Fujian Province, China
Four seasons red - black tea from Taiwan
I didn’t experiment with puerh but Nazanin of Tea Thoughts did, if you’re interested (link below)! I did not choose any ball-style rolled oolong because I assume those will need hot water to properly unfurl and/or longer time to brew and a different water-to-tea-leaves ratio to be fully submerged. Nonetheless, I encourage you to experiment with curiosity.
Ice brewing different types of tea. Taiping Houkui. The Tea Squirrel blog
Ice brewing parameters:
Tea: 5 grams (for each tea)
Brewing vessel: water/wine glasses except for Taiping Houkui for which I used a spouted bowl (katakuchi) because of the size of the leaves
Ice: one large cocktail-style ice cube (for each tea) made with 85 ml of filtered water
Ice brewing different types of tea. Meizhan yancha. The Tea Squirrel blog.
Ice brewing method:
Put an ice cube in the brewing vessel and the tea leaves on top. If you do the opposite, the weight of the ice cube might promote uneven extraction. Let the ice cube melt at room temperature, in my case it was 76F (24 C), keeping it out of direct sunlight and/ or direct heat. Given that the brewing vessel was different, my Taiping Houkui was ready before the other teas, after two and a half hours. If you use several smaller ice cubes instead of a large one, the process will be faster. At the two-and-a-half-hour mark, I took a teaspoon and nudged the leaves of the other teas (which were not ready yet) under the water that had already melted and gave them a gentle stir. Half an hour later the other teas were ready too. Strain and enjoy right away.
Ice brewing different types of tea. White tea from Nepal. The Tea Squirrel blog.
Taste test:
The resulting brew is concentrated and aromatic, regardless of the type of tea
Taiping Houkui - umami, with notes of celery and licorice, almost peppery/prickly sensation on the palate, I can see the trichomes (the fine hairs usually found on young tea leaf buds) floating in the brew
Silver needles - sweet, wildflower honey, floral, honeysuckle, ripe peach, smooth, I can see the trichomes floating in the brew
Meizhan yancha - tastes like booze! Like a high-quality barrel-aged spirit, smells like black licorice candy
Four seasons red - extremely complex, fruity, notes of ripe apricots and nectarines, smooth, sweet
Ice brewing different types of tea. The Tea Squirrel blog
Ice brewing different types of tea. The Tea Squirrel blog.
Ice brewing different types of tea. The Tea Squirrel blog.
What is your experience with ice brewing tea?
