Once in a summer blue moon, growing up, my mom would make sun tea. It’s been ages since I’ve had it, so I decided to set out on the journey of creating my own.

After some testing and research, I discovered that the CDC now recommends that you don’t brew tea in the sun at risk of it becoming a breeding ground for bacteria (because the water doesn’t get hot enough to kill off any bacteria, but does get warm enough to encourage bacteria growth).

There are ways to make brewing sun tea more safe, but I really didn’t feel like going down that rabbit hole.

I then discovered cold brew iced tea.

Cold brew iced tea follows a nearly identical process to making cold brew coffee. This way of brewing the tea results in the same smooth flavor you get from the sun tea method, without the risk of it developing bacteria since it is brewed in the fridge at a consistently cold temperature.

What You’ll Find in This Post

• What You’ll Need (Ingredients and Equipment)
• How to Make Cold Brew Iced Tea
• What Type of Tea to Use for Cold Brew Iced Tea

What You’ll Need to Make Sweet Mint Cold Brew Iced Tea

Necessary Tools and Equipment

To make this sweet mint cold brew iced tea recipe, you’ll need a pitcher that can hold at least 6 cups of water. If you don’t want to touch the wet tea bags with your hands, you’ll also need something like a slotted spoon to retrieve the bags from the pitcher after they’ve steeped.

It sounds silly, but you’ll also need some fridge space for the pitcher. So eat those leftovers, toss the produce that’s gone bad, and give yourself some grace if you need to throw away what’s no longer good or serving you in your fridge.

How to Make Cold Brew Iced Tea

If you’re familiar with making cold-brew coffee, this process is nearly identical.

1. Fill your pitcher with 6 cups of cold water. You can scale up the recipe card at the bottom of this page if you want more tea!
2. Add the bagged tea. There are recipes out there that call for loose-leaf tea, but I prefer using bagged because it’s more accessible for me and means an easier cleanup.
3. Allow the tea to steep in the fridge for 8-10 hours. I recommend using black tea in this recipe because I feel like it plays well with mint.
4. Add sugar to taste. This recipe calls for granulated sugar, but you can also sweeten it with honey if that’s what you prefer.
5. Enjoy! Even though it’s already cold from being in the fridge, there’s something about pouring it over ice that just feels right.

What Type of Tea to Use for Cold Brew Iced Tea

First, bagged or loose leaf.

I personally prefer bagged. I know loose-leaf tea is better for the environment and the taste is better at times, but the thing is…. loose-leaf tea does not currently fit my lifestyle and that’s okay. I haven’t worked out the measurements to be able to recommend how much tea to use if you’re using loose-leaf for this recipe, so do me a favor and stick to bagged tea for this one 🙂

Next, type of tea?

You can use black, green, or white teas when making cold brew tea. For this recipe, we’re using black tea simply because I find it to be pretty refreshing and smooth when it’s made via the cold brew method.

I also just like the way the flavors of mint and black tea mingle.

If you make this sweet mint cold brew iced tea, let me know what you think! Be sure to tag me @ficklebea on Instagram – I love seeing what you make.

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