How to Cold Brew Green Tea, Easy Recipe and Guide

Can you cold brew green tea? Yes, you can! Cold-brewing green tea is the perfect way to make this delicious and healthful tea. Cold brewing this tea, removes any bitterness and allows the natural flavors to shine! It couldn’t be more simple to make and is the perfect refreshing cold green tea drink any time of the year! 

In my opinion, cold brewing tea is the most uncomplicated way to make tea. If you’re a fan of iced tea and green tea you must try cold brew green tea! It’s packed with health benefits, tastes wonderful, and is super refreshing! Made with only 2 ingredients (water and green tea!) it just can’t get any easier. Of course, you can always make it your own by adding some mint or lemon to the mix! Either way, you’re sure to love it! 

Green Tea is a bright clean tea that tastes so fresh and earthy. It has an herbaceous feel to it that is soft and crisp. Green tea comes in many ways including completely ground tea leaves into a fine powder called matcha. Green tea is a true tea coming from the plant Camellia sinensis and contains caffeine.

What is Cold Brew Green Tea?

Cold brewing tea is the process of extracting flavor from tea leaves by allowing the tea to steep in cold water over a period of time. Typically this is done in the refrigerator, but can also be done at room temperature. (Like this sun tea recipe) In contrast, steeping tea in hot water may only take minutes to extract the full flavor of the tea. Cold brewing is not only for green tea, but black tea and almost all other teas can be cold brewed including herbal tea and matcha. (try this cold brew matcha recipe!) It’s perfect for a hot summer day when you don’t want to use the stovetop.

How Long To Cold Brew Tea?

The best part of cold brewing green tea is that the preparation time only takes minutes. After combining tea and water, allow the infusion to happen in the refrigerator. This can take a couple of hours (4 hours minimum) or you can leave it overnight!

Benefits of Iced Green Tea

One of the many benefits of cold-brewing tea is that it is extremely easy to make at home! It can be done the day before ready to pull out and serve.  It also extracts less caffeine into the tea and reduces the amount of tannins which is a bitter compound found in tea. Tannins are especially high in green tea, and cold brewing will help reduce the amount drawn out into your tea resulting in less bitter flavors in your delicious tea.

Benefits of Iced Green Tea

Green tea cold brew contains a host of health benefits making this a tasty and healthful drink. (Source)

Some benefits may include:

• Improved brain function
• Boosted metabolism and weight loss
• Improve bad breath 
• Help prevent type 2 diabetes

Why You Will Love This Iced Green Tea

• Refreshing – Cold tea is so refreshing, especially in the summertime. It also has a lovely green color and can be steeped with herbs and citrus to add more flavor.
• Healthy – Green tea is a great source of antioxidants which may boost your health. It is also a source of natural caffeine.
• Beautiful Color – After steeping, green tea is a lovely light green color. It can be served with lime or lemon slices for more color and garnish!

What is in Cold Brew Green Tea?

• Green Tea – For this recipe, you can use either green tea bags or loose-leaf green tea. 
• Filtered Water – It only makes sense that using the best water makes the best-tasting tea! Be sure to use freshly drawn water. (water poured fresh) Fresh water has higher oxygen levels making for better tasting tea.
• Garnishes (optional) – Consider finishing off your cold brew green tea with sprigs of mint or slices of citrus such as lemon or lime.

How to Make Cold Brew Green Tea

What you will need:

• I use a French press to cold brew my green tea. It works perfectly for straining out tea leaves if you are using loose-leaf tea. It also works well for tea bags. A large pitcher or jar with a lid work also works well. 

Ingredients

• 4 Green Tea bags
• 4 Cups of Water
• Mint (optional)
• Lemon (optional)
• Sweetener (optional)

Cold Brew Green Tea Recipe

1. Fill your French press (or jar with a lid such as a mason jar) with water.
2. Add tea.
3. Add mint or lemon slices if desired).
4. Refrigerate for 4 hours with the lid on. You can adjust the steeping times to your personal preference.)
5. Remove tea bags. (or strain out tea leaves if using loose-leaf tea)
6. Pour into glass and garnish with mint or lemon slices.
7. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

• Garnish with lemon or lime
• Add mint
• Sweetness to try include: sugar, maple syrup, and honey (although this is not an exhaustive list)
• Add ice
• Be sure to refrigerate leftover tea in a covered pitcher or jar. Uncovered tea can possibly absorb other scents in the fridge altering the taste of the tea.

Serving Iced Green Tea

• Serve your cold-method green tea over ice. (Pro Tip: Use tea iced cubes to keep your tea from becoming watered down!) 
• Sweeten with simple syrup, liquid stevia, or a bit of honey.

Types of Green Tea for Cold Brewing

• Japanese Sencha Green Tea – the most popular green tea.
• Jasmine Green Tea –  A green tea infused with the scent of jasmine. 
• Genmaicha Green Tea
• Gunpowder Green Tea
• Dragon Well Green Tea
• Gyokuro Green Tea
• Mint Green Tea – this tea includes mint to flavor the tea. 

Questions:

What Does Green Tea Taste Like?

Green tea has an earthy flavor to it with slightly sweet and nutty undertones. If brewed with extremely hot water or steeped too long, it can become rather bitter.

Does Green Tea have caffeine?

Yes, green tea does have caffeine although some teas have higher caffeine levels than others. Cold brewing may lower the caffeine amount in green tea. 

How Long to Cold Brew Green Tea? 

I brew mine for about 4 hours. Everyone has their own preferences so feel free to keep it longer or shorter! 

How to Make Green Tea Taste Good?

If you’re not a huge fan of green tea but want to enjoy the health benefits, here are a few ways to make green tea taste good.

• Add a sweetener such as honey, or maple syrup.
• Add lemon or lime slices.
• Drink with ice.
• Use a straw. Straws make everything more fun!

More Tea Recipes You Are Sure to Love!

• English Breakfast Tea
• Rose Hip Tea
• Ginger Chai
• Matcha Latte
• Peach Iced Tea
• Cold Brew Matcha

I hope you enjoy this cold-brew tea recipe. Leave a comment below and let’s connect! If you try this recipe, please come back and leave a review!