Green Tea can be brewed both cold and hot. Cold brewing is more suitable for hot weather, offering a refreshing taste that cools and quenches thirst. Hot brewing is part of many people's daily routine. Whether to choose hot or cold brewing ultimately depends on personal preference.
Cold brew or Hot Brew for Green Tea?
While boiling water can quickly extract many nutrients from the tea leaves, the temperature of the hot water and the duration of boiling can affect the taste and color of the tea, which is why some people find their tea bitter. Cold brewing solves this issue by not only preserving the vitamins in the tea but also ensuring that other nutrients such as polyphenols and catechins maintain their antioxidant activity, similar to that achieved through boiling water. Overall, in certain aspects, cold-brewed tea is more convenient, releases less caffeine, and can help lower blood sugar levels.
Convenient and Quick: You can use purified water, Mineral water, or cold boiled water. The brewing time can range from half an hour to six hours.
Reduce “Tea Drunkenness”: Tea contains caffeine, which has stimulating effects. Some people may experience Insomnia after drinking tea. Cold brewing reduces the release of caffeine, alleviating insomnia caused by boiling water brewing.
Lower Blood Sugar: Cold brewing can reduce the release of substances like theobromine and caffeine, thereby playing a role in lowering blood sugar levels to a certain extent.
Nutrient-Rich: Boiling water can destroy many nutrients in the tea, such as free catechins' antioxidant activity and polysaccharides. Cold brewing avoids the damage caused by boiling water to the cellular structure of the tea leaves, effectively retaining beneficial substances while ensuring rich flavor, color, vitamins, trace elements, and sufficient antioxidant activity.
How to Choose Tea for Cold Brewing
Generally, for cold brewing, it is recommended to choose unfermented or lightly fermented teas to ensure a sweet and fresh taste. Therefore, most people prefer green teas, especially new teas, for their more fragrant flavor. Lightly fermented oolong teas and white teas are also good choices, such as Dahongpao from Mount Wuyi in Fujian and Phoenix Dancong from Chaozhou in Guangdong. Some black teas can also make excellent cold brews, like large-leaf Yunnan teas and Jin Junmei, whose color and taste are no less impressive than those of green teas.
Teas unsuitable for cold brewing include fully fermented teas, such as Pu'er, dark brick teas, Tieguanyin, and some black teas, which can result in a bitter, bland taste with little aroma when cold-brewed.
Water Temperature for Brewing Tea:
1. The water temperature for brewing tea varies depending on the type of tea. For high-quality green teas, especially those made from fine buds and leaves, a water temperature around 80–85 degrees Celsius is recommended. Higher temperatures can destroy vitamin C in the tea and cause too much caffeine to be extracted, resulting in a yellowish tea with a bitter taste.
2. If you're selling tea and want to showcase its aroma, taste, and appearance to customers, you should use boiling water at 100 degrees Celsius.
3. When enjoying tea with friends, a water temperature of 80–85 degrees Celsius is ideal for highlighting the tea's strong aroma, fresh and smooth taste, and light green color, allowing you to savor the true essence of the tea in a calm state of mind.
4. When brewing tea for personal consumption in the office, a water temperature around 90 degrees Celsius is suitable. This allows you to observe the beauty of the tea leaves unfolding and dancing in the cup, enjoy the fragrance released upon adding water, and savor the fresh, sweet taste and the clear, bright green color of the delicate young leaves.
While boiling water (100°C) is also acceptable, under normal circumstances, a water temperature of 80–85°C is generally preferred for brewing tea.