If you're looking for a refreshing drink to help you cool down on a hot day, look no further than cold brew hibiscus tea! This delicious tea is perfect for summertime sipping. In this blog post, we'll explore hibiscus tea; why it's so great and how to cold-brew it perfectly for any hot days that pop up over the rest of the year. 

What is hibiscus tea?

Hibiscus tea is a type of herbal tea that is made from the hibiscus flower. Not only does it have the beautiful colour of the flower, but Hibiscus tea is naturally sweet and tart, which has made it a popular choice for those looking for a refreshing drink. Originally from North Africa, hibiscus tea is now enjoyed all over the world.

The health benefits of hibiscus tea

Hibiscus tea is a great choice for those looking for a healthy drink, as it is packed with antioxidants. These antioxidants help to scavenge harmful toxins and free radicals from the body, which can cause damage. By drinking hibiscus tea, you can help to protect your body against the damage that these harmful molecules can cause.

This tea doesn't just taste great but also has a great number of health benefits it can help you with! We did a full blog post on this one to discuss how hibiscus tea can improve your quality of life with lower blood pressure, better skin and more here. 

We highly recommend it for any time of the year, whether you have it hot or cold in a cold brew tea or iced tea, as we believe it's great for general health and one of those teas we know can make that little bit of a difference to your day!

Is cold brew tea just an iced tea?

Although most people might mistake iced tea and cold brew tea as being the same, they're actually quite different. Cold brew tea is not an iced tea - even though both types of tea are made to be served and enjoyed at a cool temperature, they follow a different process. 

Iced tea is typically made by steeping your tea in hot water, as you usually would for a hot tea, then cooling it down with ice or left to chill in your fridge for later consumption. It's a simple process many love in the summer months for a quick tea refreshment without having to break a sweat in the hot weather. 

Cold brew is done differently and is almost simpler than iced tea as it completely removes the need to steep your tea in hot water altogether! You can cold brew any tea by simply adding it to room temperature or colder water and leaving it to steep slower over time. Obviously, that means that it takes a bit longer for your tea to really get that beautiful flavour that you might find is immediately released in the hot water steeping step of iced tea, but cold brew, in our opinion, just tastes better!

When you steep tea in hot water, although it releases the flavours of the tea much faster and easier, it also releases tannins in the tea - which is what can cause that slight bitterness in many hot teas. Using the cold brew process, you can avoid the tannins and simply enjoy the tea's many flavours with a smoother and more delicate taste. Not only do they taste better but cold brew teas are more likely to have more antioxidants than hot teas which is great for your health!

How to make cold brew hibiscus tea

When it comes to making a cold brew hibiscus tea, we recommend making a big batch and letting it steep for a long time to really bring out that sweet and tart flavour. 

When using hibiscus tea from Tea Life, we recommend that you use 6 tablespoons of hibiscus tea for a batch of 2-3 litres of tea. You can either pop the tea leaves in a jug of room temperature to cold water OR you can try the Japanese cold brew method of throwing the tea leaves in a jug full of ice or ice chunks. The tea flavours are infused into the water as the ice melts and after 30 to 60 minutes, you can add more water depending on how strong you'd like the cold brew tea to be. 

Buy yourself some hibiscus tea from Tea Life today to try this method out for yourself!