How much loose tea for iced per qt.?

[omegapd]

Hey All,

For the majority of my tea drinking career, I've used bagged teas for iced, but since I have a ton of good black loose leaf, I've been trying to use up some of that.

I use a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea maker and normally used 2 of those big bags per 2 qts of water. I've been experimenting with loose tea and have come up with about 8 tsp for the same 2 qts. I don't have a scale and don't want to go buy another box of big bags to cut one open and see how much tea is in there, so can anyone give me any ideas?

With some tea it's just too weak and others too bitter. I guess I'll have to start making notes on what is just right but thought I could get a starting point from the experts here before I waste a bunch of tea and sugar.

Thanks!

EW

[Cinnamon Kitty]

We have one of those machines at home that my parents love for iced tea. Generally when we make iced tea, we use 4-5 normal sized tea bags for the machine. I was going to try it will roughly that amount of loose leaf tea using the fillable filter bags.

From just making iced tea in 16oz servings, I use 1.5 to 2 times the normal amount of leaf with the same steeping time as the tea when it is prepared hot. That way it is not over steeped too much, but there is more flavor and it is not as weak if it is put over ice. For the black teas that I have tried that way, I generally use a heaping teaspoon for hot tea and then 2 heaping teaspoons for iced tea, both for 16oz of water with 4 to 5 minute steep times.

[Pentox]

One thing to think about when you're comparing the two is that the leaf you get in a teabag has different brewing characteristics than higher grade loose leaf tea. Primarily it's the difference in surface area/exposure. A teabag normally contains smaller particles, dust, fannings, etc. These are exposed to the water more than a full leaf is on a surface area / mass basis. Because of this teabags steep faster although a different flavor. So even if you had your mass 1:1 from loose leaf to teabag you should still play around with it more. The loose leaf should probably get a bit more infusion time for a better flavor.

[go green]

I've been experimenting with loose iced as well and here is what I've been doing with good results:

I have a 17 oz (or so) glass jar. I have been using 6 tsp of loose with 17 oz cold water and putting it in the fridge over night. The tea is ready for me in the morning. The only bad thing is I can't make it at the spur of the moment. I am going to try the same method with loose sun tea once the sun peeks out this summer! I am hoping that won't take as long.