Sun Brewed?

[Vulture]

I remember when I was a kid, my mom would sun brew tea using tea bags and a big jar. A friends mom reminded me sun brewed tea recently and I wanted to know if anyone had experience doing it. I think it would be an interesting way for me to use some of my blacks while I sleep during the day.

[Beidao]

I've only heard of sunbrewing ice-teas, specificly greens, and I now some people here have done it. So I hope they will answer!

[Space Samurai]

I take it that its pretty easy, but more of a summer thing when warm sunlight is rather copious. As I recall, you do not heat the water, rather you let the sunlight warm it. And kind of like ice-brewing, the water does not get hot enough to make the tea bitter.

I imagine a big jug of dian hong brewed this way would taste very good.

[silvermage2000]

I have never tried. It I would think would work the best with black teas. And others I guess. Probley in the spring.

[Sydney]

We used to do that here, and I think of it from time to time.

[Intuit]

You like playing Russian Roulette with bacterial growth in your tea?

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/family/facts/icedtea.htm

Easier to cold-brew your tea.

Cold Brewing Guide
http://www.teazonline.com/cold-brew.htm

[Sydney]

It never made us sick.

[Intuit]

...means that five times out of six, all you get is a 'click'.

So, say you get a certain bacterial count (expressed as colony forming units per mL of media) every so often in your sun tea.

A person with a normal diurnal sleep cycle might get a suboptimal dose and not show much of any reaction to bacterial pathogen exposure because the CFU count isn't high enough to overwhelm the immune response in the upper gut.

However, a person who has a topsy-turvy sleep cycle, as does our thread petitioner, will not have an optimal immune response. Thats because you really can't make effective quantities of melatonin, vitamin D and other sleep regulating hormones, when you are playing vampire. In turn, these hormones have a profound effect on cell repair and immune system function.

In this person, with an impaired immune response and suffering from chronic low level stress from irregular sleep, a suboptimal dose of a pathogenic bacteria can produce infection.

Click. Click. Click Click click click click click click click
Bang.

[Sydney]

Colorfully and overly stated.

[Vulture]

I take it that its pretty easy, but more of a summer thing when warm sunlight is rather copious. As I recall, you do not heat the water, rather you let the sunlight warm it. And kind of like ice-brewing, the water does not get hot enough to make the tea bitter.

I imagine a big jug of dian hong brewed this way would taste very good.

You have to relies I live in San Diego.... its a rarity if I can't see the sun...

Also, once a person is adapted to a sleep setup like I am, my immune system is back to normal. I just have to have my vitamins from fruits and such. Only time I had a problem was when I went 48 hours w/o sleep and got sick but that is normal for anyone.

[Sydney]

My solar tea cooker heats water enough to pasteurize it, so no sweat here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcK3WH_bDE0

[silverneedles]

[linnefaulk]

I never really had the patience for this. It's not as strong as I prefer and sugar does not dissolve easily.

[Vulture]

I never really had the patience for this. It's not as strong as I prefer and sugar does not dissolve easily.

The idea is it isn't bitter at all so no sugar needed...

[Intuit]

http://onfooddrinkandmeat.blogspot.com/ ... n-tea.html


The bitterness is from the excess extraction of polyphenols that are acidic. The increased acidity does indeed make it difficult to dissolve sugar, same as if you had brewed hot tea and added lemon before you added sugar.