This Cold Brew Iced Tea is made with just 2 ingredients - water and tea bags - and it's the easiest way to make the best smooth, flavorful and refreshing iced tea!
Michelle's Recipe Rundown
On a hot summer day, there's nothing better than a tall glass of cold, real-deal iced tea. It's super simple to make, budget-friendly, and using tea bags is so much better than a powdered mix.
Over the years, I've made iced tea using both the hot-brew and cold-brew methods. Both are simple. But for me, cold-brewed iced tea is the clear winner because the flavor is superior. It's now the only way I make iced tea.
It's smooth, refreshing, and there's no acidity or bitterness. It just tastes like delicious tea. That's because steeping the tea bags slowly in cold water extracts the flavor much more gently and releases fewer tannins from the tea than hot water.
Here are more reasons why I love it, and you will too:
- Quick and easy prep; no heating required. It'll take you about 2 minutes to get it ready. Then it goes into the fridge to steep for 8 to 12 hours (be sure to plan ahead for this amount of time).
- It's good unsweetened or sweetened. This recipe makes unsweetened iced tea. I always make it this way so that anyone who wants to can sweeten their glass to their own taste.
- It's versatile. You can use this method with most any flavor of tea bags, including herbal teas.
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Ingredients & Notes
Here are the ingredients you'll need to make cold brew tea (amounts are in the recipe card below):
- Cold Water
- Tea Bags - I use black tea for classic iced tea, regular or decaffeinated. When I want to change things up, some of my other favorites are green tea, Earl Gray, chamomile, lemon-ginger, and peppermint. Try whatever kind of tea you like!
- TIP: It is not necessary to use tea bags that are labeled as being for cold brew. I tried them and didn't notice any difference. Regular tea bags are all you need.
- TIP: It is not necessary to use tea bags that are labeled as being for cold brew. I tried them and didn't notice any difference. Regular tea bags are all you need.
Optional ingredients, depending on how you want to serve it:
- Ice
- Sweetener of your choice
- Lemon wedges or slices
How to Make Cold Brew Iced Tea
This is a brief overview of the steps with photos. The full printable recipe with ingredient amounts and detailed instructions is in the recipe card below.
Place cold water in a pitcher and add the tea bags.
Cover the pitcher and place it in the refrigerator to steep for 8 to 12 hours.
Remove the tea bags.
Enjoy as is or pour the tea over ice.
If desired, sweeten and/or add lemon.
Recipe Tips
- Use more or fewer tea bags depending on how strong you want your tea. The basic ratio is one tea bag for every 8 ounces of water. For a stronger brew, I do one tea bag for every 6 ounces of water. Because all teas are different, it may take a little experimenting to get it exactly how you want it.
- This tea is fantastic as is; because it's already cold, you don't actually need ice. But if you plan to serve it over ice, I recommend making the stronger brew because the ice will dilute the flavor of the tea as it melts.
- Make tea ice cubes. If you want to serve your tea over ice without worrying about dilution, this is a trick I learned a long time ago: make some extra tea and freeze it in ice cube trays. Pour your tea over the tea cubes, and the problem is solved.
- Enjoy within 3 days for the best flavor. After that, I find that the tea can start to loose its fresh, bright flavor. Scale down the recipe if needed; making smaller batches more often is a better choice if the full recipe is too much.
How to Sweeten Cold Brew Iced Tea
Granulated sugar takes a really long time and a lot of stirring to even start dissolving in cold liquid, so that's not the way to go here.
The best way to sweeten cold brew iced tea without changing the flavor of the tea is simple syrup, which is a mixture of granulated sugar and water that has been heated until the sugar dissolves and then cooled. Check out my post on homemade simple syrup for the quick and easy recipe.
Because the sugar has already been dissolved, you just pour some of the simple syrup into your iced tea, give it a quick stir, and you're good to go. You can use it to sweeten individual glasses or the whole batch.
Of course, you can use other liquid sweeteners if you prefer, such as stevia, agave, honey, or maple syrup. Just be aware that some of these will add their own flavor to the tea (which is totally fine if that's what you like!).
Storage
Keep your cold brew tea stored in the refrigerator in an airtight pitcher or bottle for 3 to 5 days.
I hope you try this Cold Brew Iced Tea recipe and love it as much as I do. Thanks for visiting today!
More Cold Drink Recipes to Try
If you make this recipe, I'd love to know how it went! Please leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
📋Recipe
Cold Brew Iced Tea
Ingredients
- 8 cups cold water
- 8 to 10 black tea bags , see Note below
Instructions
- Place the cold water in a pitcher; add the tea bags.
- Cover the pitcher and place it in the refrigerator to steep for 8 to 12 hours.
- Remove and discard the tea bags.
- Serve the tea as-is or over ice. If desired, sweeten each serving to taste and/or add a slice or wedge of fresh lemon.
Notes
- Black tea makes classic iced tea. You could also use other teas, such as green, white, Earl Grey, herbal teas, and more.
- The basic ratio is 1 tea bag for every 8 ounces of water. If you will be serving it over ice, which will dilute the tea as it melts, I recommend making a stronger tea of 1 tea bag for every 6 ounces of water (so 10 to 11 tea bags for 8 cups/2 quarts of water).
- Enjoy within 3 days for the best flavor; after that the fresh, bright flavor can start to weaken. If needed, make smaller batches more often.
- Store iced tea in the refrigerator in an airtight pitcher or bottle for 3 to 5 days.
- Homemade Simple Syrup is the best way to sweeten cold brew iced tea because the sugar has already been dissolved. You can use it to sweeten each individual glass or the whole batch.
- Estimated calories of 0 is for the unsweetened tea.
The body of this post was updated on 6/1/26, but the recipe itself has not changed.
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