Okay, so the other day I was thinking I wanted some black tea, but it was hot as heck outside. I didn’t want to boil water and make it all worse, you know? Then I remembered, “Hey, there’s that cold brew thing!” I decided to give cold brewing black tea a try. It sounded easy enough, and I was curious if it would really taste different.

First, I grabbed a big glass jar – one of those mason jars, the kind grandma uses for canning. Then, I dumped in some loose-leaf black tea. I didn’t measure it precisely, just eyeballed it, maybe like four big spoonfuls? I know that one spoonful can make one cup, and I can adjust the concentration in the future. I usually drink strong tea. I poured in some cold water from the fridge, filling the jar almost to the top. I gave it a good stir with a spoon, made sure all the tea leaves were wet.

• Put tea in jar
• Add cold water
• Stir it up

Next, I screwed the lid on tight and stuck the whole thing in the refrigerator. That was it! Now the hard part: waiting. I’ve read online about cold-brew, and they always say it takes a long time, like 12 hours, or overnight.

The next morning, I was pretty excited to try it. I took the jar out of the fridge. I strained the tea through a small strainer into a glass, added a couple of ice cubes. I took a sip, and wow, it was actually really good! It was smooth, not bitter at all, and it had this nice, clean black tea flavor. It definitely tasted different from hot-brewed tea, in a good way.

My takeaway from this little experiment?

• Cold brewing black tea is super simple.
• It tastes smoother and less bitter than hot-brewed.
• It’s perfect for a hot day.

I’m definitely going to be making more cold brew black tea this summer. Maybe I’ll even experiment with different types of tea. If you’re a tea drinker, give it a shot! You might be surprised how much you like it.