Cold Brew At Home
Short answer: yes, the Toddy Cold Brew System works for tea, and it’s built to. Toddy’s own instructions include a tea recipe right alongside the coffee one, and the same immersion-brewing mechanism that makes smooth, low-acid coffee concentrate works just as well on loose leaf or bagged tea. Here’s how to do it properly, tea by tea.
How Cold-Brewing Tea in a Toddy Works
The process is identical to brewing coffee: add tea and cold water to the brewing container, let it steep, then release the stopper to filter the concentrate into the glass decanter. The felt filter handles loose leaf tea just as well as it handles coffee grounds, and bagged tea works too if you’d rather skip the loose leaf altogether. The main difference from coffee is steep time — tea extracts much faster than coffee, so leaving it in for the same 12–24 hours you’d use for coffee will over-extract it and pull out excess tannins, leaving you with a bitter, astringent result.
Steep Times by Tea Type
| Tea Type | Steep Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea | 6–8 hours | Produces a smooth, low-tannin concentrate; good base for iced tea lattes |
| Green tea | 4–6 hours | Shortest window — over-steeping turns green tea grassy and bitter fast |
| Oolong tea | 6–8 hours | Similar to black tea; slightly more forgiving than green |
| Herbal/fruit tea | 8–12 hours | No tannins to worry about, so a longer steep is fine and often preferred |
Ratio: How Much Tea to Water
Start with roughly 8–10 grams of loose leaf tea (or 4–6 tea bags) per 4 cups of cold water for a concentrate you’ll dilute before drinking, similar in spirit to how coffee concentrate works. If you’d rather brew tea at drinking strength with no dilution needed, cut that back to about half — 4–5 grams of loose leaf per 4 cups of water. Because tea leaves are lighter and less dense than coffee grounds, you’ll use noticeably less by weight than you would for a coffee batch in the same amount of water.
Tips for Better Cold-Brewed Tea
- Use a timer, not a guess. Tea’s window between “perfectly brewed” and “bitter” is much narrower than coffee’s. Set an alarm rather than eyeballing it.
- Keep loose leaf tea contained if it’s very fine. Very finely cut tea (common in some black tea blends) can slip through the felt filter more easily than coarse coffee grounds. A tea-specific mesh sachet inside the brewer solves this if you notice sediment.
- Don’t mix tea and coffee batches back to back without a deep clean. Felt filters can hold onto trace coffee oils, which will muddy a delicate tea’s flavor. If you brew both regularly, consider keeping a dedicated filter for tea — see our filter guide for where to get spares.
- Chill before serving. Cold-brewed tea concentrate benefits from a few hours in the fridge after brewing to fully settle and mellow, same as coffee concentrate.
Serving Ideas
Cold-brewed tea concentrate is versatile. Dilute roughly 1:1 with cold water over ice for a classic iced tea, or cut it with milk (dairy or oat both work) for an iced tea latte — black tea in particular makes a good London Fog-style drink with a splash of vanilla. Herbal tea concentrate is also good served over ice with a little honey or fresh fruit, since there’s no bitterness to balance out.
FAQ
Can you use a Toddy Cold Brew Maker for tea?
Yes. The process is the same as brewing coffee — add tea and cold water, steep, then release the concentrate. Toddy’s own instructions include a tea recipe.
How long should you cold-brew tea in a Toddy?
Black and oolong tea: 6–8 hours. Green tea: 4–6 hours. Herbal tea: 8–12 hours. Longer steeps risk bitterness from over-extracted tannins.
Do you need a separate filter for tea?
Not strictly, but a dedicated felt filter for tea avoids trace coffee oils affecting the tea’s flavor if you brew both regularly.
Can you use tea bags instead of loose leaf?
Yes — tea bags work fine in a Toddy and are easier to remove cleanly than loose leaf if you don’t want any sediment in the felt filter.