Cloudy Ice Tea

[Claire]

How do you avoid this? I used to make ice tea often, but in the past couple of years it's come out rather murky looking. I blamed it on cheap tea bags, but tried more expensive ones. I've even had the bags spring leaks and had to strain it. This is something I always considered a no-brainer, it's just in recent years that I've had this problem.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm wondering if it's a water quality problem.

 

[Aunt Bea]

When I use boiling water it is clear but, when I make sun tea it is slightly cloudy.

It tastes the same, the method depends on my mood.

 

[kadesma]

Aunt Bea said^^^^^^^
kades

 

[GLC]

The clouds in iced tea can be minerals and/or tea solids. First thing to try is to let it cool to room temperature before refrigerating. If it's minerals, that might just fix the problem. If that doesn't do it, a mineral problem requires a filtering system that reduces minerals, like reverse osmosis. Or just making tea with bottled drinking water. Water utilities can shift sources from time to time, like between river and well, and that can change the mineral content, as can buying water from another system.

But note that cloudy tea is otherwise identical to clear tea and no hazard, nor does it taste different. If you get caught with a cloudy batch with guest coming, pour a little boiling water into it to clear it.

 

[Kayelle]

I'm another one bothered by cloudy ice tea, and I actually think it tastes different. I use only bottled water and it's always crystal clear. I won't drink our terrible tap water, so I make both coffee and tea with bottled water.
I use 3 black tea bags and 2 Tbs. of loose Earl Grey to make a gallon of ice tea. I steep the tea in a small pan of boiling bottled water till it cools, and then strain it into the pitcher of ice water. My ice cubes are also made with bottled water. Perfect beautiful tea every time.

 

[GLC]

Well. I should have said that simply going cloudy doesn't affect the taste. But bad water tastes bad, and tea made with it will taste bad, cloudy or not.

 

[Alix]

Do you put lemon in your iced tea Claire?

 

[Kayelle]

Well. I should have said that simply going cloudy doesn't affect the taste. But bad water tastes bad, and tea made with it will taste bad, cloudy or not.

Simply cloudy tea affects my taste of the tea, no matter if the water is bad or good.

Is it not true that we eat/drink with our eyes first? Jes sayin'..

 

[JMediger]

When I boil tea for iced tea, I have the same problem regardless of tea quality. I rarely have it happen when I make sun tea so I chalk it up to residue in my pan. I recently bought the cold brew bags by Lipton and they work nicely. The tea is really light in color but has a good flavor. Not as strong or intense as boiled or sun brewed but tasty.

 

[Skittle68]

If you dump ice into the tea while it is still hot it can get cloudy. At work we brew our tea really strong, then add cold water before adding ice so it doesn't get cloudy.

 

[BlueCat]

I just saw a Good Eats episode on tea, and if I remember right, he said that if you brew double strength and add water to make iced tea, then the water you add should be room temp. Colder brings out some of the tea solids and clouds the tea. At least I think that was his theory.

 

[chopper]

Grandma always told me that tea will get cloudy if you squeeze the tea bags into the pot. Also, she always grabbed the tea kettle off of the stove right before it came to a full boil and poured it over the tea bags. I use her method, and it works for me. Sometimes I get busy and the kettle is screaming at me...if I pour it right into the tea pot when it is boiling hot, it sometimes explodes the tea bags.

 

[TATTRAT]

It is a matter of cooling. The flavor doesn't change, it just gets cloudy after you refrigerate fresh brewed tea. It's nothing to worry about. Most times, even letting it sit out, it will regain it's clarity, with a little residual "sediment" stuff floating around the bottom.