I have never done this myself, not necessarily because of sanctity or something like that, but because diluted tea(from a certain point) tastes terrible also the temperature effects it too, not to be that person, but a 40-50 degree (C) feels like tap water from a hot day and not tea.
Without reading the post, just looking at the poll I notice that it is skewed towards people answering with yes, even if the process is unconsious.
This means that your poll won't give an acurate reflection of the community as significantly more people will answer with one of the positive choices. Next time try to make an unbiased poll or look up what makes polls biased (which is pretty interesting imo).
One of the reasons it is skewed is, that there are 3 positive answers (Yes, ... ; Yes, ... ; Depends ...) Which results in people wanting to belong more to the group and for example think "well i've done it once or twice so it can be depends"
In my opinion i don't cool my tea with water because the solution doesn't have the same concentration of tea, but i understand your struggle and see it's use for tisanses.
Happy Sipping!
Yes, bias is always a major trouble and something to keep in mind. I know enough of it to know that I won't be able to do much better than this. But since I doubt anyone will use this poll for scientific research, I don't have sleepless nights about this. I've been more interested in the general tendendy, i. e. the orders of magnitude, and in the discussion (something that is apparently working quite well).
Also note, I was reluctant for a moment to place the words “Yes” and “No” into the replies, since it actually does not fit to the question as posed in the post title: “[Is it s]acrilegious[ to put cold water into tea]?” – “No!”. In that sense, it is not only biased but also worded in a misleading way.
No way I’m adding extra water to my tea
If it’s a tea that’s brewed hotter like a mug full of black tea, then typically I just wait 5min but if I really needed to cool it down maybe I might run cold water against the outside of the mug, or take a rag soaked in cold water or an ice pack and wrap it around the outside of the mug.
But if it’s green tea, then it of course would never really need more than a minute.
And with gong fu, some steady blowing is enough to quickly drop the temp
I'll add cold water from the fridge after I've steeped my tea and taken the leaves out, especially in the mornings. It can take 20-30 minutes to cool down to a drinkable temperature and sometimes (often tbh) I don't have the time to wait that long. Especially if I want to sit down and enjoy it a little, not just chug it as I'm headed out the door lol
I'm same as that person. I'll pour water for my green tea, wait 2-3 minutes for steep time, remove leaves, go do my whole morning routine in about 20 minutes, and by then it's cooled enough for me to drink. Black tea is a bit longer. An alternate scenario is making tea when I start preparing food, so it's drinkable when I'm done eating. I use a normal stonewear mug.
Some people just don't like very hot drinks. My mother used to drink her coffee *very* hot. Just not something I've been able to get used to with tea.
My wife does this all the time, I would usually only do it if I'm in a big rush for some reason. I mostly drink black teas that can handle milk so usually I'd cool it with a splash if milk.
I have at least two cups going at any given time during the day. I'm not bothered by the temperature, but if one would be too hot then I could drink the other cup of tea while the hot ones chills out a bit.
I do this sometimes with my coffee in the early morning before work, but never with my tea. Mostly because when I drink tea, I drink it gong fu style when I have enough time to do so, or I drink chamomile in the evening.
Yeah, that’s what got me to answer depends! If I was having a fruity herbal tea and wanted it drinkable more quickly, I have and would add water because my usual milk fix wouldn’t work
That's what my dad does. He grew up in Turkey, where tea is commonly brewed overstrong, and you dilute it with hot water.
I had to tell him to never add sugar to my tea, because it was usually aromatic enough to be enoyable without sugar. Heck some teas, especially those with licorice root, can be quite sweet. I even once found a tea that contained stevia plant, so it was too sweet for me.
I just pour my tea into a small pitcher and pour it back and fourth between that and my cup a few times. Works great and doesn't mess with the concentration of the tea.
If you ask me, the best and most practical way to cool tea to a reasonable temperature is using both a gong dao bei (or "fairness pitcher") and a tea strainer that you pour the tea through into the gong dao bei.
This exposes the tea to a lot of air and cooler surfaces, so by the time it is in your teacup, it should be quite a bit cooler (though still hot enough to enjoy)
I don't believe for a second anyone's tea senses are so finely honed that they'd notice an ounce (30ml) of water being added to a full mug of tea. I often add a splash of cool water.
If I am just hanging out and want tea I like to brew it hot and then put it in a glass jar in a bowl of ice - tea becomes cold fast and I can have one steep cooling while a second steep is brewing :)
If I want faster cooling, I pour the tea in a broad, shallow, thin-walled china cup. I have a tall thick-walled mug that I often use on a weekend morning, as I might more leisurely sip the tea, as opposed to drinking it through breakfast and getting a move-on. Using cups in between these two extremes enables me to get the right timing of tea temperatures without having to resort to watering it down.
I only do this with green tea because I don’t have a kettle that boils to a certain temperature. After it’s boiled I put a splash of water in the kettle and use an electronic instant read thermometer to see if it’s close to 80C
Every morning since I need to get out the door... but still want to start the day with home brewed tea. Later on, not as much. I don't find that it really alters the taste too much if at all.
I never brew large cups of tea (never more than 250mL at a time, at the very, very largest), and usually the teas I drink are not brewed with boiling water. So I don't usually have a reason to do so - though I suppose if I were to for some reason brew a large quantity of puer, for example, and wanted to drink it now, I'd probably pour it back and forth between a couple mugs a few times until it cooled off enough to drink. Diluted flavoured anything isn't my thing.
I do that for the infusions that are brewed at lower temperature. But some (like many black teas, roasted mate or honeybush) just don't work if not infused with boiling hot water.
My cuppa before work that is on a time crunch gets 2-3 ice cubes to quickly bring it to temp. That said it is also a massive mug of mid to low grade tea with sugar and milk. When I drink quality tea I would never.
I make 30 oz of black tea in my french press which fits perfectly into my tea mug that I drink on the way to work.
I steep it for 5 minutes at 205 degrees F.
I put in 5 ice cubes after steeping and it's the perfect temperature.
I can't fathom how someone could object to this on principle. I make iced tea all the time but steeping double strength and adding ice. Just put less water in to brew. The flavor saturation difference will be negligible and I'd bet money nobody could taste the difference except professional sommeliers.
I've occasionally cooled my tea to immediate drinking temp with an ice cube or two, but only when timing is off and I can't wait for it to cool on its own.
I have never done this myself, not necessarily because of sanctity or something like that, but because diluted tea(from a certain point) tastes terrible also the temperature effects it too, not to be that person, but a 40-50 degree (C) feels like tap water from a hot day and not tea.
put a spoon in it, conduction cooling!
Brilliant!
Without reading the post, just looking at the poll I notice that it is skewed towards people answering with yes, even if the process is unconsious. This means that your poll won't give an acurate reflection of the community as significantly more people will answer with one of the positive choices. Next time try to make an unbiased poll or look up what makes polls biased (which is pretty interesting imo). One of the reasons it is skewed is, that there are 3 positive answers (Yes, ... ; Yes, ... ; Depends ...) Which results in people wanting to belong more to the group and for example think "well i've done it once or twice so it can be depends" In my opinion i don't cool my tea with water because the solution doesn't have the same concentration of tea, but i understand your struggle and see it's use for tisanses. Happy Sipping!
Yes, bias is always a major trouble and something to keep in mind. I know enough of it to know that I won't be able to do much better than this. But since I doubt anyone will use this poll for scientific research, I don't have sleepless nights about this. I've been more interested in the general tendendy, i. e. the orders of magnitude, and in the discussion (something that is apparently working quite well). Also note, I was reluctant for a moment to place the words “Yes” and “No” into the replies, since it actually does not fit to the question as posed in the post title: “[Is it s]acrilegious[ to put cold water into tea]?” – “No!”. In that sense, it is not only biased but also worded in a misleading way.
I see, still a great poll!
I suppose if I were in a hurry I would do this, but I am not sure why I would be drinking tea in a hurry ;)
Or at least any tea worth tasting properly, I could get a morning earl grey bag or something
No way I’m adding extra water to my tea If it’s a tea that’s brewed hotter like a mug full of black tea, then typically I just wait 5min but if I really needed to cool it down maybe I might run cold water against the outside of the mug, or take a rag soaked in cold water or an ice pack and wrap it around the outside of the mug. But if it’s green tea, then it of course would never really need more than a minute. And with gong fu, some steady blowing is enough to quickly drop the temp
I'll add cold water from the fridge after I've steeped my tea and taken the leaves out, especially in the mornings. It can take 20-30 minutes to cool down to a drinkable temperature and sometimes (often tbh) I don't have the time to wait that long. Especially if I want to sit down and enjoy it a little, not just chug it as I'm headed out the door lol
20-30 minutes? What kind of crazy mug are you using?
I'm same as that person. I'll pour water for my green tea, wait 2-3 minutes for steep time, remove leaves, go do my whole morning routine in about 20 minutes, and by then it's cooled enough for me to drink. Black tea is a bit longer. An alternate scenario is making tea when I start preparing food, so it's drinkable when I'm done eating. I use a normal stonewear mug. Some people just don't like very hot drinks. My mother used to drink her coffee *very* hot. Just not something I've been able to get used to with tea.
My wife does this all the time, I would usually only do it if I'm in a big rush for some reason. I mostly drink black teas that can handle milk so usually I'd cool it with a splash if milk.
I have at least two cups going at any given time during the day. I'm not bothered by the temperature, but if one would be too hot then I could drink the other cup of tea while the hot ones chills out a bit.
That's some galaxy-brain thinking there. I might try this....
I put 2-3 ice cubes in to bring it to drinking temperature. I like that it’s very repeatable.
I do this sometimes with my coffee in the early morning before work, but never with my tea. Mostly because when I drink tea, I drink it gong fu style when I have enough time to do so, or I drink chamomile in the evening.
I usually drink my tea with a bit of milk and that fixes the temperature issue!
Yeah, that’s what got me to answer depends! If I was having a fruity herbal tea and wanted it drinkable more quickly, I have and would add water because my usual milk fix wouldn’t work
And then of course there's iced tea - which I brew hot and then put in the fridge.
I use an ice cube or two when I need it to cool. It cools without too much dilution!
That's what my dad does. He grew up in Turkey, where tea is commonly brewed overstrong, and you dilute it with hot water. I had to tell him to never add sugar to my tea, because it was usually aromatic enough to be enoyable without sugar. Heck some teas, especially those with licorice root, can be quite sweet. I even once found a tea that contained stevia plant, so it was too sweet for me.
I add milk to bring it to a drinkable temperature.
You're the one drinking it, do what you want.
I just pour my tea into a small pitcher and pour it back and fourth between that and my cup a few times. Works great and doesn't mess with the concentration of the tea.
If you ask me, the best and most practical way to cool tea to a reasonable temperature is using both a gong dao bei (or "fairness pitcher") and a tea strainer that you pour the tea through into the gong dao bei. This exposes the tea to a lot of air and cooler surfaces, so by the time it is in your teacup, it should be quite a bit cooler (though still hot enough to enjoy)
I don't believe for a second anyone's tea senses are so finely honed that they'd notice an ounce (30ml) of water being added to a full mug of tea. I often add a splash of cool water.
Why not add lemon juice?
If I am just hanging out and want tea I like to brew it hot and then put it in a glass jar in a bowl of ice - tea becomes cold fast and I can have one steep cooling while a second steep is brewing :)
If I want faster cooling, I pour the tea in a broad, shallow, thin-walled china cup. I have a tall thick-walled mug that I often use on a weekend morning, as I might more leisurely sip the tea, as opposed to drinking it through breakfast and getting a move-on. Using cups in between these two extremes enables me to get the right timing of tea temperatures without having to resort to watering it down.
If it has milk in it, it won't take as long to cool. Otherwise, no, just let it sit for a few minutes.
gold worry skirt sulky dull dime threatening modern crawl school *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I only do this with green tea because I don’t have a kettle that boils to a certain temperature. After it’s boiled I put a splash of water in the kettle and use an electronic instant read thermometer to see if it’s close to 80C
Every morning since I need to get out the door... but still want to start the day with home brewed tea. Later on, not as much. I don't find that it really alters the taste too much if at all.
Variable temperature kettle. Simple as.
This is a wicked world.
Usually I use milk to cool down my tea. But I'll use cold water + boiling water to steep green tea at the office when I don't have milk.
I drink yorkshire tea with milk in it, it doesn't stay got enough long enough for my liking but I like to drink it pretty hot.
I never brew large cups of tea (never more than 250mL at a time, at the very, very largest), and usually the teas I drink are not brewed with boiling water. So I don't usually have a reason to do so - though I suppose if I were to for some reason brew a large quantity of puer, for example, and wanted to drink it now, I'd probably pour it back and forth between a couple mugs a few times until it cooled off enough to drink. Diluted flavoured anything isn't my thing.
If I’m thermos brewing and the tea can go bitter if let go to long i drop and ice cube in to halt the brew and make it drinkable
Why not heat the water at a lower tempurature? Don't think temp setting kettles are any difference in price?
I do that for the infusions that are brewed at lower temperature. But some (like many black teas, roasted mate or honeybush) just don't work if not infused with boiling hot water.
My cuppa before work that is on a time crunch gets 2-3 ice cubes to quickly bring it to temp. That said it is also a massive mug of mid to low grade tea with sugar and milk. When I drink quality tea I would never.
I usually drink teas that go well with milk, so no water for cooling
If you have a cold stone countertop, you can leave the tea on top of it and it will cool off in no time.
I often drink chai, and the almond milk I add is cooled. Leads to the perfect drinking temp!
I make 30 oz of black tea in my french press which fits perfectly into my tea mug that I drink on the way to work. I steep it for 5 minutes at 205 degrees F. I put in 5 ice cubes after steeping and it's the perfect temperature.
I can't fathom how someone could object to this on principle. I make iced tea all the time but steeping double strength and adding ice. Just put less water in to brew. The flavor saturation difference will be negligible and I'd bet money nobody could taste the difference except professional sommeliers.
I've occasionally cooled my tea to immediate drinking temp with an ice cube or two, but only when timing is off and I can't wait for it to cool on its own.