Cold Brew Trail Tea
Tea bags in cold water. No stove, no ice, no waiting for anything to cool down.
- calories
- 45
- weight
- 0.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 75
- protein
- 0 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 2 min
- water
- 1000 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Drink
- No cook
- Cold soak
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Bikepacking
- Day hike
- Car camping
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Cold brew tea bags | 2 bags | cut for cold water; regular bags need hours |
|---|---|---|
| Cold water | 1 liter | filtered, straight from the source |
| Sugar or drink-mix powder | 2 tbsp | optional, dissolves better if you shake early |
| Citric acid or a lemonade packet | 1/4 tsp | optional, cuts the flat taste of warm water |
Method
- Fill a bottle or bladder with 1 liter of cold filtered water.
- Drop in two cold brew bags. Cap it and shake for ten seconds.
- Let it sit five minutes while you do something else. Shake once more.
- Pull the bags out and pack them in your trash bag. Leaving them in turns the whole bottle bitter by afternoon.
- Add sugar or a flavor packet now if you want it, and shake to dissolve.
Hot brewing exists to pull tannins and caffeine out of leaf fast. Cold brewing does the same thing slower, and cold brew bags are just cut finer so the slow part takes minutes instead of hours. On trail that trade is free: no fuel, no boil, no twenty minutes waiting for a pot to cool down enough to drink.
The other half of the point is that it fixes water you are already carrying. Filtered creek water sitting in a warm bottle tastes like the bottle. Two bags and a pinch of citric acid cover that, and the caffeine is a real argument for an afternoon climb. Pull the bags on schedule — steeping all day is where this goes wrong.
Packing
Bags and any sugar go in one small zip bag in a hip pocket. You are brewing in the bottle you already carry, so there is nothing extra to wash.
Variations
- Start it in a bottle clipped to your pack in the morning and it is done by first break.
- Regular tea bags work if you give them four hours instead of five minutes.
- Swap in hibiscus or mint bags for something that drinks better warm, since it will be warm.
https://www.sailnet.com/threads/food-for-thought.4025