The sun is finally here, so it’s high time for a summery shock brew recipe. Shock brew is a kind of iced tea, but with the advantage that it’s much quicker to make. With iced tea, you set the tea in the fridge for several hours to cool down. With shock brew, we use ice cubes to cool the warm tea quickly. Ideal if you want to immediately enjoy a deliciously refreshing drink.
The shock brew method can be applied to any tea – both pure teas and fruit teas. And because you can drink it quite quickly, you also avoid the tea losing some of its aroma and minerality during the long cooling process in the fridge. The result is a fresh, aromatic cold tea full of flavor.
A variation on this is flash-chilled tea. This is tea that is shaken with ice cubes (a bit like a cocktail) until the ice is completely gone and the tea is instantly cold.
This shock brew recipe uses green jasmine tea as a base. We chose the Jasmin Green from the AMBAR tea collection of tea sommelier Steffi Vertriest. The floral taste of jasmine is ideally matched with aromatic elderflower and a few fresh mint leaves.
Ingredients for 1 to 2 glasses
- 8 grams of Jasmin Green AMBAR
- 12 grams of elderflower (fresh or dried)
- A few sprigs or leaves of mint
- 1 liter of water
- Ice cubes
- Cold brew bottle (minimum capacity 750 ml)
- Glass
- Teapot (minimum capacity 500 ml)
Instructions
Start by brewing the elderflower tea. It’s important to brew the tea stronger than usual because the ice cubes will dilute it. Therefore, use 12 grams of elderflower for 500 ml of water. Brew the tea at 95 °C and let it infuse for 3 to 5 minutes. If you’re a fan of sweet, you can also add 1 to 2 spoons of honey. It’s best to add the honey when the tea is still warm. If the tea is cold, the honey won’t mix well.
Then brew the jasmine tea. Here, too, we brew the tea a bit stronger because of the ice cubes. Use 8 grams of Jasmin Green AMBAR for 500 ml water. Brew the tea at 80 °C and let it infuse for 2 to 3 minutes.
Fill your cold brew bottle about one third full with ice cubes and also add 1 to 2 sprigs of mint. Crush the mint before adding it so all the aromas are released. Now pour 100 ml of the elderflower tea and 200 ml of the jasmine tea into the cold brew bottle.
Shake the cold brew bottle well and your shock brew is ready. Do you like your drink super cold? Then put the bottle in the fridge for 30 minutes or serve with some extra ice cubes in a nice glass. By letting the cold brew bottle stand for a while, the flavor of the mint will also mix better with the rest.
Normally, you will have enough tea left over, from both the elderflower and jasmine tea, to make another delicious glass of shock brew. Fantastic, right?
This is a basic recipe that is fully adaptable to your personal preference. Fan of mint? Then add more mint. Or are you a real sweet tooth? Then add sugar syrup or extra honey. This recipe is also very delicious with white jasmine tea as a base. Experiment to your heart’s content and enjoy a wonderful instant cold drink!
