Iced-brewed Teas (Koridashi)

Translated literally, koridashi means ice broth. It is a traditional loose leaf tea brewing technique where instead of steeping leaves in hot tea to extract flavor compounds, you let ice slowly melt on top of your tea leaves! This in turn, creates an incredibly concentrated, dense, ice-cold elixir. Perfect for the summer heat!

Since heat is usually what extracts bitterness compounds like catechins, using ice for brewing completely minimizes your tea’s bitterness while highlighting other delicate, sweet notes, and in particular, its umami. For this reason, it is best to use a high quality tea with this technique. Personally, I chose our 2026 gyokuro, which is our highest quality loose leaf tea. Gyokuro is known as the king of Japanese tea, as its extreme shading process increases its umami to an almost savory level. With ice brewing, this umami is pushed to the max, creating a serious umami bomb!

Nonetheless, it is probably the longest brewing technique you will ever use! Since you need to wait for the ice to fully melt, best not to be in a rush for this one. It takes about 2 to 3h for a teapot full of ice to melt. But, since it requires no active work, you can just set it up, forget about it for a couple hours, and then have a delicious tea waiting for you once ready!

Iced-brewed Gyokuro

8g of high quality tea leaves (we used our 2026 Gyokuro), ~100g ice cube (feel free to adjust).

Put your ice cubes on top of your tea. While I am using an actual teapot, you could theoretically use any container (e.g. pitcher, or even bowl). It will take 2-3h to melt. Enjoy!