Sparkling tea: fresh and fizzy

Make your own refreshing, original-tasting alcohol-free drink that can add an extra thrill to a culinary adventure. No need to buy expensive bottles. Just sparkling water and tea. You can add a little garnish if you want to serve it as an aperitif.

How to make the perfect 0.0% drink

There are several ways to brew tea, and iced tea can also be prepared in different ways. Making Sparkling Tea is similar to making iced tea: you can brew it hot (shock brew/quick method) or cold (cold brew or ambient brew).

You need two components for your Sparkling Tea: sparkling water for the bubbles and concentrated tea for the flavor.

Making tea concentrate: Shock Brew

The quick method is handy if you're short on time, but also if you want to make a Sparkling Tea that you can add ice to, such as a refreshing summer drink with, for example, jasmine tea or osmanthus oolong. The ice will naturally dilute the flavor of your tea a little, but sometimes that is no problem at all.

1. Make a concentrate using 3 to 5 times as many tea leaves as usual. You'll be adding more water later, which is why you need extra tea. And when tea cools, its flavor becomes less intense, so that's another reason to make it extra strong. Otherwise, simply steep the tea according to the instructions on the package.
2. Put ice cubes in a glass. Pour in the concentrate, then the sparkling water, at a ratio of 1:2.
   - So, for a large 300 ml glass: 100 ml tea and 200 ml sparkling water.
   - If you have a small glass, 30 ml tea and 60 ml sparkling water may be just right.
   - You can also mix everything in a jug and pour it out from there.

Cold brew and ambient brew tea concentrate

If you're after a more sophisticated Sparkling Tea to serve with a festive meal at home or pair with an amuse-bouche, you can make a richer, more nuanced Sparkling Tea with a Cold Brew . Many oolongs work very well, such as Dong Ding. White tea and green tea are often good too, but Japanese green tea often isn't.

For a Cold Brew, steep the tea in cold water and put the pot or bottle in the refrigerator. If you leave the tea at room temperature, this is called an Ambient Brew.
Then leave the tea to steep for 24 hours. After that, strain out the leaves. Since you want to carbonate the tea, it needs to be strong. Here too, you can use 3–5 times the usual amount of tea.

The serving temperature is also important when deciding on your dosage. Drinking the tea ice-cold? Then you need a more intense flavor, because your taste buds perceive less when the tea is ice-cold. If you serve it at 18 degrees, you can use a lower dosage.
It's also worth paying attention to the ratio of tea concentrate to sparkling water. If you mix it at 1:2, you'll need more tea. A 1:1 mix gives you a more subtly sparkling tea, so you can make your concentrate a little less strong.

In general, the hotter the water, the faster the aromatic, coloring, and flavor compounds naturally found in tea leaves dissolve in the water. Ambient brew may therefore be a little faster, but the difference is small.
What does make a difference is that tannin* needs really hot water to dissolve properly. The lower tannin content in cold-brewed tea makes it taste smoother and sweeter.

There are many variables to consider when making tea (and therefore Sparkling Tea). So, here's a brief overview for clarity.

* Tannin belongs to the polyphenols, a group of complex molecules found in nature. It can sometimes make tea astringent, giving you that dry feeling in your mouth. It is similar to a bitter, puckering taste.