Most people are accustomed to brewing tea with hot water, observing the mist rising and the tea aroma quickly dispersing, believing this is the way to extract the tea's original flavor and beneficial components. In fact, brewing tea with cold water also yields very good results. As long as the steeping time is sufficient, both the tea flavor and nutrients can be released. Not only that, but cold brewing also offers 'special' benefits compared to hot water brewing.

[What Are the Benefits of Cold Water Brewing Tea?]

Tea contains a type of healthy component—tea polysaccharides. They have functions such as anti-radiation, enhancing immunity, lowering total plasma cholesterol, and reducing blood sugar. However, unlike other beneficial substances in tea, these polysaccharides are very heat-sensitive. Brewing with hot water can severely damage them, while using cold water can effectively preserve such beneficial components.

Japanese scholar Shimizu once conducted the following experiment: He extracted tea infusions using cold water, warm water, and boiling water, then tested them on hyperglycemic mice. He found that only the tea extract brewed with cold water could significantly lower the blood sugar of the hyperglycemic mice by 40%.

[You Might Want to Try This Drinking Method]

Thus, drinking tea! This is very important information for diabetic patients or friends with a family history of diabetes, worth paying attention to. Especially cold-brewed tea is more suitable for this group! Other beneficial components in tea, such as tea polyphenols and theanine, although have a higher extraction rate with hot water brewing, can still reach over 65% extraction rate with cold water brewing. Interestingly, the extraction rate of caffeine is lower with cold brewing compared to hot brewing. This is another important piece of information for friends sensitive to caffeine (those who can't sleep after drinking tea).

[Cold Brew First, Then Hot Brew: Get Polysaccharides and Polyphenols, Killing Multiple Birds with One Stone]

You can first brew tea with cold water to obtain the needed tea polysaccharides, then continue brewing with hot water. This way, you consume multiple healthy components from the tea. Especially when going out, sometimes it's inconvenient to carry a teacup, but you still want to drink tea. You can prepare by buying a bottle of mineral water in advance and steeping some tea leaves in it. By the time you want to drink, the tea flavor will have fully infused into the mineral water. Cold-brewed tea is a healthy and convenient drinking method.