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I had no idea that you could infuse cold water with tea overnight (I always thought it had to be HOT) -- I'm going to try it this afternoon using a resealable glass jar and see what happens. Thanks for the cool tip.

Here's a link to two beverage recipes -- one is for Fresh Ginger Lemonade and the other one is for Ginger Iced Tea (which is my personal fave) via Greenwala, the online green social network -- http://www.greenwala.com/my_groups/all/103-Greenwala-Community-Recipe-Swap/topics/338 I like the idea of using fresh fruit and herbs to impart flavor to water -- it's so much more healthy than drinking HFCS-laden soda.

By the way, recipe hounds reading this should try to see if they can win Greenwala's cooking contest -- they're awarding a $250 Whole Foods gift card!! Whooo!!

related question: for the restaurants that serve cucumber water (rather than lemon water), how long does it take for the cucumbers to infuse? cold cucumber water is just as refreshing as iced tea on a hot day, i say.

I take a 32 oz nalgene bottle of iced tea to work each day. Been brewing the tea with warmish tap water. Will try to brew it over night and see if it makes a difference.

Sounds just like cold-brewed coffee, or sun tea! Heat is notorious for releasing bitter compounds in coffee and tea, and I love the idea of having iced tea on demand with such ease. I'm totally going to start doing this!

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@any such name - It depends on how strong of a cucumber taste you want and how fresh the cucumbers are, but you can probably have sufficiently cucumber-y water in about a half hour.

@eprewitt - Cold-brewed iced coffee is the nectar of the gods on a sultry morning.

When I make cucumber water- I boil it first (a trick I learned from our local Thai restaurant- it's more 'refreshing') and after cooling (but not chilling) put some sliced cucumbers in, and refrigerate. By the time it's chilled- it has infused enough (at least for me)

Cheyenne

I love this... in the middle of a kitchen remodel and wondering what to make w/o a stove. This iced tea is perfect, especially on these hot days. Think I will try mine with mint. Thanks for reminding me of this.

I love doing sun tea, although you have to do it during the day. Put the desired amount of water in a clear jar or pitcher, put in the tea bag(s), cover, and set in the sun for a day. I usually do four tea bags for two quarts of water.

I love cold brewed tea. My favorite blend these days is one bag of black and one bag of mint. The next day it's the perfect tone of nice wake me up tea with that spark of mint. Very refreshing.

I so sun tea, it's often done in a couple hours and it's a bit warm so the honey melts in it. I use a big gallon jar (old pickle jar I think) and always have some in the fridge this time of year.

We do all kinds of tea, but my favourites are mint and desert lime.

A friend recently re-used those beautiful glass milk bottles to serve a variety of drinks at a party. I think I'll use one to brew up some cold iced tea with a bit of lemon verbena and mint.

This sounds so good. I'm going to try this for our weekly dinner picnic. I've been looking for alternate tasty drinks for my toddler. Do you need to sweeten it? Maybe a little simple syrup?

you can also add some lemon slices with the cucumber or tea to make it extra refreshing!

When I was a kid we had a veritable forest of mint in our back yard. In the summer, we'd pull handfuls of leaves and drop them into a glass pitcher of water in the fridge. It was the best! It was simple and refreshing. It also stopped the fridge water from getting that nasty fridgie taste which I'm not crazy about.

A friend introduced me to this many years ago, but not in such a "fancy" way.
She just stuck a tea bag in her water bottle all the time. My favorite is raspberry tea with a bit of lemon.

Can you do green and white teas as sun tea? I wasn't sure if it would incorrectly steep.

I've just started to make sun tea. Tastier than plain water, and it feels better than drinking can after can of Diet Pepsi.

I just wrote about cucumber water last week! http://maebird.blogspot.com/2009/06/cucumber-mint.html

I think it only takes 30mins to an hour for the cucumber water to infuse nicely. Very refreshing.

Tea in a jar makes me happy. I am going to make some today.

I tried the refrigerator tea with one bag in a 4 cup container and it was way too weak. I also tried 2 bags of chai tea and again, it was too weak. Tonight's experiment is 8 tea bags in an 8 cup container. Fingers crossed.

oh I love this idea! I'm going to give it a shot with some green peach tea, I bet it will be delicious! What a great summer treat, especially since I'm trying to cut out all soda and most coffee!

Great suggestion! I started doing this every night...

Fill a pitcher with water, a couple of green tea bags, and a fresh sprig of mint.... Let it sit over night and then it's super refreshing all day! The mint gives it just enough "sweet" without sugar.