The Iced Tea Revolution: Why Cold Brew Tea Is Having a Moment

Cold brew coffee spent a decade going from specialty curiosity to mainstream staple. Cold brew tea is on the same trajectory — and it's moving faster.

The cold brew process — steeping tea in cold water for 8–12 hours instead of hot water for minutes — produces a fundamentally different beverage. The slow, cold extraction pulls out different compounds than hot brewing. The result is smoother, less bitter, and often more complex in flavor.

Cold brewing also preserves more of tea's delicate aromatic compounds, which are often destroyed by heat. A cold-brewed green tea tastes more vividly green — more grassy, more vegetal, more alive — than its hot-brewed counterpart. A cold-brewed oolong reveals floral and stone fruit notes that heat can obscure.

The market has noticed. Premium ready-to-drink iced tea is one of the fastest-growing segments in the beverage industry, with compound annual growth rates exceeding 8% in North America and Europe. Consumers are willing to pay significantly more for quality — the days of the $1 sweet tea are giving way to the $5 artisan cold brew.

Dice Tea was designed with cold brewing in mind. Every one of our six blends has been tested and optimized for both hot and cold preparation. Some blends — particularly our Mint Avalanche and Peach Dice Dream — are genuinely transcendent when cold brewed. We'll be sharing our cold brew guides when we launch.

The iced tea revolution is just getting started. And we're here for all of it.