Are those "cold infuse" teabags a bit of a swizz ?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Can't I just use fruit / herbal teabags and shove them in cold water instead?

Or is there some sort of magical formula which (1) makes them more flavoursome in cold water and (2) actual science to justify the extra £3 A box?

I tried some of those and they were awful really sickly sweet and artificial tasting.
Stick to fruit!

No idea if they are a swizz, tbf they are expensive but I love the Twining rose lemonade ones.

Its just posh kia ora in teabag form really.

I won’t pay the extra, so my theory is to make cold teas I just make it with hot water and leave it to cool then put in fridge.

Whenever I've tried putting normal teabags in cold water it's tasted absolutely horrific!

I've bought some of the new ones but have yet to try them....

In was so tempted by the Twinnings Cucumber ones but at 3.49 for 12 bags felt it was something I best ask about first as that is spendy for 12 drinks.

I’ve got that one. I thought it was horrible but that might just be me.

When I was quitting Diet Coke I would make a large jug of normal fruit tea but over brew. I would keep it in the fridge and top up with fizzy water. It was great.

£3.50 for 12 drinks isn't cheap, but then it's cheaper than alcohol, or anything from Costa/Starbucks.

I really like them, tried twining, tetley, sainsbury and another brand i cant remember. They are not sweet at all, no sugar or artificial seeeteners in. I usually have a glass of water with one in on my desk and top up during the day.

I bought some as they were on special offer but I wasn't impressed, they were the Lipton ones. The flavour was very weak and the colour wasn't appetising at all, plus a lot of the teabags split or got holes in when you stirred them so you had tea leaves floating in them
I tried brewing up normal herbal teabags in boiling water, chilling it and serving with ice and that was much nicer. The ginger teabags work really well.

Lipton ones are meh.

The twinings rose lemonade one is lovely. I get bored on plain water all day so one of these just changed it up a bit. No sugar or sweeteners etc.

You can cold brew normal teabags, but you need about 2-3 teabags for the same amount of water I think, and it takes hours to do it properly - maybe these are stronger than normal teabags? If they come with sweetener attached I wouldn't bother, just Google how to cold brew tea. I did a load in a jug in the fridge last summer and it was nice and refreshing. You can add your own sugar/syrup /sweetener to taste

I have the watermelon and rose lemonade ones. They’re ok, my sister who hates plain water loves them. However I have recently bought these new ‘iced tea’ bags and they are a joke, so bland - just buy a fruit tea and steep in cold water for a better result, I think. I only tried them because I can’t make peach flavour iced tea.

I can't remember what TV programme it was, something like Eat Well for Less or SuperShoppers where Twinnings explained that "the cold brews were safe to brew cold". It felt like legalese to me as plenty of folks in the US cold brew tea (Arizona Sun Tea for example) without any known effect.

I'm loving the tetley cucumber and mint one. The twinnings rose lemonade is good too. I put one in the my water bottle and top up through the day.

I tried these in the product development phase and they were horrible. They do seem to infuse pretty easily in the cold water but they were just awful tasting. Very bitter.

Bird and blend do really good ones

Are they not just posh squash for grown ups?

Crikey I just put regular fruit tea bags in cold water and drink it. I hate hot fruit tea but cold = yum

I have always just made normal tea with the kettle in a pitcher the night before, left to cool and then shoved in the fridge overnight. It’s nice and cold by morning, and not overpriced.

I just looked at the Twinings website and they're designed to be added to a 500ml water bottle so I guess they make a greater quantity than a normal Twinings tea bag. So that might partly explain the price difference?

I dunno, they just seem like a gimmick to me.

Have you seen the ingredients list?!

Can't even remember which brands but whereas normal fruit teabags are normally just dried fruit and herbs in them, these had all sorts of artificial goodness knows what in it. I'd rather have squash!

Just buy posh squash. It's a complete swizz. I tried them and was really disappointed with the low level of flavour. You can get some really nice squashes now.

I also quite like a cold infusion of fresh stuff - couple of slices of cucumber with a few mint leaves is divine.

I thought the only issue with putting tea bags in cold water was that it takes ages to get the flavour out. So I always assumed the ones for cold brewing were just designed to steep quickly in cold water.

It took me quite a bit of googling to find the "safety" issue Twinings refer to is that herbal teas specifically could have bacteria in them that get killed off with the hot water, but not in cold water.

I've been cold brewing herbal tea for years and not been sick... so I guess from my side it's a swizz!