Can Iced Tea Go Bad In The Fridge?

There are not a ton of beverages that are more refreshing on a hot day than iced tea. That's why whipping up a big batch and letting it chill in the refrigerator to pour at your leisure is always a good idea. But something you'll want to know is that iced tea can, and, in fact, will go bad if you don't drink it in time, which means you shouldn't necessarily wait to enjoy it.

If you leave it in the fridge for way too long, it will grow little islands of mold. Please do not ask me how I know this — there are some memories I do not like to revisit. But after you brew it, I do recommend you store it in the fridge in an airtight container and drink it within one to three days. While your tea may not go fuzzy that quickly, it may start to develop unpleasant sourness or otherwise off aromas and flavors. Enjoying it sooner is better, since it can start losing its best flavor after a day or so anyway. 

Since you're initially using hot water to brew tea, you're already killing much of the bacteria that can make you sick. As long as you use a well-sanitized vessel to keep it in afterwards, you'll be minimizing most risk. In the case of iced tea, just try to make whatever your household will drink within a couple of days.

There's something charming and homestead-like about brewing tea by letting it steep in the light of the sun, but it turns out that you might not actually want to make sun tea this summer. That's because, most of the time, your tea is going to end up squarely in the danger zone, which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the window where bacteria love to thrive. The longer you keep the tea in that temperature range, the more bacteria have time to proliferate.

If you really insist on making iced tea this way, make sure you use a perfectly clear, sanitized glass container to do this, and you shouldn't be steeping sun tea for longer than four hours. After that, you're on your own. Admittedly, the dangers are minuscule, as sun tea isn't a common way for people to get sick. But I still don't think you want to give your cookout guests food poisoning or be part of some unfortunate statistic that's akin to winning the lottery (but in the opposite direction). I'd stick to the common hot water method of brewing tea and just drink it within a couple of days. You can always make more with barely any work, anyhow. It's tea, after all.