# Why is my Wife's Iced Tea Cloudy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2007, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619 "2007-06-27T06:53:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/1 "2007-06-27T06:53:28Z")
On the insufficient information I’m about to give, chances are no one can answer this adequately. But perhaps something similar has happened to one of you, and you can at least suggest what _might_ have happened here. We have an iced tea maker. You just pour in water, put ice in the pitcher, put tea bags and a filter in a little compartment, put the pitcher under the compartment, push a button, and in five minutes–iced tea. I’ve used it dozens of times without a problem. My wife used it today, and the tea she made is very _cloudy_. It tastes normal–maybe a little strong?–but the stuff she’s made (if indeed it be tea) looks a bit like chocolate milk with a little orange juice mixed in. It’s opaque in a way no iced tea should be. And the particles clouding up the stuff are visible–if I stir it, I can see the little swirls and eddies I make in the “clouds” inhabiting my tea. After the sip to see what it tastes like, I have left this “tea” alone. It is too frightening and different for me. Anyone ever have this happen? Any idea what’s gone wrong? My first thought was the iced tea maker is just dirty or something, but that seems unlikely since as I said, I’ve used it dozens of times with nothing like this happening. I would expect a more gradual build-up in cloudiness rather than this sudden onset. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/2 "2007-06-27T06:57:12Z")
It this her first time using it? It sounds like the sugar wasn’t dissolved completely. Is this a Mister Coffee model perhaps? I had one once, and the instructions didn’t specify when to add the sugar to the brew. It took a lot of experimenting to get any decent tea out of that thing. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/3 "2007-06-27T07:00:13Z")
[QUOTE=Wheeljack] It this her first time using it? It sounds like the sugar wasn’t dissolved completely. [/quote] No sugar was involved in the making of this tea. 🙂 I drink mine straight. -FRL- ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/4 "2007-06-27T13:04:36Z")
Ask her how many tea bags she used. I used to work in a restaurant and we let the new person make the tea and that’s what we got. As soon as the tea chilled the tea looked like chocolate milk. We later found that she’d used too many tea bags and then didn’t dilute it down enough. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/5 "2007-06-27T13:27:23Z")
I get cloudy batches sometimes. I have no idea what the cause is. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/6 "2007-06-27T13:38:02Z")
Here is a [link](http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/teabrewing/ht/ht_cleartea.htm) claiming that refrigerating tea makes it cloudy. I’ve had it become cloudy after sitting over night. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/7 "2007-06-27T13:49:51Z")
Refrigerating tea _before it has cooled_ can cause clouding. You can prevent that by allowing it to cool to near room temperature before refrigeration. I have no idea how or why that phenomenon might manifest with a tea machine, since you can normally pour hot tea over ice without causing clouding. Puzzling. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/8 "2007-06-27T15:54:47Z")
[cloudy tea](http://www.faqs.org/qa/qa-3551.html) This link says you can clear it with some hot water. It also says better teas and hard water can cause cloudiness. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/9 "2007-06-27T22:59:11Z")
I bought an iced tea maker and remember that amazon reviewers said in order to avoid cloudiness, they make the tea without the ice, refrigerate it, then pour it over ice when served. I’d suggest using filtered water for the ice as well as the tea. I don’t use black tea. I use herbal infusions and I don’t have any problem using ice. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/10 "2007-06-28T01:17:57Z")
I find it turns cloudy if I include lemon. If I leave the lemon out, it stays clear. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/11 "2007-06-28T02:52:55Z")
she didn’t use Tetley tea bags? Specailly formulated to not get cloudy. 😉 I use a tea mcahine a lot and never have a problem with the tea getting cloudy however when I used to make it with boiling water and then immersing the tea bag to steep I would get cloudy tea if one of two things happened. 1. I got impatient and dropped the tea bag in while the water was still on the stove essentialy cooking the tea bag in the water. Cloudy tea. 2. if I left the tea bag in the water to steep too long. I don’t know how either of those would happen in a tea maker though so probably no help. And I think cloudy tea tastes funky. I don’t put ice in my tea maker either, I only use the single serving size of teabag, run the water through the maker and then pour another thing of water though the same tea bag. Comes out perfect and gives me two big glasses of tea to drink. I am very picky about my iced tea since I don’t drink soft drinks of any kind. Tea and water is it. My friends will debate when dining out if the tea is “Ademar acceptable tea” or not. And I think cloudy tea tastes funky. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/12 "2007-06-28T06:00:32Z")
Do you know not to squeeze your bags? It might be that. Squozen bags release bad flavor, some chemicals from the tea leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/13 "2007-06-28T06:58:20Z")
Squozen? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/14 "2007-06-28T07:02:43Z")
I make my tea with loose tea, no ice. It does get cloudy if put in the refrigerator before cooling, or if lemon is added before cooling. I do filter my water, btw. It’s never been as bad as in the OP, though. Maybe some soap was left in the maker after washing? ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/15 "2007-06-28T15:43:19Z")
[QUOTE=Wheeljack] Squozen? [/QUOTE] Technical tea jargon. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-wifes-iced-tea-cloudy/409619/16 "2007-06-28T16:33:42Z")
Perhaps it’s because you’re so vain … ?