How To Make Iced Sweet Tea (Video)
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
A lot of folks have asked me how I make my sweet tea so today I’m bringing you a video showing you exactly how I do it. Hope you’ll join me for a glass!
This is how we make our sweet tea but everyone has their preference. If you prefer a weaker tea, use fewer tea bags. If you like it sweeter, taste it and then add more sugar to suit you. Note: Most restaurants use a much more sugar than this :). We always go through a full gallon a day (at least) but if you have any left you can just store it in the refrigerator and enjoy over the next day or two!
Sweet Tea
- 5 Tea Bags*
- 3/4 Cup sugar (more if you prefer)
- Water
Remove tags from teabags and place in small pot. Fill up pot most of the way with water (exact amount doesn’t matter as long as the tea bags are covered and then some). Place on medium to medium high heat and bring just to a boil. Remove from stove eye and prepare your pitcher.
Fill pitcher halfway (or so) with cold water. Add your sugar**. Add hot tea. Stir until sugar is dissolved and fill remainder of pitcher with cold water. Serve over ice.
*We use Orange Pekoe tea but you can experiment with making iced tea with other teas as well. Earl Grey makes a delicious iced tea!
**I prefer to use Splenda or Ideal Sweetener in my tea but use the same amount as I would were I using sugar.
The trick to having a good smooth tasting tea is to avoid adding hot tea directly to the sugar or sugar directly to the hot tea. This scorches the sugar and creates a very bitter taste in your tea. To avoid this, place cold water in your pitcher first, add your sugar to that, and then pour in your hot tea.
If you have a traditional coffee maker, I talk about how to make sweet tea in that in this post.
Funny Family Stories of Sweet Tea
One time my mother was watching a television talk show and they were talking about how much Southerners love sweet tea. The host said “Well it’s no wonder, they’ve probably been drinking it since they were four!” Mama took objection to this and huffed “Four? I was putting it in your baby bottles by the time you were two!” ~giggles~
My Grandmother Lucille spent a great deal of time at the elbow of my Great Grandmother (Mama Reed) after she was married learning how to cook. A lot of the daughters in law and mothers gathered at Mama Reed’s house on Sundays to help prepare the big meal. Shortly after Grandmama joined the clan she was given the task of making the Sweet Tea. Back then it was made in a large glass recycled pickle jar. Grandmama poured the hot tea directly into the jar and set to stirring it up vigorously with a long handled metal spoon. A few clinks later and the jar shattered, sending sticky sweet tea all over Mama Reed’s clean kitchen floor. Everyone had a good and gracious laugh about it but Grandmama said “I liked to never got the sticky off’n that floor!”
How young were you when you started drinking sweet tea?
Do you have any special or funny memories of Sweet Tea in your family?
I’ll pick one of the comments below to win a Luzianne Prize Pack
Winner announced on this post and notified tomorrow evening. Giveaway closes at noon central time Friday, July 1st.
This Giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Joan Whitaker! I’ve been in contact with Joan and given her directions on how to claim her prize. Have a great day and thank you!
Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Luzianne nor was I compensated for doing it. I just think it’s awfully good tea. I also think y’all need to go make some right now.
“Don’t wait for people to be friendly, show them how.”
Submitted by Jenny (thank you, Jenny!). Submit your quote or read more great quotes by clicking here.
I’m from Missouri and I never even knew of sweet tea until I was a teenager! My mom just made regular and sometimes would put a few mint leaves in it from outside. Now we can find sweet tea here but that’s pretty new in the restaurants (and it’s still just at the fast food places). When you go to a regular restaurant, it’s just regular tea – hot or cold, but never sweetened. We’re such Yankees! I never knew what I’d been missing – I LOVE sweet tea now and I love making it because like you said, we can control how sweet we want it. Thanks – great video!
I think my Momma used to put it in my baby bottle. I can’t ever remember NOT drinking sweet tea. Luzianne makes the BEST!
I’ve been reading alot of posters have had terrible mishaps with broken glass pitchers. Well, when I first married I had a glass pitcher to make tea in and poured boiling water into it one day to make tea…well the tea pitcher broke and the boiling water came out and burned my legs something awlful (I had on shorts)!! Never again did I use a glass pitcher…but, a good thing to remember is to put a metal spoon in the pitcher before you pour any hot liquid into a glass container!!
Love sweet tea! It is a staple in our home! I found Southern Plate when I was on a search to perfect my sweet tea! Christy set me straight!! Only a few places sell Luzianne here up North and it is my favorite!
Bountiful Blessings, Christy!
It was either sweet tea or koolaid when I was growing up. Cocolas were a special treat. My mother never put left over tea in the refrigerator. It always had to be freshly made for that meal.
I did want to add I usually buy Luzianne Tea, but, had purchased some Orange Pekoe tea from the web called Hills-Brooks tea and it’s very good. That’s what I just made my iced sweet tea with. I think this is made in Mississippi…Good Ole Southern Tea!!!
Hi, Christy!! I just watched your video about making tea, and decided I wanted to try your way….BTW, I’ve been drinking sweet tea as long as I can remember and grew up on it, being born and raised in the South!! I just made it and it’s very good, not bitter like mine usually turns out, I always poured the boiling water over the tea bags then put the sugar into the hot water. This was so easy and simple..I always thought I had to let my tea “Steep” in order to get the tea made. I’m past 60 and I learn something new everyday!!
I just found you on the web and I certainly love all your recipes!! I’m going to buy your cookbook!! Thanks for all the videos…I’m going to spend the rest of the day watching them and drinking my delishious sweet iced tea!!