How To Make Iced Sweet Tea (Video)
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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.”
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My goodness, I’m 55 and I have no idea when I started drinking tea. Seems like I always did. Mama always makes her syrup water with a little tea- if you know what I mean. It was always a little too sweet for my family. However, I make mine like you. I only put in about 3/4 cup sweetner and it’s just right! I have been drinking peach tea lately and love it!
I have been drinking and making sweet tea forever. I make it the way my mother and grandmother made it. Same recipe as yours, Christy, just slightly different steps. I let my tea steep at least 30 min., if not more. By that time, it has cooled enough to add directly to the sugar, but it still warm enough to dissolve it, and then I add the cold water. Perfect and consistent every time! I use about 1-1/4C sugar and ONLY Luzianne tea, it has the best flavor for sweet tea.
Thanks for all you do!!
On a side note, I plan to make your Lemon Meringue Pie for July 4th!
Take care and best wishes from the ATL!
Growing up in West Virginia, we drank sweet tea all the time. I loved going home with my friend after school, because her family always had two jugs of tea in the fridge. We’d sit there and drink glass after glass, then make some more before her mom and dad got home! I also have fond memories of getting a huge sweet tea from Hardee’s after high school. Sadly, we moved away to California and while there’s many wonderful things here, there is no sweet tea!! I miss my home state so much, and even now, 20 years later, I always have a big old pitcher of sweet tea in my fridge. My Californian hubby and kids don’t get it, but every time I refill my glass, it takes me back to those hot West Virginia summers 🙂
I’m with you try McDonalds tea it’s good.
I have been drinking sweet iced tea for so long I think it runs in my veins! When we were growing up mamaw always had Kool-Aid, momma always had sweet tea, I can’t stand Kool-Aid. Momma always (and still does use 2 cups of sugar: 4 family size tea bags to make 1 gallon of tea! When I married a Yankee (unsweet tea) 10 years ago, I realized that 2 cups of sugar is just too much! We made a compromise and we use 1 cup of sugar now. I like to use Decaf Tea, just to try to not be so jittery, and because I do not allow my kids to drink caffeinated drinks. When I make decaf I can let my 3 year old (who absolutely loves tea) drink some. Everytime I make tea, he will ask, “does it have caffeine in it?” If I say yes he has to ask a thousand times I guess he thinks I am going to change my answer.
I’ve been makin sweet tea all my life and didn’t know why sometimes ti was bitter and sometimes it turned out perfect!!! Scorched sugar! Dang!
I have never tried sweet tea. I am not a huge tea fan, but you make me want to try it…
I may have missed it, but did you say what size tea bags to use?
She doesn’t say, but the box says 100 tea bags, which is the single serve size, for 2 qts, you would use 5 individual bags of tea, a gallon would call for 10. Also, we only use 1 c sugar per gallon of sweet tea, but I’m from Tn & it has been my experience that the tea gets sweeter the farther south I go!! Hope this helps!
You are right..a cup of sugar is REAL Southern SWEET Tea!! Same as we do here in the Western NC Mountains!