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 am originally from the Midwest (now living in Tennessee) and didn’t know that ice tea could be prepared with sugar until I visited the South, sometime in my twenties. Tea was always unsweet, and still is pretty much that way when I visit back home. AND, for most of those years of unsweet tea it was instant tea!! When my children were very small and first introduced to sweet tea they called it “tasty tea”. We still fondly recall some “tasty tea” from a tea room in Georgia. They thought it was wonderful. I have now lived in the South most of my adult life and come to appreciate making ice tea as almost an art. I still try to make really good tea but don’t think I have mastered it yet. Hopefully this video will help. Thanks.
Seems like I was born with a glass of sweet tea in my hand. I live alone now and drink close to a gallon a day during the summer by myself!!
Oh, I forgot: I have been drinking sweet tea since I was little. My mom loved iced tea and as a kid, we often made sun tea in the large glass jars (I grew up in sunny Southern California). Thinking back, it did have a little bit of a bitter taste. Probably because once the tea was done brewing in the sun, my mom would add sugar and lemon to the hot tea, and then put it in the refrigerator to cool. Once cooled, she would serve it over ice. Hmmm.. well I will be making tea Christy’s way tonight and I bet there will not be any bitterness. Can’t wait to get brewing!
Christy, I LOVED the tip on adding sugar to water not the hot tea to avoid bitterness. I will be making some tonight! I have seen your recipe for sweet tea on Southern Plate but haven’t tried it yet. I think seeing the video was very helpful. Love me some iced tea! :o) Thanks for the video tutorial!
I can’t remember a time when I did not drink tea of some sort! As a child, I had sun tea brewed outside in the old pickle jars, icky instant tea, and tea made in the coffee maker (with a strange coff-tea taste)…those are the bad memories. In college I was introduced to MILO’S TEA and that’s been the gold standard ever since for me, although I have to drink the Splenda version now. At home we have a Mr. Coffee tea maker that was a wedding gift almost 13 years ago. The power switch is holding on by tape now, but it still works great. Now that I know your secret, Christy, I prefer the stovetop method. It just gives a deeper flavor since I can control the steeping time. Thanks for sharing the tea tutorial!
I am like you. I think I drank tea from the baby bottle. My mom who is 89 yrs old this July is one of these cooks who has a certain pot for only certain foods. She had a special pot just for her tea. So funny but she is not a tea drinker but she always made the most wonderful tea. Never tasted it for sweetness. Just knew how much sugar to put in it. She was also one of those cooks that never measured anything. I remember when I 1st got married, I would call her & ask her to make some dish. She would tell me a little of this & a little of that. It’s a wonder I ever learnded to cook. Will never be the cook she is but close second.
Pat, that would be my mom to, that is exactly what she should say,a little of this and a little of that. Don’t know about you but that didn’t help me at all. LOL
I’m 53 and don’t ever remember not drinking iced sweet tea.
My funny comment was….My husband and I were moveing to St. Louis, Missouri and the whole family had a get together to see us off. My niece had recently been on a trip to Washington, DC and as you know it is hard to find sweet tea in the northern states. She heard me order UNSWEET Tea and asked me are you practiceing to be a yankee. I just laughed at her and told her no that I was a diabetic and used an artificial sweetner. She is now 19 and I still laugh at her about it.