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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I cook my tea (Luzianne or Community) in an 8-cup glass measuring cup. I use 4 family size bags (love strong tea) for a gallon. I fill with 8 cups of water, put the bags in with the tags hanging out, cover with a Corelle salad plate, and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes (just till it starts to bubble).
I let my tea sit in the microwave until it turns cold (I make it just before I go to bed) or at least cools down. I had problems with cloudy tea and it turned out mixing it while it was hot was causing the cloudiness. Then I mix it with 34 packets of Equal OR 1.5 cups of sugar. Once I get the sweetner dissolved, I pour cold water from the refrigerator to finish out the gallon.
Every day I make a gallon of tea.
We love Luzianne tea! Yummy!
I am a big lover of sweet tea, I get Walmarts brand of Splenda. I have drank tea all my life, I’ve never drank coffee, so as soon as I get up, I fix me a glass of tea. I only use the family size bags tho’, and wondered whats the difference? To me, all those little bags are a pain!!!
I use an old Corning Ware tea pot to make my tea. I add three family size bags of Luzianne and fill with water. Bring just to a boil – no boiling! (Oh yes, I always set the time on the stove for 10 minutes – otherwise, I’ll walk off and forget all about it. haha) I do this after supper and let it steep overnight. In the morning, I pour the tea over 1.5 cups sugar or Splenda, I then refill the tea pot with water from the Brita pitcher that is nice and cold from being in the fridge, and squeeze the tea bags. Pour this into pitcher and finish filling with the cold water from the Brita pitcher. Perfect every time! The tea tastes so much better when the water has been filtered in the Brita pitcher.
My mother had a glass of tea with her at all times. When my son was a baby (he’s now 38!), she would dip his pacifier in her glass and give it to him. He loved it!
I remember a glass pickle jar breaking the exact same way! I’ve been drinking sweet tea for as long as I can remember. My kids are growing up on it, too. When in a restaurant, my precious 3 year old orders, “Sweet tea, please.”
My family drinks iced tea 12 months a year! 🙂 My Mom is celebrating her 82nd birthday next week and she still sings the tea jingle!