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’ve been drinking sweet tea probably since I could walk! When I was 3, my mom left a big 3 gallon glass jar on the porch to make sun tea. I decided to be helpful and carry it inside for her! Of course, I dropped it on my toe and shattered the container. All summer long I insisted on epsom salts so I could soak my poor sore toe. 😉
I ONLY drink Luzianne tea.
Ha,ha…I probably had sweet tea in my bottle too!! I live in the deep south and we always had sweet tea with dinner and supper :). Two of my three children were born with a heart condition so they are not allowed to have caffeine. My oldest has only had a few sips…( sneaked by a few family members). My oldest is begging to try it so I may have to make some decaffeinated 🙂
I learned something new today! I also dumped my hot just boiled tea over my sweetener. When I make it the tea tonight for supper it’s going to be done the right way (Christy’s way). When my mother made tea she would always make it before starting the meal. She’d bring it to a boil then put a lid on the pan and as she said, “let it set awhile”. I thought she was letting the tea get stronger. What she was doing was waiting on the tea to cool before adding her water and sugar. I was delicious! I don’t remember when we were allowed to drink tea with our meals. Mother made us drink a glass of milk before we could have tea. After drinking the milk we didn’t have room for tea. Thanks Christy for the great tip!
Luzianne is the ONLY tea there is as far as I am concerned!! 🙂 I too, only like the regular size bags–those family size just aren’t the same. To make a gallon, I use 7 bags and not quite two cups of sugar. I actually make mine in the microwave–I have a big 8 cup pyrex measuring bowl (that my Granny gave me probably 35 years ago) that I fill up with water, add the bags and microwave for 5 minutes. Makes delicious tea!!!!
As most southerners I have been drinking sweet tea as far back as I can remember. My youngest daughter Meagan was introduced to sweet tea at the tender young age of 8 weeks by her dad. We had just sat down to a homecooked meal of fried squirrel with gravy, purple hull peas, mashed potatoes, hot water bread and of course sweet tea when the phone rang. As I came back into the dining room, Meagan was in her dad’s arms and he had dipped hot water bread into some squirrel gravy and she sucked off all that gravy and he then gave her a sip of sweet tea “to wash it down”. She was smiling and dad was giving me that “what did I do ?” look.
I use Luzianne tea exclusively but no sugar, thank you. I’ve lived in the South most of my life and many of my ancestors were Southern born but I love my unsweetened, clean tasting iced tea. I drink it all day long, summer or winter. My grandmother would drink her tea sweet with Pepsi added! But her son, my Dad, never liked his tea sweet. Sweet tea has made inroads in the North, specifically at McDonald’s and Cracker Barrel. I can make sweet tea for visitors and I use the same method you do, Christy, so that’s good to know.
I was making the sugar in the hot tea bag mixture mistake!!!
Won’t do that any more. I will be smooth tea from now on.
Thank you so much!
P.S. I bought your cookbook and love it!