Sweet Tea

[Anonymous]

I lived in several places in the US as a military family and I really do enjoy a good sweet tea. I remember friends/family making it at home with plain old Lipton bags and it seems easy enough but I can't seem to get it right.

Can someone please help? I know it's so lame - but I want to make sweet tea at home. What is the ratio of bags/water/sugar? Southern sweet tea lovers and makers please tell me your secret!

[Anonymous]

You have to dissolve the sugar in hot water before incorporating it into the tea

[Anonymous]

Make the tea a bit stronger than you expect and put in a lot more sugar than you expect. I use about a cup of sugar per two quarts of water and probably six or seven tea bags?

[Anonymous]

I will qualify this by saying I am not from an area where sweet tea is a religion, so I’m sure there is something heretical here.

I usually steep 6 tea bags in 2 cups of water for 10 min. Don’t squeeze when removing. Add 1/4-1/3 c. Sugar while water is hot and stir to dissolve. I hate waiting, so I top up with ice to 8 cups total volume. You can top up with water after the ice melts if you want. Add lemon and mint, still serve over ice.

[Anonymous]

NOT LIPTON. You need Luzianne tea bags, they are made for iced tea and the only bags southerners will use. You need to boil these on the stove only until the water is boiling, then turn it off and let them steep. Add sugar to your pitcher and add the tea WHILE HOT. This is what dissolves the sugar and makes it taste smooth and like sweet tea. Add water as you stir to dilute once the sugar is dissolved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will qualify this by saying I am not from an area where sweet tea is a religion, so I’m sure there is something heretical here.

I usually steep 6 tea bags in 2 cups of water for 10 min. Don’t squeeze when removing. Add 1/4-1/3 c. Sugar while water is hot and stir to dissolve. I hate waiting, so I top up with ice to 8 cups total volume. You can top up with water after the ice melts if you want. Add lemon and mint, still serve over ice.

the mint is heretical lol.

[Anonymous]

Make a simple syrup and add It to your tea.

[Anonymous]

Harris Teeter sells a gallon in the cold section by the deli. It’s good (but very sweet), you could buy that and keep it in your fridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make a simple syrup and add It to your tea.

i use agave in my sweet tea

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make a simple syrup and add It to your tea.

this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NOT LIPTON. You need Luzianne tea bags, they are made for iced tea and the only bags southerners will use. You need to boil these on the stove only until the water is boiling, then turn it off and let them steep. Add sugar to your pitcher and add the tea WHILE HOT. This is what dissolves the sugar and makes it taste smooth and like sweet tea. Add water as you stir to dilute once the sugar is dissolved.

This is the way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NOT LIPTON. You need Luzianne tea bags, they are made for iced tea and the only bags southerners will use. You need to boil these on the stove only until the water is boiling, then turn it off and let them steep. Add sugar to your pitcher and add the tea WHILE HOT. This is what dissolves the sugar and makes it taste smooth and like sweet tea. Add water as you stir to dilute once the sugar is dissolved.

This is the way.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make a simple syrup and add It to your tea.

i use agave in my sweet tea

Ok but that is not going to create the sweet tea OP is asking about. That’s just tea with agave , it’s totally different. She’s asking about actual sweet tea.

Op I am the Luzianne poster. Ratio, I would do 3 of the family sized tea bags in a small saucepan of water for your tea. Probably 3-4 cups of water - that size saucepan. Add 1 cup of sugar to your pitcher if you like it on the less sweet side, up to 2 for the really sweet tea. Then about as much water to fill up the pitcher to dilute it all.

[Anonymous]

I make excellent sweet tea. I typed up the recipe for a family cookbook a few years ago. I also posted it on here back in 2019.

Recipe

This will make a gallon

Boil 2 or 3 cups of water. Once it is boiling good, put five family sized bags of Luzianne decaffeinated family sized tea bags in the pot of water. Dunk them in the water good, then immediately turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner if you have an electric stove.
Let it sit there for 15 minutes.

Then leave the teabags in the pot, and pour the water from the pot into your pitcher. Then refill the pot with water, swish the teabags around a bit, and then put that liquid into the pitcher. Keep doing this until there is hardly any tea leaching out of the tea bags.

Don’t squeeze the tea bags. Okay, you can squeeze them a tiny bit, but I swear that when I squeeze the teabags really hard, it makes the tea taste bitter.

Okay, so now you are done with your tea bags. So throw them away. Now, refill the pot again with about two cups of water. Put 1 ¼ cups sugar into the pot. Return to the stove with your pot, turn on the burner, and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Add the sugar to the pitcher.

Stir, add ice cubes and water until it all comes up to the one gallon mark on your pitcher.

Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NOT LIPTON. You need Luzianne tea bags, they are made for iced tea and the only bags southerners will use. You need to boil these on the stove only until the water is boiling, then turn it off and let them steep. Add sugar to your pitcher and add the tea WHILE HOT. This is what dissolves the sugar and makes it taste smooth and like sweet tea. Add water as you stir to dilute once the sugar is dissolved.

This is the way.

+1.

+2
PP knows what they're doing. This, exactly.