Sweet Tea

[Anonymous]

Pal's has the best sweet tea. Gotta go to my neck of the woods to get it.

[Anonymous]

Add a pinch of baking soda after you remove the tea bags, but while the water is still hot. It’s calms the tannins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add a pinch of baking soda after you remove the tea bags, but while the water is still hot. It’s calms the tannins.

YES!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Decaf, really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pal's has the best sweet tea. Gotta go to my neck of the woods to get it.

Yes! Pals is the best.

Are you a Kingsport native?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Decaf, really?

I am the person who posted this recipe. Yes, Decaf. Because so many people, when offered sweet tea, say things like, "Oh I can't do caffeine this late in the day" or something like that. The decaf tastes just as good as the caffeinated. That way everyone can enjoy it.

You can use caffeinated tea if you want to. But my experience is that less people will be willing to drink it if you make it with caffeinated tea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add a pinch of baking soda after you remove the tea bags, but while the water is still hot. It’s calms the tannins.

YES!

If you can taste the tannins your water was too hot. It shouldn’t be boiling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pal's has the best sweet tea. Gotta go to my neck of the woods to get it.

Wow! I never thought to see a reference to Pal’s on DCUM!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pal's has the best sweet tea. Gotta go to my neck of the woods to get it.

Wow! I never thought to see a reference to Pal’s on DCUM!

I'm wondering if there are 3 of us from Kingsport posting....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Decaf, really?

I am the person who posted this recipe. Yes, Decaf. Because so many people, when offered sweet tea, say things like, "Oh I can't do caffeine this late in the day" or something like that. The decaf tastes just as good as the caffeinated. That way everyone can enjoy it.

You can use caffeinated tea if you want to. But my experience is that less people will be willing to drink it if you make it with caffeinated tea.

DP. When I was a kid, we used to keep two pitchers of tea in the fridge, one caf and one decaf.

We don't drink enough tea now to do that so we usually just make decaf, since it is good anytime, day or night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP. It's definitely not, babe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pal's has the best sweet tea. Gotta go to my neck of the woods to get it.

Wow! I never thought to see a reference to Pal’s on DCUM!

I'm wondering if there are 3 of us from Kingsport posting....

I’m the PP you quoted. I’m not from Kingsport myself, but my mom’s family is from that area, and we still visit her cousins frequently. I’ve had many a meal at Pal’s!