Satisfying my craving for sweet tea.

[polkanut]

So lately I've had this crazy craving for sweet tea even though the temps outside tell me it isn't exactly iced tea weather yet.  So, this morning I went ahead and brewed up a batch using my Norelco Dial-A-Brew.  I've also done this using a percolator, but this is faster by far.

 

10 tea bags

1 ½ cups granulated white sugar

½ cup lemon juice

Water to equal 1 gallon

 

Measure sugar & lemon juice into an empty 1 gallon pitcher.  Place tea bags in coffee maker basket, and keep brewing until you have a gallon of tea.  Pour hot tea over sugar and lemon and stir well to mix ingredients.  Refrigerate until cold.  I usually let it sit in the fridge for about 24 hours or so before drinking.  The tea will turn cloudy, but it doesn't matter to me.   I use a Rubbermaid pitcher. 

[this post was last edited: 3/7/2015-14:07]

 

[michaelman2]

Tim....Old Southern Iced Tea trick....to prevent cloudiness a pinch of baking soda will do the trick...promise on this. While you still have the sugar and tea hot works best.

 

[polkanut]

Thanks for the tip.  Will give it a try next time. 

 

[ea56]

You can also just put your tea bags into the jar or pitcher, add cold water ( and sugar and lemon too, if you want sweet tea), and leave it in the refrigerator overnight. This has always worked for me. This way the tea won't turn cloudy, and it sure is easy. To me it tastes the same as if I had used boiling water.

 

[mrb627]

Sweet Tea

I usually make sweet tea with a sugar substitute if it is just for me. Otherwise I use sugar.

2 family sized tea bags in a quart Pyrex container with 3 cups of water.
Place in microwave and set for 5 minutes Simmer.

While that is working, add enough sugar to your liking and about 5cups of water to a pitcher. When MW is done, add hot tea to sugar mixture and give it a stir. Refrigerate.

Malcolm

 

[DADoES]

 
I make a gallon using my 3-quart West Bend Iced Tea Maker.  However, I quit using ice to help avoid cloudiness.

Fill the reservoir, then fill the pitcher with water to the ice line.

Two family-size tea bags, three regular-size Earl Grey.  A revised recipe put into play a few months ago is two Earl Grey and one Lemon Zinger.

1-1/4 cups sugar in a separate one-gallon pitcher.

Pour the 3 quarts of tea into the gallon pitcher, stir to dissolve the sugar, and add ice cubes to make the gallon.

 

[cuffs054]

I've been putting one family size bag in pitcher, cycling the Keurig to dump hot water, stir, pull bag, add 5 of the yellow packets (whatever the hell they are) fill pitcher half way with ice the balance with water and you're good to go.

 

[murando531]

We always have a gallon pitcher of sweet tea in the fridge; has to be one with a pop open spout or lid. My bf usually just drinks water but for me tea is just the go to drink. Us dawg gone Suthenas!! But I still do it the old fashioned way, mainly because I don't have a device that does a good job. Just 2-3 tea bags, depending on size, in a half pan of boiling water, just for a minute. Then I just kill the element and let it simmer down and steep on its own. I've found that a tiny pinch of salt in the boiling water helps keep it from getting that chalky bitter taste if it isn't used in a day or two.

 

Also, for anyone who brews it on the stove, I've started putting a little more water in the pan, and putting my sugar in the pitcher before hand, and then pouring just enough of the hot water to dissolve the sugar, that way I can let the tea steep a little longer and it won't matter if it gets cool.

 

I'm not much for overly sweet drinks; Zaxby's and McDonald's sweet teas are a diabetic coma. I've adjusted down to a little more than 2/3 cup of sugar per gallon over the years, and so far everyone that drinks it seems delighted that it tastes nice without instantly corroding teeth!

 

[askolover]

Sweet tea, TN style

I keep a gallon in the fridge as well! My hubby drinks Pepsi like it's going out of style but for me it's sweet tea or water. I drink sweet ice tea year around.
My way (my mom's way too):

2 family size tea bags, Tetley black or Salada green tea
a pan of softened, filtered water
a heaping cup of sugar in a gallon pitcher
Bring to boil and turn off for a few minutes, then pour over the sugar and top off the pitcher with water. To me it tastes better the next day. Since getting a softener 15 years ago I don't have the cloudiness issue. Also, distilled water will yield very clear tea...it will actually look weak but will NOT taste weak.

 

[norgeway]

Well...

I drink sweet tea the year round, Donald doesent like it as sweet as I do, so I use 4 decaf family size tea bags with 2 peppermint tea bags, put them in the basket of a percolator full of cold water, while it perks add 1 cup sugar to about 1/2 pitcher of cold water, stir well when tea stops perking, pour into cold water, stir and refrigerate, if im making it just for me, or if Ron Jones is coming to visit, I leave out the peppermint and use 2 cups of sugar.

 

[frigilux]

The Keurig has made a daily iced tea drinker of me, although---and I can see you sweet tea fans cringing---my favorite is Lipton Unsweetened. Straight. Sometimes I'll add a splash of raspberry or peach (or both) syrup.

 

I purchased a box of Lipton Sweet Tea, but that's an occasional treat. It's really sweet.  There's no way I could make it my go-to drink without a side of insulin, LOL.

 

1.  My iced tea glass and syrups.

2.  Lipton Iced Sweet Tea

3.  Celestial Iced Sweet Tea

4.  Lipton Unsweetened Iced Tea (daily driver)

[this post was last edited: 3/8/2015-09:50]

 

[appnut]

Between sweet tea and fried foods, I can see why obesity is so prevalent in the Deep South.  I really don't like sweet tea all that much and 99% of the time all hot or iced tea I drink is unsweetened.  It's calories and sugar I don't need.  I view sweet tea consumption on the same level as carbonated sodas. 

 

[countryford]

I grew up on sweet tea. I got tired of all the sugar though and it took me a while to get used to the flavor of unsweetend Iced tea. I love it now. I drink it all the time.

 

We have a glass jar that we fill with hot(from the tap) water with the tea bags. Set it outside in the sun for several hours. Bring it back inside, take the tea bags out and put the jar in the refrigerator. No lemon, no sugar, just plain ole tea.

 

[ea56]

I too prefer my tea unsweetened, both hot and cold. Many years ago I used to keep iced tea in the fridge all the time and then I used to put 1/4 cup sugar into a 1 gallon pitcher and that just took the edge off, but any sweeter than that is too sweet for me. And the sweet tea at Mc Donalds is way too sweet. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets and sugar, just not in my tea, or my coffee either. The only reason that I happen to know that McDonalds sweet tea is too sweet for me is because I accidentally poured some of it one time, its not for me![this post was last edited: 3/8/2015-16:06]

 

[countryford]

<blockquote>
And the sweet tea at Mc Donalds is way too sweet. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets and sugar, just not in my tea, of my coffee either.

</blockquote>
I have no clue what McDonald's sweet tea tastes like. I only get their unsweetened.

 

[norgeway]

McDonalds

Is the only sweet tea commercially available that tastes good !..Donald says its too sweet, but I love it!!LOL

 

[dynaflow]

ditto Hans

u know I live on sweet tea

 

[perc-o-prince]

McDonald's sweet teas are a diabetic coma

I agree, Andrew. I don't know if all McD's do this but most here have sweet and unsweetened. I mix it maybe 2:1 unsweet to sweet when I get it there.

Has anyone found that the tea doesn't seem to steep as well or as dark if the lemon is in the water with the tea and sugar? I always add my lemon after the steep when I make it at home.

Chuck

 

[michaelman2]

Sweet Tea = Table wine of the south!

I have known people to make a simple syrup and pour the syrup to taste, into brewed tea.

I am not much for artificial sweeteners. When I have lived in northern regions and asked for "sweet tea" at a restaurant, I am either looked at like I am asking for something they have never heard of, or am told: "sugar is on the table".

Trying to dissolve sugar in a cold beverage is not the same as sweetening the tea, when the brew is hot. Hence the reason I have seen the above way to serve sweet tea.

Also, the pinch of baking soda I mentioned in previous post will take away any over steeped bitterness(this is a very rare occurrence) and will hesitate cloudiness.

I like iced sweet tea, strong and sweet.

I guess the sugar content is a concern, however if I have a choice between sugar and high fructose corn syrup (sodas), I will take the sugar. I fully understand addiction....sugar is very tough tough "drug" to kick.

I do have to agree with the McDonald's tea being a bit sweet, I cannot tell if this is a concentrate that they simply dilute or what difference is with their brew? When I have it there I may dilute it with a small amount of unsweetened tea.

 

[norgeway]

I look at sugar and fat this way..

I don't and never have taken drugs,I have never been drunk,ive never smoked, and I have never been arrested, heck ive never had a speeding ticket,,,I will be d@#$%^ if im not going to have one bad habit..and that habit is food!!! sugary fattening food!!LOL

 

[dustin92]

I can drink tea hot or cold, but if it's hot it has to be sweetened. Cold, not so much, either way is good. The only iced tea I will drink from a restaurant is McDonald's Sweet Tea- So good! I've had bitter nasty iced tea from restaurants more times than I care to count so have given up on ordering it. We make iced tea in the summer, we have a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Pot, and love it. My mom used to make sun tea but I always thought it was gross. Think we even got rid of the sun tea jar. Hmmm, now I'm sitting here thinking a McDonalds sweet tea sounds good... but sadly, NOT happening. I'm extremely sensitive to caffeine and can't drink any after about two in the afternoon or I will be up ALL night. Guaranteed.

 

[mrb627]

Restaurant Sweet Tea

Often times, RST can have a soapy taste to me. Don't know what they're doing back in the kitchen, but soapy tasting tea is plain gross.

Anyone else ever experienced a soapy aftertaste?

Malcolm

 

[countryford]

<blockquote>
Anyone else ever experienced a soapy aftertaste?

</blockquote>
There are a couple places here, that their tea tastes like there is soap in it. Burger King, Quick Trip, and Port of Subs do. Port of Subs only one of their locations taste like that. The other two(that I've been to) don't. For Burger King and Quick Trip all of their locations I've tried, taste that way.

 

[perc-o-prince]

soapy aftertaste

I don't drink coffee, and am spoiled by having Tetley's British round bags as my daily (hot) tea. When we go for breakfast and I have tea, more often than not, I mention to Rich about it tasting like dishwater compared to home.

Chuck

 

[circlew]

I wouldn't put it past McDonald's to use High Fructose Corn Syrup in their tea, since it would be somewhat cheaper than cane sugar.

The best restaurant sweet tea is McAlister's Deli; they use real sugar in theirs!

I drink it year round, regardless of the temp outside. When I make it at home (a couple times a week), I usually use 3 family size tea bags, and steep them in about a qt. of water. After I remove the bags, I add about 1.5 cups of C&H Baker's Sugar (cane), and let it set for about 20 mins. before diluting to make 1 gal.

As for obesity in the south, I don't see any more of it there than around here. Most of it is caused by lack of exercise, or eating & drinking way too much.

 

[michaelman2]

Norgeway and Circle. Right on! Few things are more refreshing than iced tea that has been sweetened during the mix of the brew. I may have mentioned that each year I have about twenty college students visit our area and they do service projects and other great things in the community. The students have for the past ten years been from Boston College or Marquette University. Their first day is is a requisite to have a Southern meal. A true Southern meal consisting of fried chicken ( the right way), fried / cream style corn, green beans ( the Southern way), mashed potatoes and peach cobbler..... And Sweet Tea. Everyone of these young people immediately are curious about this. Concoction entitled "sweet tea". They are actually here with us now and I cannot keep enough sweet tea in the refrigerator for them. They are hooked! Like Norge said, not ever been keen on drugs or even booze for that matter. But sugar...... Hi my name is Mike and I am a sugar addict! Is it "good for you" ? Undoubtedly not good for anyone, but my gawwwwd it is truly missed when I am without it

 

[DADoES]

 
I haven't been in a McDonald's in years.  Do they brew tea in-house, or sell post-mix bag-in-box à la carbonated fountain soft drinks?  We have several varieties of tea (post-mix and bottled, Gold Peak and Fuze, via Coca-Cola) at the theater, it's very sweet, except the one that's unsweetened.

 

[askolover]

Further south...

When we go to New Orleans I can never find sweet tea at any restaurant.  They tell me we are "too far south".  I tell them, "I get it in Florida all the time!"  Too far south my foot, they grow sugar down in Louisiana...Dixie Crystals is right there on the Mississippi River!

 

[mrb627]

Restaurant Tea

Is also a RIP OFF based on what it costs to brew.
$2,25 for a regular glass of tea is ridiculous

Malcolm

 

[countryford]

<blockquote>
I haven't been in a McDonald's in years. Do they brew tea in-house, or sell post-mix bag-in-box à la carbonated fountain soft drinks? We have several varieties of tea (post-mix and bottled, Gold Peak and Fuze, via Coca-Cola) at the theater, it's very sweet, except the one that's unsweetened.

</blockquote>
It is brewed. They have the seperate containers of the tea. No carbonated tea for them.