Sweet Tea Recipes??

[DVCLiz]

Inspired by the "Is NC Southern?" thread, how do you make your sweet tea? I use 4 family size Lipton teabags, steep them in water that has been boiled and then removed from the heat for about a half hour, mix with a cup to a cup and a half of sugar and the juice of two lemons, and voila! my mom's tea!!

In what order do you mix your ingredients? Do you wait for the tea to cool before adding the lemon? Do you melt your sugar in hot water first (I do)? Do you care if your tea is clear or cloudy? (I think adding the lemon always makes mine cloudy - I've never made "clear" tea.) I mix sugar with hot water, let it dissolve, add hot tea mixture, then add lemon juice and stir.

Think I'll go make some right now...

 

[ilovedale3]

Here is my recipe for honest-to-goodness sweet tea. DH says it's the best!

Fill small-sized pot (tee hee I call it a pot... saucepan?) with water and bring to a boil. Once water begins to boil, place 2 family size Luzianne tea bags in water and remove from heat. Allow tea to steep for 3-4 minutes (any longer than that and your tea may be bitter and dark... YUCK! My tea is a lovely amber color!).
While tea is steeping, pour 1 cup of sugar into a 2-quart pitcher. Then pour tea into the pitcher on top of the sugar. Fill remainder of pitcher with cold tap water. Stir well until sugar is dissolved.

This tea is good and sweet so if you are afraid of sugar, don't go near it!

 

[Papa Deuce]

I was at a restaurant in Myrtle Beach once, when the server said to me " Would you like lemon in your sweet tea?"

When I said "no", she said.... "Well ok, you can stay!"

 

[DVCLiz]

Oh, lemon is crucial to me - in fact, half tea and half lemonade is a great drink too!!!!

 

[JVL1018]

I was at a restaurant in Myrtle Beach once, when the server said to me " Would you like lemon in your sweet tea?"

When I said "no", she said.... "Well ok, you can stay!"

All the sweet eta we were served in GA and SC on vacation a couple weeks ago came with lemon.
We were on a search for a good sweet tea recipe when we came back, and I got recipes from friends in VA, AL, LA & TX.
They were all pretty much the same:

2 cups water in a pot, put 4 teabags(I've never even heard of family sized teabags, btw, so these are just regular tea bags), bring to a boil, turn off let it steep 10-30 minutes
Add the tea to 1 C sugar in a 2 qt pitcher and stir
Fill with cold water, add half a cut up lemon(my husband must have the lemon, I like it with or without).
It's delicious!

 

[DVCLiz]

I think "family size" is what they call them, but they are just regular-sized teabags.

 

[ilovedale3]

No, family-size teabags are in fact bigger than regular teabags. If you go to the grocery store, look at the boxes of Luzianne. A box of 100 regular teabags and a box of 48 family size teabags are the same size. Therefore, I would venture to say that a family-size teabag is roughly the equivalent of 2 regular size teabags. If you tried to make a cup of hot tea (though I don't really know WHY you'd want to! ) with a family size bag, it would take up the whole mug!

 

[mrsv98]

8 Luzziane teabags steeped in about 1 1/2 C of boiling water until it is nice and dark. Take the tea bags out, reheat in microwave for about a min until very hot. Add one cup sugar, stir to dissolve. Cool and then pour into a gallon pitcher, fill with cold water. All done! We drink tons of this. I figure it is a lot loess sugar than soda and cheaper too!

 

[MommyPoppins]

I have a lazy way and a not lazy way to make sweet tea.

Lazy Sweet Tea: 3 Family size Louisianne tea bags in a small sauce pan filled with water bring to a boil(if you have time to stand in the kitchen to make sure it doesn't over flow-otherwise set temp to med, set timer to 30 minutes and walk away, remember what the time is for when it goes off. ), reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. Pour over 2 cups of suger in gallon size pitcher stir to disslove suger and fill with water.

Not Lazy Sweet Tea: Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil, pour over 2 cups of suger in a gallon pitcher. Add 4 family size Louisianne tea bags let steep for 35+ minutes.

The not lazy way is much better. My husband likes his tea sweetened with honey but bleck. Not me. I like mint leaves in mine. You can also sweetened tea with splenda if you are staying away from suger. Its much better than using artificial tasting "sugers".

BTW, I think why sweet tea tastes better in the south is the water. What water you use makes a HUGE difference and down in FL city and well water SUCK!!!!!!!! If my mom trys to make tea(well water) it is cloudy and NASTY! When I make it(city water) I use the water through the RO system and it's clear and good, but still not like from the south.

 

[DVCLiz]

Hmmm, I'll have to look and see which ones I'm using, then. I just remember 4 is the magic number!!!!

 

[bcvgal]

Here is my recipe for honest-to-goodness sweet tea. DH says it's the best!

Fill small-sized pot (tee hee I call it a pot... saucepan?) with water and bring to a boil. Once water begins to boil, place 2 family size Luzianne tea bags in water and remove from heat. Allow tea to steep for 3-4 minutes (any longer than that and your tea may be bitter and dark... YUCK! My tea is a lovely amber color!).
While tea is steeping, pour 1 cup of sugar into a 2-quart pitcher. Then pour tea into the pitcher on top of the sugar. Fill remainder of pitcher with cold tap water. Stir well until sugar is dissolved.

This tea is good and sweet so if you are afraid of sugar, don't go near it!

This is just like mine except i let it steep for 5 mins. Enjoy and forget the lemon. It covers the sweetness and believe me coming from a true southerner we are really sweet.

 

[browneyes]

I only use Lipton teabags (I'm partial to the green tea, but the regular Lipton's is good too). I boil 3 regular sized tea bags and boil for about a minute or so (when the bubbles turn a frothy, light color, that's long enough). I fill a 2 quart pitcher with ice to the top, add slightly less than 1 cup of sugar. Pour the hot tea in the pitcher and stir.

Sometimes I make lemon tea also. Follow the above, but slice and squeeze 1 lemon in with the sugar and ice, then throw the squeezed lemon parts inside.

 

[Jamesbyr]

Now this is a thread I will mark to follow up on. I love iced tea, but the commercial brands (Snapple, etc) with the corn syrup (many of us know what too much corn syrup does) scare me. Powdered iced tea mizes are sometimes 50 % sugar.
I have been filling a two cup teapot, adding one Lipton teabag and one decaf Strawberry or Lemon Herbal teabag, and putting the whole thing in the microwave for two or three minutes. (Mustn't boil over.) The whole pot sits on the counter for a few hours. (Remember "sun tea?") Then, into the refrigerator in a glass container or pitcher. It is quite nice when it is cold.
No sugar yet? I think the fruit flavor in the herbal tea distracts from the missing sugar. Well I guess you can always add some before you drink it, if you must. I like the ideas about the mint and I will go back through the whole thread again.
Should I send this to the W.I.S.H. forum? There's a place I have not yet posted.