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 never realized that people drank different teas sweet, unsweet, etc. or the difference between the North and South, etc. My mom was practically a single parent doing her darndest to raise us 4 kiddos so we didn’t get a lot of history per se now I drink sweet tea with splenda and the sweeter the better for me with fresh lemon. My favorite tea brand is Luzianne. I grew up in Tennessee and didn’t realize I was a Southerner until I was grown. We were survivors.
My husband is a tea drinker, but I am not. I have always wanted to learn to make good tea. Yay! Thanks for the video. I will try it. I remember my mom making sun tea in the backyard in the summertime. Any good southern tips for that?
Have a super summer day from Houston!
P.S. to my above post. It amazes me that people need to be taught how to make sweet tea. I thought everyone was born knowing how. Guess I need to get out of the South more often!
Lordy Christy, I’ve been making ice tea this way for years! Remember Luzianne tea from when I was a kid, they had little animal figurines in the package to collect. Haven’t seen it in years so maybe the don”t ship to the north any more. Sure would love to have a package now.
I am not from the south and was raised drinking unsweet iced tea. My family loves sweet tea so I really appreciate this “lesson” in preparing perfect sweet tea. I know my family will appreciate it also!!!
Let’s see I can’t remember not drinking sweet tea. i asked mama and she said somewehere around the time I started eating solid foods. My sweet tea motto if its not a substitute for a glucose solution then it needs more suger.
I don’t ever remember drinking anything else for dinner or supper. We even drank it for breakfast. I never liked milk and we only had orange juice when we were sick. (Donald Duck brand in a can! It was the worst stuff ever!) Now I don’t drink it at home but when I go out to eat that’s always what I order. Zappopan’s Mexican restaurant in Calera has THE best sweet tea ever. When we have a get together I make a large gallon of it in the same old recycled glass jug my Mama used.