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 have been drinking it for as long as I can remember.
Had to switch to Splenda instead of sugar though due to dietary requirements.
My son always brought his friends here for sweet tea. As adults they ask does your mom have any tea made? They still like to come here for sweet tea.
My first pitcher of sweet tea caused my glass pitcher to crack. So I learned a long time ago, I learned the hard way!
I am from Georgia and in my house it is called the champagne of the south. That is all we drink. I can remember being a teenager going up north on a trip and ordering sweet tea when they told me they only had unsweet I told them “that a’int right ” to this day I cannot understand why anyone would drink unsweet tea.
This is too funny–Age 2. No, the babies in our family start getting tea when they are about 2-3 months old. We start them off by diluting the tea and by the time they turn 1 they get it full strength with caffeine. They preferred tea over juice. Some of them are now in their 30’s and they still prefer tea over soft drinks. Amazingly our pediatrician did not have a problem with it.
“Oh no, this sweet tea is blinky!!” Is a common phrase me and my little sister, the Sweet Tea Sisters, made it up to discribe that it’s old and been sittn out too long.
Around where we live, we know who serves the life giving waters and who serves the blinky stuff!
I have been drinking sweet tea as far back as I can remember — and making in for years and years. I use only Luzianne. I also make sweet tea for our church and make 10 gallons at a time — and I make sure we always have Luzianne!
Yep, babies are raised with Sweet Tea in bottles where I come from! My Boys could drink it all day and night!
My Precious Mama and Grandma would make it so sweet your spoon would stand up in it. 😀
Thanks for the great tips! Cheers!