Southern Sweet Tea
All you need are a few tea bags, some sugar, a pot, and a pitcher to make this classic Southern Sweet Tea recipe. Ready in just 20 minutes, it’s sweet, refreshing, and perfectly smooth… the kind of drink that makes you want to sit back, relax, and let the sweet, slow rhythm of the South wash right over you!
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Southern Sweet Tea
- Serves: 2 quarts
- Main Ingredients: tea bags, granulated sugar
- Why You'll Love It: Learn how easy it is to make my 2-ingredient Southern sweet tea recipe. It's the most refreshing drink to enjoy on your porch throughout the year!
Sip Back & Relax with This Classic Southern Sweet Tea
Nothing, I mean nothing, is more Southern than sweet tea. Besides the occasional Hawaiian iced tea, Iced mint tea, or Iced cherry apple tea, we make Southern Sweet Tea at almost every meal (yes, iced tea for breakfast is actually quite good), make it daily year-round, and even put it in our baby’s bottles!
Go to any Southerner’s home, and the first question they ask after sitting down is, “Ya wan’ some tea?” These days I make my sweet tea recipe with Splenda, but it tastes just as good as real sugar. Southern sweet tea just completes any meal.
So, how do you make my Southern sweet tea? It’s easy! All you need is your favorite black tea bags (plus some water for brewing) and sugar (or Splenda). All we’re going to do is brew the tea in a sauce pot or a coffeemaker (more details below), then combine it in a pitcher with cold water and sugar. That’s it, and your refreshing glass of tea is ready to enjoy!
Recipe Ingredients
- Tea bags
- Granulated sugar (or Splenda)
- Water
- Small sauce pot or a coffeemaker
Tea Tips Mama Taught Me
- There are many tea brands on the market. Mama prefers Luzianne, but I usually use Tetley or Red Diamond. Just make sure you get a general blend or orange pekoe tea that’s specifically blended for iced tea (all of these brands will have this marked on the package). Orange pekoe is a generic term for a basic, medium-grade black tea.
- A handy tip: when you squeeze your tea leaves or tea bag, you release extra tannins, which will cause a more bitter taste. So just dump ’em without that extra squeeze.
- Adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste. You might like more or less, and that’s totally fine!
How to Make My Sweet Tea Recipe
1. Brew the Tea
There are two popular ways of brewing tea. The one Mama and I use most right now (this may change when the wind shifts) is the sauce pot method.
The Sauce Pot Method:
For half a gallon of tea, put five regular-sized tea bags in a pot. Cover with water (you want about three inches of water in your pot). You don’t have to worry about taking the tea bag labels off, either.
Now, as Mama says, “In a pot, bring tea just to a boil and then remove from heat and turn off the eye.”
Cover and steep the tea for 15 minutes. Once done, your tea is ready to be mixed!
The Coffee Pot Method:
You can also place your 5 tea bags INSIDE your coffee pot and run a water cycle through the coffeemaker. Once the cycle goes through, your tea is done and ready to be mixed.
If you do this, though, be sure to remove the coffee grounds from your basket. Growing up, Mama would have supper on the table looking all wonderful, and we’d take a sip and discover we were having “coffee tea.” Hehe, we always had fun with her when that happened!
2. Make the Southern Sweet Tea
No matter which method you choose, in a matter of minutes, you will have brewed, concentrated tea.
Take your pitcher and fill it about halfway with cold water. Then add your sugar (or Splenda).
Note: This is a VERY important step because if you add your sugar to the hot tea, it will scorch the sugar and you’ll have terribly bitter tea.
Once you’ve mixed the water and sugar, THEN add your hot tea.
Adding the brewed tea will warm the water enough that the sugar will easily dissolve.
Give that a good stir, then serve your sweet tea over ice.
That’s that! Now sit back and enjoy a glass of authentic Southern sweet tea! I love enjoying a glass with delicious tea cakes, Southern fried chicken, or grilled pimento cheese sandwiches.
Storage
So, we always drink the tea fresh. It can be kept in the refrigerator, but Southern people prefer fresh sweet tea. Personally, I always throw out the leftovers and start fresh the next day, and so does my Mama. But if you do want to extend the life of your iced tea, use the baking soda trick below and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days.
You can also put those leftovers to good use by making this juicy sweet tea brined grilled chicken!
Recipe FAQs
You simply serve sweet tea in a glass with ice. Some people like to add a squeeze of fresh lemon, a dash of bottled lemon juice, or a lemon slice garnish. Mama likes to add an orange slice. Give it a go and see what you think!
Southern sweet tea is special because of the way the sugar is dissolved into the tea. Unlike other iced teas where sugar is stirred into cold liquid, the trick with Southern sweet tea is to first mix your sugar with cold water in your pitcher before adding the hot tea. Doing this gives you that perfectly smooth, even sweetness in every sip!
You want to steep the black tea bags for up to 15 minutes. The longer you steep, the stronger the tea taste.
So, some Southerners add a pinch of baking soda to their sweet tea to remove any bitterness from the black tea leave tannins. However, this is totally optional and not something I’ve ever done. But if you wanna give it a go, add it to the water when you boil your tea.
Y’all, I want to hear from you. Did this recipe transport you straight to a Southern porch? Leave a rating and comment below!
Ingredients
- 5 tea bags
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (or Splenda)
Instructions
- Place tea bags in a saucepot or coffee maker (down in the coffee pot). If using the coffee pot, run a cycle of water through it to brew the tea. If using a saucepot, fill it about three inches with water and bring it just to a boil, then remove it from the heat.5 tea bags
- Fill a pitcher halfway with cool water and add sugar. Stir. Then add hot tea and stir again. Add more water, if necessary, to make two quarts. Serve over ice.¾ cup granulated sugar
Notes
- There are many tea brands on the market. Mama prefers Luzianne, but I usually use Tetley or Red Diamond. Just make sure you get a general blend or orange pekoe tea that’s specifically blended for iced tea (all of these brands will have this marked on the package). Orange pekoe is a generic term for a basic, medium-grade black tea.
- A handy tip: when you squeeze your tea leaves or tea bag, you release extra tannins, which will cause a more bitter taste. So just dump ’em without that extra squeeze.
- Adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste. You might like more or less, and that’s totally fine!
I was raised on sweet tea, being raised in the South, as was my son. He got his first encounter with Northerners when we went to OR and ate at a restaurant. They asked what he wanted to drink, he replied “sweet tea”. They looked at him like he was from another planet, and told him we have sugar on the table. He didn’t understand….I had to explain to him “we are up north, they don’t know what sweet tea is”!
OMG! I know right! I grew up in the country side of Missouri. When I was a teen we moved into the suburban areas and every where we all they had was unsweet tea. I about had a cardiac. TRYING to mix sugar into a cold glass just does not work! Don’t even get me started about when I joined the military and got stationed in DC!
Christy, How many teabags would you use for a gallon of tea? They fuss about my tea and I cant remember. Also, how much coffee do I put in a coffeepot for strong coffee, they say mine taste like water? I really need these refresher courses as I am tired of the complaints. Thank you!
I always put the sugar in with the hot water because it makes the tea sweeter, not bitter. Hot water inverts the sugar (sucrose) to become glucose and fructose, which makes sugar taste sweeter.
Anita is right, the water here (I’m in Madison, WI) turns the tea black but I found a recipe that called for boiling your water, pouring it over the tea bags in a glass measuring cup or pitcher (not metal!), with 1/4 tsp of baking soda, let steep for 5 minutes then add sugar and cold water. FINALLY I got tea as good as it was down south! Pretty and clear! Also, I find Northerners don’t seem to be able to handle the sweet in their tea nearly as well as southerners can!
Being from the south myself, I relish my sweet tea and make it similarly. I, however, make 2 gallons almost every day (4 sons & their friends). I like to get my large saucepan filled with water up to a full rolling boil I then turn off the heat and drop in 4 family sized Luzianne tea bags then throw on the lid to allow tea to steep…usually for an hour even more sometimes. I always put 2 cups of sugar in my gallon pitchers pour half the steeped tea into each pitcher stir well and fill with cold water. From there it goes into the fridge and we really prefer it the next day because we like it cold and often we don’t use ice (well, some of us do don’t we honey?). I also never knew anything else was served at any meal other than iced tea. Did I ever get the rude awakening in Wisconsin some years ago when I requested a glass and the waitress told me without a blinking, “it’s not summer?” Even then, it was serve unsweetened…LOL. Thank heavens McDonald’s serves sweet tea now and when we go North, I always have to get my ‘fix’ there. My inlaws only have soft drinks or water in the fridge and their water makes the worst tea of any kind…..LOL.
Anita…I recently moved to Greenville, SC from Michigan and I am addicted to sweet tea and I am back visiting family in MI and was going through withdrawals, lol…I asked my Hubby to please try McDonalds for sweet tea…YAY!!! they have it here in MI too…I am making my own today though!!!
I make sweet tea using family size tea bags and a microwave. I put 3 bags in a microwaveable saucepan and about a quarter of water. Microwave for 6 minutes. That way the water doesn’t actually boil. Then to a gallon pitcher I add 2 1/4 cups of sugar and about a quart of hot water from a water kettle. Mix up sugar and add tea from saucepan. Then using cold water, refill saucepan with tea bags still in it and pour it in pitcher. Top off gallon pitcher with more cold water. Tastes just like McDonald’s sweet tea. My husband drinks nothing else. I have lived in the north and south but nothing beats sweet tea in the Carolinas.
Oh, I forgot to ask earlier. What are you thoughts on adding a pinch of baking soda to the hot water the tea bags are in? My Mom never did that, but my Granny did.
Christy, how long do the tea bags need to steep in the water? Also, I only have family size bags, do you think 2 of those equal about 5 regular size?
I used to use 4 family sized tea bags for a gallon of tea until I started using gallon size bags, I fill a coffee pot with water and put it in the reservoir and place my tea bags in the carafe and turn it on, I like strong tea so I let mine steep over night. My daughter says I make the best tea.