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!
Girl….dont you know you are ‘sposed to put a pinch of bakin’ soda in your tea…(takes the bitterness out)…and makes your tea sit longer in the frigerator. Try it! You can taste the difference. (Add the pinch when you remove your bags from the heat)
Do you have one for instant tea? I’ll try this one to. I usually make a gallon, Do you have recipe for a gallon? or is it just better half a gallon. I love tea, but i can’t seem to get it just right.
There must be something wrong with me, because we don’t make sweet tea that way.
When we make sweet tea we add the sugar to the water “before” we boil it….and after the water is boiling we turn it off and add the tea bags. It really makes a difference in the taste.
Must be a Kentucky thing or maybe just a family thing. I ain’t sure which.
We boil the tea bags and the sugar (or in my case Splenda) then let it steep and add it to cold water to make a gallon. We also like it better the next day, after it has been in the fridge overnight. It doesn’t melt the ice as quick either!
There’s nothing wrong with you. We’re from Alabama, and like Christy says, however your Mama did it is right!
I have to share one of my daddy’s stories, this one about sweet tea … When he was a young man, in the early 1930s, he was a dishwasher around Smackover, Arkansas, where the oil industry was beginning. This was way before Splenda, Sweet N’Low, or even saccarin – if you wanted sweet tea, you put sugar in it. You put sugar in tea that has ice in it, and it takes a LOT of sugar and a lot of stirring to get it sweet enough to drink … and people tended to leave a lot of sugar in the bottom of the glass at the cafe where he worked. He and his fellow dishwashers were tired of scraping out all the sugar from all those glasses. So they posted a sign:
“USE LESS SUGAR AND STIR LIKE HELL. WE DON’T MIND THE NOISE!”
He didn’t keep that job long, but that’s OK, ’cause that’s when he moved to Wink, Texas, where he met my mom, and where they got married in 1938.
Thanks for everything, Christy! Here’s to you and sweet tea – clink!
Has anyone tried the Lipton ice tea with a hint of peach or raspberry? Wal-Mart is the only place I have found them, but they make really good iced-tea. They come in family size tea bags. Both are good, but the peach is my favorite.
I haven’t tried it but it sounds like something my mother would LOVE. I’ll tell her about it!
Thank you!
Christy
i just thought that married life is the happiest point of my life.:,~
I’m a midwesterner but have lived in NC over 20+ years. I make some pretty good “sweet tea” but does anyone know how to make “sugar syrup”? I like to make unsweetened tea for myself but my BF likes sweetened. I could make 2 pitchers (too easy) but I hear the syrup dissolves easily even in cold tea – I tried to make it once but it didn’t turn out right – any ideas out there?
thanks, Linda
The “sugar syrup” you are referring to is sometimes called a “simple syrup” typically made with 1 part sugar to 1 part water. Here’s a good recipe: Mix three cups of sugar and three cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for about 3 minutes. Let cool completely. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
and you can make yourself a mint julep while you’re at it………. ; )