The Old Fashioned Stove
Top Tip: Do not over boil it, or youll boil out much of the oxygen, which makes for a less flavorful tea.
How To Make Sweet Tea Tips And Tricks
Making sweet tea is a personalized process. The above recipe provides the basics but you need to constantly taste your tea until youre satisfied with the result. If you would like your tea to be sweeter, it is best to dissolve sugar on the side before adding it to the tea. Adding sugar or other sweeteners directly usually leads to clumps forming at the bottom of the pitcher.
Learn how to make sweet tea to enjoy this Southern drinks nutrients and refreshing taste. Once youve covered the basics of the process, experiment with different types of teas, infusions, spices and herbs. Served chilled and drink in moderation. How about Sun Tea?
Drinking A Tall Glass Of Southern Sweet Iced Tea Is Truly Divine
If youve never had the opportunity to enjoy a glass of sweet iced tea, or have only had it bottled, nows the time to try making your own sweet iced tea, and enjoy it like a southerner.
Regardless of if you were raised in the south, were transplanted here, or just passing through, youll find that sweet tea is deeply part of the southern culture. Just as were known for growing peaches, pecans, and peanuts, were also known for making a mean brew of sweet iced tea. Youll find it plastered on every menu at every restaurant, so theres no excuse for not giving it a try.
Sweet Iced Tea is a staple of the southern kitchen. I cant remember the first time I started drinking Sweet Iced Tea, but Im pretty sure it was soon after I came into this world. Ive continued my love for this drink, and have enjoyed it on the go, at mealtimes, and while sitting on the porch taking in the warm afternoons.
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What Is Southern Sweet Tea
Sweet tea is much more than iced tea with a spoonful of sugar stirred in. Southern style sweet tea is, generally, made in big batches by boiling water and stirring in sugar until its dissolved.sort of like a less sweet form of simple syrup.
Then, the tea is steeped in the sugar water for a bit until the water has cooled a bit. The tea bags are removed and you, now, have a sweet tea concentratein a nutshell. Pour the tea into a pitcher and top off with water.
Southerners keep pitchers of sweet tea in their fridge for last minute guests and to cool off in the sweaty summertime. We love it for the same reasons here in the northeast!
The Ultimate Guide To Making Southern Style Sweet Tea
Few things are more beloved in the South than Sweet Tea, and while some of you were probably born knowing how to make it from scratch, weve learned a few inside tips and tricks in our 100+ years in the tea business that might make your next pitcher of Sweet Tea the best ever.
Heres our family-tested, time-honored method for making a gallon pitcher of Sweet Tea from scratch. Brew up a concentrate* first, using half the water, and mix in the remaining water later. Youll need a big cooking pot, a big stirring spoon, and an extra-large pitcher with a top to keep your Sweet Tea fresh in the fridge.
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How To Sweeten Iced Tea
Iced tea is often sweetened simply with sugar or runny honey. It’s stirred into the hot tea to dissolve, and then the tea is chilled. Sugar syrups can also be used a simple sugar syrup is easy to make, and just requires water and caster sugar. Make up a batch and store it in a bottle, so you have some on hand to add a little at a time to a jug of iced tea.
How To Make Fast And Easy Iced Tea
There are hundreds of iced tea variations, but whether you prefer to cool off with a creamy, fruity, or zesty chilled beverage, this article will definitely satisfy.
Check out our top four ways to make homemade iced tea with tea bags, and feel the heatwave disappear with each sip.
Once you learn how simple iced-tea making is, you will never buy the store-bought kind ever again!
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Tips For The Best Sweet Tea Recipe
- Don’t Add Tea Bags to Boiling Water: You want to bring the water barely to a boil, remove it from the heat, and then add the teabags to the hot water. Placing the tea bags in boiling water can “burn” the tea and give the drink a bitter taste.
- Don’t Steep Too Long: Southern sweet tea uses a quick-steeping method. That means that you want to leave the tea bags in the hot water for about 4-5 minutes , but not much more than 10-15 minutes at most. Steeping tea for too long can give the drink a bitter taste.
- Add Baking Soda: It might sound weird, but the best sweet tea includes a little bit of baking soda to neutralize the tannins in the tea, prevent a “cloudy” look, and give the tea a smoother taste.
- Add the Sugar While the Tea is Hot: Don’t wait to stir the sugar into the tea when the tea has already cooled. Instead, vigorously whisk or stir the sugar into the hot liquid so that the sugar completely dissolves . If you do it this way, you don’t need to bother with making a simple syrup on the stovetop.
- Allow the tea to chill for at least 4 hours, but overnight is best. You don’t want to pour warm tea over ice in a glass!
- Garnish: While the tea is delicious over ice on its own, I love the bright, fresh taste that you get from of a squeeze of lemon or a sprig of mint.
How To Make Iced Tea Using The Hot Brew Method
Iced tea really only has two componentswater and teaso the ingredients have nowhere to hide. For best results, choose the highest quality ingredients you can find. Use filtered tap water or spring water, if possible. When it comes to the tea itself, weve found that loose-leaf tea produces a fuller-bodied tea, but tea bags will work in a pinch.
The basic ratio of water to tea varies depending on the amount of tea youre brewing. Of course, you can always increase or decrease the amount of tea, depending on your strength preference.
For small batch tea , use one cup of water per tea bag .
- 4 cups water
- 4 tea bags
For larger batches , you can use a little more waterabout 1-1/3 cups water per tea bag .
- 8 cups water
- 6 tea bags
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Which Tea Do You Use
A classic base for iced tea is regular tea bags. They allow you to be freer with your flavourings. You can also easily experiment with different teas once you know the basic recipe. Other teas that work well include earl grey, lady grey, chamomile, green tea and lemon verbena. Fruit teas are also tasty when chilled.
A good ratio to go by is 6 tea bags to 1.5 litres of boiling water.
Why Do You Add Baking Soda To Iced Tea
If you let the tea steep for a long time because you prefer a strong flavor it can cause the tea to become bitter. The baking soda neutralizes that and just gives you the perfect tea flavor without a funky aftertaste.
Baking soda is my secret ingredient for cutting the acidity or bitterness out of lots of foods and drinks. Many people add sugar to balance out bitterness, but baking soda gets the job done like a baller .
Dont believe me? See it in action in Whole30 Tomato Soup, Homemade Sugar-Free Pizza Sauce, and Instant Pot Orange Chicken.
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How To Make Sweet Iced Tea On Stove
Learn how to make a sweet tea on the stove that isn’t bitter. This is an easy recipe that is cheaper than buying jugs of tea and tastes a lot better. You can even adjust the sugar for your needs.
When I was a kid, my grandmother made iced tea all the time. Her tea was strong, sweet, and perfect for a summer day.
We drink a lot of tea in the summer. I still use her recipe to make my sweet iced tea on the stove. I use her basic recipe, but I’ve made some minor changes so it isn’t bitter and not quite as strong.
If you’ve never made iced tea or sweet tea at home, you won’t believe how easy it is. It also tastes a lot better than what you buy in the jugs at the store.
I’m not a big fan of any store bought iced tea except at McDonald’s or Chic-fil-A. I order half and half with sweet tea and unsweet tea because I can’t handle that much sugar.
How To Store Iced Tea
Its best to store iced tea a glass or stainless-steel container instead of a plastic container. Keep it in the refrigerator at all times, covered tightly with a lid to prevent the tea from oxidizing and absorbing off-flavors. If youve added a sweetener to the iced tea, the CDC recommends drinking it within eight hours to prevent fermentation or bacterial contamination. Unsweetened tea is technically okay to drink for three to four days, although it will start to lose its flavor after the first 24 hours.
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Why Is Sweet Tea Southern
It turns out sweet tea is a more recent Southern tradition than you might think. The first known recipe for iced tea can be traced back to Housekeeping in Old Virginia, an 1878 cookbook by Marion Cabell Tyree, but this recipe doesn’t match what we know as sweet tea today.
During Prohibition tea drinking started to become more popular. Tea was often served with alcohol before the law went into effect, and after the ban the beautiful crystal glasses formerly used for cocktails were filled with sweet tea.
Today’s sweet tea didn’t really become a household staple until refrigeration and inexpensive imported black tea, sugar, and ice became commonplace after WWII. Before long, households often had special pitchers and tall glasses just for this drink, and silverware drawers included long-handled iced tea spoons.
Loyalty to this beverage remains strong in many Southern restaurants, as well. Kahlil Arnold of Arnold’s Country Kitchen, a legendary meat ‘n’ three in Nashville, says they sell upwards of 35 gallons of sweet tea a day.
How To Make Iced Tea: Basic Steps
The hands-on time for making iced tea is quick: most of the time involved is waiting! Making the tea takes about 20 minutes total. Then youll need 2 hours for it to chill. Here are the basic steps of how to make iced tea at home:
- Steep the tea: Bring 4 cups water to a simmer, add 6 tea bags and turn off the heat. Steep for 5 minutes.
- Add cold water and cool: Remove the tea bags. Add 4 cups cool water and bring to room temperature .
- Refrigerate 2 hours: Transfer to a pitcher and refrigerate 2 hours.
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Variations On This Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe:
- Our preferred way of enjoying this healthy sweet tea is 3/4 tea, and 1/4 lemonade Palmer style!
- Pro tip: use lemon-flavored sparkling water to make it a sparkling Arnold Palmer with less sugar.
Do you love healthier drinks that taste amazing? Check out my Mojito Mocktail and Mocktails For Kids and Grown-Ups!
I wont even compare this Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe to real sweet tea in terms of sugar consumption. But, lets just say this version wont give you the crazy energy rush that would allow you to tie a rope around your waist and tow your car home.
How To Make Iced Tea Using A Sun Brew Method
On a sunny day, brew your tea using the power of the world’s largest natural energy source, the sun. Combine tea and water in a covered pitcher and place outside or in a window with direct sun for at least six hours. As the sun warms the water the tea slowly releases its flavor. Strain or remove the tea bags and serve on ice or keep refrigerated until ready to drink.
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How To Drink Sweet Iced Tea Properly
TOP TIP: Fill the entire glass with ice all the way to the top. Most people screw this up. They think too much ice will water down the tea, when in fact, the opposite is true. If the glass is full of ice, the temperature of the tea will drop to almost freezing in a matter of seconds. This prevents the warmer tea from melting all the ice, which is what happens when there isnt enough ice in the glass. Too little ice waters down the tea.
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This delicious Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe uses honey instead of buckets of sugar. Learn how simple it is to make sweet tea without refined sugar. This healthy iced tea recipe will be your new favorite sip!
The wait is over a Healthy Sweet Tea recipe is here my friends! Sweet tea is a staple for many families, but it is packed with refined sugar. A friend told me her granny used to say add sugar until your lips stick to your teeth. I think we can do better than that!
Need a faster way to make a bunch of tea? Check out this post on Easy Instant Pot Iced Tea.
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What Do You Need To Make Southern Sweet Tea
- 1 gallon of water – Half will be used boiling hot, and the other half will be used cold.
- 3 pitcher-sized black tea bags or 12 regular-sized black tea bags – My favorite brands are Luzianne & Lipton, but you could try different brands and flavors if you feel adventurous.
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda – This helps counteract bitterness.
- 1 ½ cups sugar – More or less if desired
- fresh mint, lemon slices, peach slices, or raspberries – Choose only one these are to garnish the tea and are completely optional.
- 1 gallon pitcher – I prefer a glass pitcher but have not been able to find one that’s big enough for a gallon of tea or lemonade. I use this one because it has a strainer in the lid which is nice if I decide to add peach or lemon slices to the tea.
Instant Pot Sweet Iced Tea Recipe
Modified:
Get the recipe for a sweet iced tea which is perfect beverage for hot summer days. It is super simple and easy to make. Southern Sweet Iced Tea is a delicious, quick and refreshing drink. This 3 ingredients recipe tastes way better than any store brought iced tea drinks.
We also show you how to make Sweet Iced Tea in Instant Pot. This homemade tea is strong, smooth and not bitter all important factors to make it the Best Iced Tea!
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How To Make Iced Tea
Homemade iced tea only requires a few simple steps and ingredients. Follow the process below and youll be sipping tea on the porch in no time.
- Brew the Tea: In a saucepan, bring half the water to boil and remove it from heat. Add in the tea bags and allow them to steep for 10 minutes.
- Remove the Tea Bags: Remove the tea bags from the hot water. If you want sweet tea, add the sugar and whisk until its completely dissolved.
- Add the Cold Water: Add the remaining cold water to the hot tea and whisk. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or until chilled.
- Serve: Serve the tea over ice with lemon slices and fresh mint.
To Grab Your Own Lipton Black Tea Bags Hover Over The Photo Below To Purchase Then Youll Be Set To Make Your Own Southern Sweet Iced Tea
Drinking this southern delight is more of a way of life or ritual than it is a simple drink option. Its about slow living, taking it easy and sharing time with friends and family.
There are many recipes on how to make sweeticed tea. Everyone I know has their own time-honored tweaks and little tips and tricks to make their own perfect brew. My brew includes plenty of fruit, particularly citrus and sometimes a touch of mint. Depending on the season, I might substitute the citrus fruits with berries or better yet, Georgia peaches! Some southerners prefer their sweet iced tea straight up, with nothing added, which is perfectly acceptable of course. Not everyone is keen on adding bunches of the fresh mint straight into the pitcher. In fact, I have this vague recollection of being asked if I was trying to root some baby trees in my drink. Yes, I was being teased. Then they drank a tall glass of my tree tea and asked for more. Ha, they loved it!
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