what size pitcher?

Funny you mention not knowing sweet tea. I live in Canada and the only Iced Tea we knew came in a powered form from Good Host. Containing mostly sugar, food colouring and such (probably no actual tea in it) and very very very sweet if you used too much mix. Of course this is what we knew of iced tea, even in restaurants. So the first time I visited California I was very hot and tired when I sat down in a restaurant and thought "ahhh a nice glass of iced tea will go down great". Forgetting completely that my older sisters had told me NEVER to order iced tea in the USA as it is actual TEA and not what we were used to. Bleck. That is a mistake you only make once let me tell you. LOL. I guess if I was a tea drinker I wouldn't mind it, but not being a tea fan, unless it is full of sugar, it is not for me. :)

LOL - any such name, you just reminded me of when I make tea for my mom when she visits. I can never remember how much sugar she puts in her sweet tea, and every time I ask her, she replies with "a scoop". "What size scoop?" I generally reply, because mine range from 1 cup to 1/4 cup. "Oh, just any size..." is usually the answer I get. This generally results in a phone call to my dad to ask how much sugar he uses.

The recipe above is slightly different from our method for making sweet tea. Usually, we bring the water to a boil, then move it off the heat and drop the tea bags in (6 or so regular-sized ones for a ~2 qt. pitcher, I think). We let that sit for an hour or three, come back, pour into the pitcher with the scoop of sugar, add water to top off the pitcher, and stir. Stick it in the fridge, serve with ice, and occasionally a lemon slice or two.

@Kait N, try the lipton stuff that comes out of a soda machine. I find it revoltingly sweet so maybe sweet tea fans would like it.

Kathryn, I can back you up since I'm from California. I had no idea what "sweet tea" was until fairly recently. I couldn't figure out why you didn't just put sugar in iced tea, aside from the obvious one that it doesn't dissolve very well. Good Lord, that's a lot of sugar.

@any such name, a gallon pitcher.

A cup of sugar for 2 cups of water?! I can't imagine making tea that sweet, and I know my friends always complain that I make iced tea too sweet...

(Okay, okay, I'll try it...)

@Kait N One of the things I remember the most about driving to Florida with my family when I was 12 was that iced tea in the states (it might have been North Carolina..don't remember where we stopped) was just cold tea. My family laughed at my surprised/grossed out face. I was used to the delicious sugary Canadian stuff

I like the sounds of this sweet tea stuff though. Anything that has water and sugar at a 2:1 ratio sounds good to me.

Your recipe is spot on. I grew up in North Carolina and it bothers me that the "sweet tea" here in New England is loaded with peach or cranberry or raspberry stuff. But when in Rome, you must do as the Romans do. So, I make my own.

Makes me wonder why the barbecue joints here don't make their own tea.

@poesian: no no no, first you're making the "base" with the 2c of water and 1c of sugar, then you top it off with cold water in a gallon pitcher. I'll re-edit the post so it's not so misguiding.

Ug, that's not a recipe if it uses teabags!

How about a real recipe with loose tea?

I used to drink sweet tea by the gallon when I was little and lived in Houston -- then I moved up to Seattle and gave it up. After moving back down to Dallas I still can't stomach the syrupiness of true sweet tea -- so I drink it black. I do enjoy a Swamp Water occasionally though. Mmmm.

@Bushidoka, I'm pretty sure NO sweet tea is made with loose tea. There a giant 'family' or 'restaurant' sized bags that are used.

I make my tea with about 4-6 cups water and around 1 cup sugar. Just boil water, remove from heat, stir in sugar and drop in tea bags. An hour or so later remove tea bags. Chill or get to room temperature, pour over ice and enjoy.

Mint and lemon are common garnishes, but I recommend trying lime in it!

Sweet tea is made with teabags.

My cousin drinks tea wherever she goes... when she thinks that no one is looking, she dumps about 2 part sugar for every 1 part tea into her tea. It boggles the mind...

Anyways, from Charleston, SC. I know my sweet tea. I hate the stuff.

Yeah, the most important part of sweet tea--Luzianne. There's just no substitute. Well, I'd say blistering indoor heat is the MOST important part.

Sometimes I make it with loose black tea if that's all I have. You just dump it into the hot water, stir, wander away and take a shower, come back and then strain the base through a coffee filter (or a fine sieve if you don't mind a few particles). It MUST be served over a full glass of ice.

My dad makes his by putting four to six tea bags in a gallon of water and leaving the jar in a sunny spot in the yard all day, then mixing the sugar in when it's fairly hot. He pours it over ice immediately and I have to say, it is mighty tasty! Nothing like the sweet tea you get in restaurants (especially McDonalds-- there is something wrong with their sweet tea).

@percent Hooray for limes!

Shortly after I moved to TX, I was taught a hand me down recipe for sweet tea from a friend. The recipe is nearly the same (Luzianne) but the trick for the tastiest is two fresh squeezed LIMES. Many I know use lemons but limes give it a distinct flavor I crave.

Being from California I can say that, yes, there is no such thing as sweet tea there. I now live in New Mexico which is one of those strange places where you can get unsweetened and sweet tea in most restaurants.

Personally, I think sweet tea is gross. I prefer not to drink anything sweet to begin with. I drink my iced to unsweetened and my coffee black. I don't drink soda. To each their own though... since I don't like it there's more for the rest of you!

Blech. I love unsweetened black iced tea. but, I'm not from the south.

charise,
I don't like to drink anything sweet either.

i recently moved to the south and sweet tea is one of the things i like down here. i can't take the heat. i cold brew mine. cold water, 1 regular tea bag per 6 oz water, stick it in the fridge for 12 hours or longer, add simple syrup. i just keep the unsweetened tea with the tea bags still in it in the fridge so it's there and ready for me whenever i want. i have a big jar of simple syrup that i keep in the fridge that comes in handy for all sorts of stuff.

I recall reading several years ago in Southern Living, in a feature on sweet tea, the writer's directive that the tea should be sweetened with "a thundershower of sugar."

For this Southern girl semi-permanently stranded in the Midwest, this recipe and the subsequent discussion is like getting a missive from home. Thanks, everyone. :)

@Matchbookhymnal - that's Sun Tea your daddy's making. My grandma and mother have made it all my life. I always set it in the yard and forget about it, so I switched and make it overnight in the fridge.

And fast food restaurants always have funny tasting tea because they don't clean out the tanks of their tea makers well - it gives it a moldy flavor.

i'm from the chicago suburbs and had never heard of sweet tea, until i met my husband a couple years ago, who is from tennessee. i personally HATE it- its just sugary water to me, but my hubby loves and misses it. maybe i'll surprise him with a pitcher one day- even though i vowed never to make it :)

I was born and raised in western North Carolina; my grandmother was born in south Georgia but moved to North Carolina when she married my grandfather. One of my favorite things about going to her house was the ever-present (orange Tupperware) pitcher of sweet iced tea in her refrigerator. Even when she developed diabetes later in life, she always had the same sweet tea in the fridge, now alongside her unsweetened tea. I even helped her make it a few times and seem to recall her using way more than a cup of sugar, but unfortunately I never got a recipe from her before she passed away. Thanks for the reminder of such a wonderful tradition! And I think limes would add a terrific flavor.

Ah, sweet tea and the South. I'm a Southern transplant to the Northeast, and I miss Sweet Leaf tea bottled in Austin, TX. I almost fell over when I went to get iced tea with a co-worker and he put milk in his. The horror!

@Tiamat_the_Red Trust me, to people who like sweet tea, myself included, Lipton, Nestea, Brisk, you name it...NONE of those are remotely sweet enough. Good sweet tea almost drinks "thick"

Back to drinking sweet tea, but now, I use far less sugar. As I age, I seem to use less. I've also been making basil suger syrup and adding that to brewed ice tea and it's been a delightful pick me up. And yes, a spritz of lime is wonderful. What a great post and discussion.

Half the year in Canada, and half in the states, my whole life. I HORRIFY my friends by ordering, at restaurants, "a hot tea with lemon and a pitcher of ice." When all else fails, I make my own :)

Growing up with a California native mother and a Georgia native father, we managed to mix the two cultures. I'm a fan of both sun tea and southern sweet tea, so I make my tea in the sun and make a syrup solution with the 2cups water and I usually use 1/2 cup sugar instead of the full cup. Then mix the two in the end and add mint or lemon. I always liked the way it turned out.

I'm from England (stumbled this), so I'm a little confused as to what sweet tea is. Here, tea is the stuff you make with a teabag, hot water, sugar and lots of milk. It's consumed by nearly everyone here; I once told an American that we have a special tap that pours tea in certain homes here, and he believed me.

Anyway, iced tea is pretty few and far between, but when I do find it, it's in those little Lipton bottles and it's very sweet. Is this a recipe for that? Because I love that stuff. I can't stand normal tea though.

Simplest thing in the world, really. All you are doing is adding the sugar to the hot water while you are brewing the tea. Sugar dissolves poorly in cold liquids, so by adding the sweetener during the brewing process - essentially making a simple syrup - you have a hot, sweet tea, which you then chill (by pouring over a pitcher filled with ice, or by refrigerating).

Hot tea warms the bones. Iced tea quenches thirst. Sweet tea warms the heart. : )

For those concerned about the sugar content -- adjust the ratio down.Over the course of several batches, you can likely change the ratio from 1c down to 1/3cup (allowing time for taste buds to re-acclimate).

OK, what's up with the Canadian thing? I never knew they did not drink sweet tea! Hmmph. Anyway, I have to agree with those who say sweet tea is almost thick, it's so sweet. We've softened it up recently trying to be more healthy, but I say if you are going to do something, don't do it halfway; you just can't have it all the time. Lipton is the brand I grew up on and my mom would use like 3 large scoops of sugar. Boil the water, put the bags in a large, heavy pitcher and pour the boiled water over the bags and a few slices of lemon. Sit out in the sun for a few hours and then add the sugar. Uhmmmmm. Of course, we were only allowed to have some after we had dinner. We had to drink water the rest of the day (should have gotten some kind of illness, cause we used to drink the water right out of the hose!).

Frum, you don't have to miss Sweet Leaf Tea now that you are in the Northeast. Stop and Shop, And Whole Foods supermarkets carry it up here. Enjoy!

I'm from the south and love sweet tea. It's the drink of choice when dining out too. I love Arnold Palmer too. I use to drink it like that for years because I like squeezing lime or lemon in my sweet tea and just decided to cut out the work and mix my already made lemonade with it. Then I found out it was called that when I saw it on a menu. Although, once when I was living in nyc I ordered one and was stunned at how it had like hardly any sugar in it. It was just sour. :\

I just made this, and it's pretty watered-down. I suppose it's my fault for not tasting as I went.

This is VERY different from how I make sweet tea.

I bring water to boil in a saucepan (does not have to be any particular amount,, I usually put around 3 inches of water), once it's boiling, take it off the burner and put in 8 regular size Liptons tea bags (not family-sized). Let it steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Put 3/4 cup of sugar in the bottom of a 2 qt pitcher, pour the hot tea over the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Then top off the pitcher with cold water and let sit in the fridge over night. (also note that it will taste even better after a couple days than the day you make it)

This post reminds me of a class trip my North Carolina high school class took across the country. We wound up at a Cracker Barrel in Minnesota, and the waitress said they didn't have any sweet tea at the time, but were "getting the recipe" for it in a few weeks. Everyone at the table cracked up - you don't need a recipe for sweet tea, we thought! It's just sugar dissolved in the hot water and cooled down. Based on the comments to this post, yep, you do need a recipe.:)

@LaurieSue, iced sweet tea is a totally different animal. Milk is anathema. It's just hot water mixed with sugar, a tea bag dunked in, tea bag taken out, and then cooled overnight. Add plain water as needed to dilute.