Sweet Tea

Hi! I make my sweet tea about the same as everyone else, but have been using the Lipton tea bags with a touch of peach lately.

Also, I thought you might enjoy this Almond Tea recipe given to me by a friend from Louisiana:

Boil 2 cups water, reduce to simmer and steep 3 tea bags from 5 minutes. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract, 6 tablespoons lemon juice. Simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a pitcher and add 6 cups of water. Chill. (I usually just put the hot tea water in a 2 qt pitcher and mix the sugar, etc while the water is hot. Then I fill the pitcher to the top with cold water and chill.)

Enjoy!! Also, if you are out, in addition to Chicken Express, Chick-Fil-A and Grandy's also have great sweet tea!

Coming from a Georgia girl I agree with Mary 100%. That is how you make sweet tea! :)

The key is to add the sugar in while the tea is still hot. It dissolves quicker and keeps sweet instead of falling to the bottom. FYI

I do almost the same as Mary. I actually like my tea unsweet, but if I sweeten it, I use 1 cup of sugar. I do 2 lipton tea bags on the stove. Boil water, take it off the burner and let it sit with two bags for a while (the longer it sits, the stronger it will be). Then I add enough water to make about 2 quarts.

I think Luizianne is the best tea bag. I make 1 gallon at a time. I use a tea kettle to heat some water (about .5 gallon). When that is boiling, I pour it into my tea pitcher and put in 2 family size tea bags. I let it steep for about 10 minutes. Then, I pull the tea bags out, put in 1 cup sugar and stir well. I fill the tea pitcher up with cool water adn stir again. Then, I refrigerator and that's how I do it. Hope that helps. :)
C.

I was born & raised on sweet tea and of all the diets I've been on that's one addiction I'm never without! lol I have tried every tea maker and brand out there I think and I always go back to my old standard which is perfect to us. (we like ours stronger and probably sweeter than most). I bring to boil 3 family size Lipton tea bags in small sauce pan and then take off burner, cover and let steep for awhile (about 20 minutes or longer). My suger scooper is about a 3/4 cup probably and I put two almost full of those in a gallon pitcher and dissolve the sugar w/ just enough hot water to mix it up. After the tea is ready, I pour it in and squeeze the bags w/ spoon. Then fill the pitcher the rest of the way w/ cold water. It's ok to drink right then but is better after in the fridge a bit. Everyone is different but all of our friends make us have sweet tea ready for them and my neighbor stops by to chit-chat and get a glass of my tea! lol Hope this helps. Let us know how you do!

Hi, we take our sweet tea pretty seriously at our house, and I'll pass the recipe on to you. Also, take into consideration, if you're after "Georgia sweet tea," a.k.a. drown your taste buds in sugar (no offence meant to anyone out there), this is probably not the tea for you. Boil 6 regular-size orange-pekoe tea bags in a small pot of water on your stove, and turn it off right after it comes to a rolling boil. Pour 3/4 cup sugar in a gallon pitcher, and then pour in hot tea, holding tea bags back. Stir sugar and hot tea so the sugar can dissolve quickly. Add ice cubes (optional) and fill pitcher the rest of the way with water. The tea comes out great every time. Also, as a side note, it does matter what quality tea bags you use. For example, Lipton tea bags do make a better tasting tea than Great Value brand. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first to use store brand anything, as long as the quality is at least as good as name brand. As a variation, try Earl Grey tea, instead of the orange-pekoe. I absolutely love Earl Grey, too. Hope this helps! :-)

D.

Had to share mine. Luzianne is what we use. We use 2 family size tea bags per gallon. And get this...we use our coffee maker!! Yep, our coffee maker is our tea maker because we use a "french press" for coffee. Anyway, 2 tea bags into the basket, water in, turn it on and let it go. We run water through twice and add about 1 1/4 cups of sugar to the hot tea. Refridgerate and serve over ice. My husband can drink the whole gallon by himself in one day!!! Have a great one!

We love sweet tea at our house and I used to do the hot brew tea all the time, but I'm an "easy" freak so I use the Lipton cold brew tea now and while it's probably not as good as hot brewed, I never hear any complaints. I use three family size Lipton cold brew tea bags to a one gallon pitcher container. I "bob" the tea bags in the water about 10 times each and then let set for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how strong you want the tea). I "bob" the tea bags again about 5 times each and remove. I add just shy of one and a half cups of sugar (probably closer to one and a quarter cups). Stir well. I find that the sugar dissolves just fine in the cold brew tea. You just have to stir a little longer. To cut back on calories, I often use just under one cup of sugar and just under one half cup of Splenda. This reduces the calories by a third but it doesn't have the awful overpowering aftertaste of using only Splenda. One thing I would definitely say is to stay away from the decaffeinated version of the cold brew tea. We had to throw away the entire pitcher of the decaffeinated tea it tasted so awful. I tried using 1 regular tea bag to 2 decaff - awful, and 2 regular to 1 decaff - still awful. I just threw the box of the decaff tea away. It just had a terrible flavor.

i think the trick to really good sweet tea is first the type of tea you choose. i grew up using rose tea but i haven't seen it here so i've been using luzzianne tea. i boil about 3-4 bags in a med. size pot on the stove(filtered water) once it starts boiling then i turn it off but let it sit on the burner about 5 more minutes. then i carefully squeeze the teabags with spoons (the tea needs to be very strong) then add sugar in the pan of hot tea to taste. i like it very sweet because once i add the warm tea over ice it weakens it some and doesn't taste as sweet. then i add a bunch of lemon wedges. we like sweet tea with lemon so you have the sour and the sweet with a slightly strong tea.
just add filtered water to it if you want it weaker. just remeber to add the sugar to the hot tea that way it dissolves the sugar really well. hope this helps!!!

hi, A.. i do not have a sweet tea recipe. just tea and lots of sugar! its best to add sugar when tea is still hot so the sugar melt easier. anyway, i am writing to find out more about how you do it!!! - ages 3,2,and 5 months????? i have 2 boys 15 months and 2. i sometimes feel so overwhelmed. are yours boys or girls? i hear that boys are a little busier than girls at this age, but regardless anyone with 3 very young children is tops in my book!!! :o)

Hi,

The best sweet Tea around in Chicken Express. They sell it by the gallon. However I found out the other day they make it with Corn Syrup, not sugar.

Good Luck,

P.

I get compliments on my tea all the time, so here it is.

7 regular tea bags placed in a 2 quart pitcher
boil couple of cups of water on the stove top
pour water into pitcher with tea bags
let it sit 5 minutes
remove tea bags (Do not squeeze them out)
disolve sugar into hot water
Finally add cold water/ice cubes to fill pitcher

I've added slices of lemon or orange also and it is great.

Hope you enjoy!

I serve a tea that has been called "refreshing tea" by our friends and family. It's really easy and we just use our Iced Tea maker (though it's sweeter if you do it on the stovetop because the sugar dissolves best in hot water). I use 2 quart-sized tea bags (yes, Luzianne seems to be the best) and add one regular sized bag of peppermint tea. While I prefer it REALLY sweet (half cup of sugar) I put a little less in for my husband's sake.

We have since modified this with any sort of flavored tea in place of the peppermint -- peach, constant comment, chai, you name it! Also, we use strictly decaf and it doesn't affect the taste or availability of yummy flavors.

When I make Sweet Tea. I boil the water and I also add sugar to the water and than add the tea bags and it is really good that way. I don't know if u would like it, but u can give it a try.

L.