Sweet Tea

[murphath]

Does anyone have a good sweet tea recipe? My mom used to make this and it tasted just like the Snapple brand.

I remember her boiling the water and letting the tea steep. She then would add lemon juice and sugar ( I would use Splenda). I'm just wondering what the lemon juice and sugar ratio should be to the amount of liquid. She used the large standard sized pitcher.

She also would sometimes put mint (from her garden) into the tea.

Thanks for your help.

[Chocolate Lover]

Splenda??? That's not tea, that's diet food!!

I've never added lemon juice or mint, especially to the entire batch of tea. Not everyone likes the same thing....

[mtntigger]

I totally agree with CL... you can't make sweet tea with Splenda. Sun tea, sure.
If you want to make real sweet tea, the recipe that I use (for 2 quarts) is:
* boiling water (at least 1 quart)
* 8 tea bags (I usually use Lipton. If you use a cheaper brand, put in 10 bags)
* 3/4 c sugar (if you look for a "real" recipe, it usually says 1 c sugar; but that's a little too much for me)

Boil the water, into the container with the tea bags and the sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves, seep the tea bags to your desire (I usually leave mine in) and fill up the 2-quart container with water.

[Deleted]

Isn't that just tea with sugar? Is that what sweet tea is?

[mtntigger]

Well, yeah, but Sweet Tea is adding the sugar to hot water with the tea bags. Somehow, dissolving the sugar in hot water tastes soooo much better than if you just add sugar to iced tea. Don't ask me how or why, it just does.

[murphath]

Thanks. Actually, Snapple makes a diet lemon ice tea so they must use some sort of fake sugar. I'll give this a try.

[shanendoah]

The reason "sweet tea" tastes better than iced tea with sugar added is that adding the sugar when the water is hot allows you to super saturate- ie the water will dissolve and hold more sugar when it is hot that it will when its cold.

My family is southern, and doesn't really believe in recipes for anything. Sweet tea was generally made by boiling water in a medium size sauce pan with 4 orange pekoe tea bags (not Lipton - Lipton has a very specific after taste) and then adding probably a cup of sugar, though I'm not positive exactly how much. I know that my dad uses 2 cups of sugar for 1 gallon of sun tea, and that the sugar ratio in his mother's sweet tea was much higher.

[thyme4change]

I'm mad at McDonald's for advertising Sweet Tea nation wide. It is getting harder and harder to find unsweetened tea anywhere now. The last of the non-sugared flavored drink.

And I HATE artifical sweeteners, so it is even worse that all of the pop companies are creating "diet" versions to make them seem healthy.

blech

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

It is getting harder and harder to find unsweetened tea anywhere now.

I hear you, I hate sweet tea. Unsweetened sun tea is my favorite.

[pig]

It is getting harder and harder to find unsweetened tea anywhere now

Amen!! I can't even find the unsweetened at the grocery store anymore and I know they used to carry it. I hate sweetened tea but love the unsweetened iced tea. Come to think of it I don't even like hot tea.

[zibazinski]

Try a Costco or Sams Club. You have to buy a lot but you can still ger unsweetened.