Easy Peasy Refreshing Sweet Tea
Growing up in Texas, it wouldn't have been possible to have a refrigerator without a couple of pitchers of sweet tea in it.
In Texas, sweet tea is essentially sugar with a little bit of tea flavored water in it. It's not quite like sweet tea in Virginia where there's so much sugar that you can hardly breathe after a sip, but it's still pretty sweet.
We always used about a cup of sugar in each of our pitchers.
Some how, we have become well known for our brand of sweet tea, which is why I developed a recipe for it.
I didn't think that our tea was any different than the sweet tea made everywhere else in the country (hot water, ta bags and sugar), but apparently it is!
Of course this isn't the only way to make a great pitcher of iced tea for your friends, family, and household, but this is how we do it in our home.
Let's look at how you can make some easily for your family as well.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 2 regular tea bags per gallon container, any flavor
- 1 cup sugar per gallon container
- 2 gallons hot water
Instructions
- The first thing I do is to wash out both of my tea pitchers thoroughly with soap and water. If there is an residual tea left in either pitcher, the tea will taste funny.
- I then set out all of my materials as this happens really fast. (This was very hard to take pictures of, lol.)
- Start your water running in the sink on hot. It will probably take a few minutes to heat up to boiling.
- I normally wait until I can see the steam rising from the water around the sink. (I tried to get a picture of the steam, but it was hard to see it in a picture.)
- At that point put both of your pitchers in the sink to begin filling up.
- Drop 3 tea bags into each pitcher, being careful not to tear them. You don't want loose tea in the bottom of your pitcher.
- Immediately scoop your sugar into each pitcher before the first one fills with water. You want the sugar in the pitcher while the water is filling it up so it can dissolve in the hot water.
- If you put the sugar in afterward, it may not completely dissolve.
- Fill each of your pitchers with steaming water until it's about an inch from the top. You don't want your tea to spill when pouring it or putting it into the refrigerator.
- I then leave both pitchers on the counter to brew for a few hours.
- After about four hours or so, I'll come back and check the temperature of the pitchers by putting my hand on the side of one.
- I don't want it to be completely cooled, but only mostly cool.
- Then, remove the tops of your tea pitchers and stir each one, removing the tea bags.
- Make sure to stir each one for a few minutes getting into all of the crevices on the bottom to make sugar has dissolved.
- Pop both into the refrigerator to completely cool for about an hour.
- Enjoy!!
Nutritional Information
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1 glass of sweet tea | |
| Calories | 15 |
| Calories from Fat | 0 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 0 g | |
| Saturated fat 0 g | |
| Unsaturated fat 0 g | |
| Carbohydrates 4 g | 1% |
| Sugar 4 g | |
| Fiber 0 g | |
| Protein 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | |
| Sodium 0 mg | |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
We are constantly asked for our tea anytime anyone visits our home. It's like people have never had sweet tea before when visiting.
Over the years, we've slowed switched from caffeinated tea to decaffeinated to help with the caffeine intake.
We've also lowered our sugar from 1 cup (which everyone loved) to 1/3 cup. It still tastes like sweet tea, just not as strong. Not that it doesn't disappear just as fast. lol
We've made the same tea with peach tea flavored bags, green tea, cinnamon or ginger flavored tea, and even black and red tea.
Every time we try something new, it's a new adventure.
We even like putting different fruits in our tea like peaches (my husband's favorite), oranges, apples, and berries.
We really like our tea over here! You'll have to try some of your own variations and let me know how it turns out for you. Enjoy!
Quick Poll
How do you like your iced tea?
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© 2014 Victoria Van Ness
