Hey you Southerners: Sweet tea?

[BillinOregon]

I hear this is a Southern tradition. What is it exactly?

 

[DMURPHY317]

Very simple. It's the same as notheren iced tea, we just have one of those sweet southern belles put her finger in it. Now if you don't have a sweet southern belle handy, just use about a cup of sugar per gallon of tea, +/- to taste.

I use a coffee maker and put about 3 heaping table spoons of instant tea in the filter and run a half to full pot of water through it. Put your sugar into a gallon pitcher and pour the hot tea in. Mix it till the sugar melts then fill with cold water and ice. Works and tastes great.

Good luck with it.

 

[bob1961]

sounds like the tea i make with 9 tea bags and a gallon mayo jar....hang the tea bags in the jar fill with spring water and close the lid and let sit out in the sun fer bout an hour....add sugar to taste in yer glass :thumbsup: ..............bob

 

[shmrck1]

David,
1 cup of sugar would be way to sweet for my
taste but thats why they call it "Sweet Tea" i guess!
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

Wal-mart Food Stores sells something called "Red Diamond", which is really SWEET tea - much too sweet for me but I think it was meant to be diluted with ice. Try to find a gallon if it's sold up where you are.

 

[brian turpin]

Bottled tea??? Instant tea??? What's next moonshine in the package store? Sweet tea the easy way. Put 4 family sized tea bags into 1 quart of water. Add 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil. Stop!! You want it to just come to a boil, don't cook it long at all because the tea bags will break. Remove the tea bags. Pour the tea concentrate into a container that will hold 1 gallon. Now add enough cold water to fill the container. TA DA you now have good sweet tea.Remember friends don't let friends drink canned tea.
Bimbo

 

[DMURPHY317]

Hey Bimbo, thats basicly how I make mine only I use a drip type coffee maker that heats the water to almost boiling. Sometimes I use instant in the filter, sometimes tea bags. I usually use a little less than a cup of sugar but thats a taste/preference thing. After growing up in Texas and then in Tennessee and with family all over the south (Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, etc.), I didn't know there was anything but sweet tea till I visited up north. But then again, where I grew up if you asked for a coke, they would ask "what kind?" A sprite of course. :haha: :what:

 

[flintlockmdj]

"Southern sweet tea" is exactly what it says, best way that I have found to make it is put the sugar into the Mr. Coffie type coffie pot and run the water through the tea bage in the filter when you are through you have the hot tea and sugar all in the same pot now stir untill the sugar is desolved. Pour into a galon jug and finish filling with water. Refrigerate. :imo:

 

[Slash]

Anyone who has ever spoken to me would probably say I am as "Southern" as it gets. Here is my tea receipe:

Place 5 large teabags, 3/4 cup sugar, and enough water to cover the bags in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from the heat, cover, and steep for 30 minutes. Add enough cold water to the liquid tea (minus the bags) to make a gallon of tea. We also add a slice of lemon or mint.
Enjoy, Slash

 

I do mine with the coffee maker, like others. I put 4-5 family sized tea bags in the coffee maker (12-cup), and run the water through it. I then pour that super-strong tea over the sugar in the pitcher (I need a little more than 1 cup for a gallon for my tastes... usually use about 1 1/3 cups), and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Then, top off with either cold water, or sometimes if we want instant gratification, we'll use ice and let the hot tea melt it to cool it off faster.

The reason it's done this way in the South is because if you like your tea sweet, you have to dissolve the sugar into it, and sugar won't dissolve worth a toot in cold tea, so adding sugar by the glass doesn't really work.

 

Nothing worse than a 1/2" layer of sugar in the bottom of your glass and flat tasting tea above it!

:imo:

 

Amen brotha!

:redthumb:

 

[capnwilliam]

I'll have to show these messages to my wife; she always orders sweet tea when we go out.

To me, nothing belongs in tea but lemon!

Capt. William

 

[Pork Chop]

Sweet tea? You mean that there is some other kind of tea??

There ain't no such thing as tea that is too sweet. If the spoon stands up, you are just about right...

 

[Joel Lehman]

My wife says I'm sweet enough just the way I am. Consequestly, I don't add sugar to my iced tea.

 

[luvv2hunt]

fried okra,peas,steak and gravy,and some sliced tomatoes,i just couldnt eat if i didnt have a cold glass of sweet tea to wash it all down. ::

 

[Pork Chop]

luvv2hunt, I couldn't agree more! When I take the tribe out to dinner, I often tell the waiter/waitress to leave the tea pitcher. They laugh it off, but then get tired of running back and forth to fill me up!

 

[bnail]

God Bless you Bimbo!
Finally a recipe I agree with. I was born in Alabama, and all my kin are still there. I live in Northen Michigan now, and if I want sweet tea, I've got to make it myself. I must admit I don't drink it as much, or as sweet as I used to, I guess I've becomne a galvanized Yankee. I add 6 lipton tea bags to a bot of boiling water, stir in about a 1/2 cup of sugar, and then pour into a gallon jug. fill the rest of the way with fresh water.
I'm getting thirsty just.
Oh, don't forget the lemon wedge!

 

[soquili]

I don't like to boil the tea, it makes it bitter. I use 3 family-sized teabags of Luzianne tea - it's naturally sweter and smoother than Lipton. I put those 3 big teabags in a gallon pitcher of cold water and stick it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. It makes just as well there or out on the counter as it does in the sun, and doesn't sour as fast as it does when you make sun tea. Then when it's done, toss in about a cup of sugar and take a slotted spoon and stir it for about a minute, it dissolves just fine. :m2c: Keeps two or three days in the fridge, but I drink it all before then. ::
Patsy, 5th generation Texan

 

[bnail]

Ya know, Sweet tea has to be a 20th century convention, simply for the ice needed for the drink.
Any one know when us colonials started drinking tea by the glass instead of the cup?