Yesterday was my SITS Day, and I want to thank the SITS Girls (Kat, Tiffany, and Francesca) for a truly fabulous day, and my Surrogate Blogger, Dianna, for doing all the things I SHOULD have been doing on my SITS Day while I was at work. The theme running through all the comments yesterday? Sweet tea. At least half the commenters mentioned that they love sweet tea, hate sweet tea, or have no clue what sweet tea is, let alone why I love it so. So here’s my recipe for sweet tea. My friend Kim makes the best sweet tea in the world, and I’ve watched her make it oodles of time and mine is never quite as good as hers, but it’s pretty darn good.
Run six cups of water through your coffee pot with a Lipton family-size tea bag in the pot. Yes, I said Lipton, there’s no need to get fancy with this. And the bag should go in the pot, not where the coffee grounds go. Let it sit for five minutes or so, and then remove the tea bag in stir in one cup sugar (or Splenda) until dissolved. Fill a two-quart pitcher with cold water and pour the hot tea into it. Serve over lots of ice. Do not refrigerate – that makes it cloudy. My husband likes a wedge of lemon in his, but I usually drink mine straight. This is a beverage appropriate for any time of the day, and any season. And yes, McDonald’s does have sweet tea, but I personally prefer Chic-Fil-A’s.
*disclaimer: This is MY sweet tea recipe. It’s not the way my mother makes sweet tea, or my aunt makes sweet tea, or my neighbor makes sweet tea. Everybody has their own recipe. If you don’t like yours or if you’ve never made sweet tea, start with this one and change it to suit your taste. Just don’t add sugar after the tea has cooled – that’s NOT sweet tea.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds yummy, especially on a hot summer day.
Sorrry, I missed your SITS day. Will go back and comment now
Sweet Tea, that is my drug of choice. I do use your recipe, with some changes. All Southern ladies have their own recipe. But that’s a post for another day. I can not imagine a day without Sweet Tea.
I missed your day yesterday – but I think it was meant to be – because I love my morning tea. Since I’m in Canada, it has to be warm at this time of year.
There’s nothing more comforting that a cup of hot tea! Earl Grey is my fave
So true, so true.
Every good Southern does their sweet tea different! But I must confess that I’m starting to like hot tea more and more. It might be the English coming out in me.
Come by when you can….I’ll have some cold sweet tea waiting…
Like all good Texas girls I grew up on sweet tea. I’m pretty sure my mama gave it to me in a bottle when I was little. (I was born in the 50s; they didn’t know any better.) But I’ve given up sugar for the most part. For me, it doesn’t take nearly as much Splenda to sweeten tea as it does sugar.
LOL! I’m afraid my mom might have done the same thing – I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have some sweet tea in a little plastic cup. That could explain why I was such a “busy” child
I LOVE sweet tea. Another reason I’m convinced I lived in the South during my previous life. Bookmarking this!
There’s a lot of “Southern girl” in you!! Thanks for the comment love!
I was going to comment about what sweet tea was but hadn’t got that far. So sweet tea is the American version of iced tea. Sadly, I like my iced to to taste like sugar rather than iced TEA.
LisaDay
I didn’t know that putting tea in the fridge made it cloudy!
I may have to try my hand at sweet tea. We make sun tea and iced tea, but I have a feeling it’s not the same thing. Especially considering the former two have no sugar in it.