Southern Sweet Tea
Spring is just around the corner and that means it’s time for some refreshing Southern Sweet Tea.
If you are like me, you love a refreshing glass of real Southern Sweet Tea. Here is a really easy sweet tea that everyone will love and is great for any occasion – especially hot summer days.
Instructions:
- Sweetener – use 1 cup of sugar to two cups of water. Heat over medium/high heat in sauce pot until sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from heat
- Tea – Using a larger sauce pot, bring 6 cups water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and add 4 Family Size Luzianne tea bags to the pot and steep for 5 minutes. You can go longer but your tea will get stronger – if you like that then go a little longer. I use Luzianne tea but you can use whatever brand you like.
- Once your tea has steeped for 5 minutes, remove the tea bags and discard. No need to squeeze the bags out.
- An important step for smooth, refreshing sweet tea. Add a pinch of Baking Soda to neutralize the tannins in the tea. Very important if you want really smooth tea.
- Fill a 3-quart container with about 2 quarts of ice – this will be your dilution of the tea.
- Pour the sweetener and tea over the ice at the same time. I find that mixture is just the way I like it – the perfect balance of sweetness and good tea flavor.
- Optional – I like to add a little fresh lemon to add some additional flavor. A manual citrus juicer really comes in handy here – makes squeezing the juice out of the lemon very easy and catches the seeds at the same time. Bonus!! I use one average size lemon and that gives it great lemon flavor without overpowering the tea. Add slices to each glass if you like.
- Stir to mix and cool the tea. Tea is instantly ready to drink over a glass of ice.
There you have it folks. Real Southern Sweet Tea and easy to make.
Enjoy!!
Photo credit – Glass picture of tea is courtesy of Today.com Other photos are taken by me.
I didn’t think about the baking soda. Interesting!
It works – smooth and refreshing tea. My wife loves it as much as I do and she even makes it from this recipe when we run out. Good stuff.
baking soda in tea? I never heard of doing that. I’ll try that though. I wonder if that’s why sweet tea tastes good
Yes – give it a try. Makes for very smooth and refreshing tea. Just a little will do the trick. Thanks for reading
Thanks for the recipe! I will definitely try this one 😊 And I forgot to tell you that your chicken soup is now my goto recipe 😊
That’s awesome. The soup is a family fav for us and we mix it up once in a while – sometimes noodles, sometimes tortellini, and once in a while dumplings 🙂
Ahhh, I’m from the Midwest but have never been able to get behind Sweet Tea! A heathen, I know!
Oh please try it. I never did either until I tried REALLY good sweet tea. Then I searched and asked around how to make it just like I had fallen in love with. Once you get hooked, there’s no turning back. ☺️ Thanks for stopping by 🙏🏻
Very special indeed.
Refreshing!
W springtime! 😄
It is and so good too. I have been making this recipe for a while and do not recall where I first saw it but it really is the best Sweet Tea I’ve ever had. Goes great with grilled foods and sunshine ☺️😍
We just need the sunshine then! 😉😄
For sure – been cold and rainy here in the middle U.S.
The big cold has left us in Paris… but the weather has become rainy and changeable…