Name: Sweet Tea
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 4 pitcher-size cold-brew tea bags (or 6 tablespoons orange pekoe tea leaves in a diffuser); 3/4 cup granulated sugar; Ice cubes; 2 lemons (sliced); Mint sprig ((optional))

Two large glass bottles filled with Southern sweet tea.

Rating

4.84 / 6 votes

Comments 51 Comments

Adapted From Martha Hall Foose

Photographer enigmachck

Sweet Tea Recipe
Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Southern sweet tea. Also known as “the house wine of the South.” Nothing slakes thirst, quells worries, and comes together with quite as much ease. Rest assured, it’s divine any way you serve it, whether on the front porch or resting somewhere blessed by air condition.–Renee Schettler Rossi

Sweet Tea

4.84 / 6 votes

Southern sweet tea is something you’re going to want to make by the gallon. Here’s how to make it with cold brew tea bags of any sort, whether Lipton or any other brand.

David Leite

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CourseDrinks

CuisineSouthern

Servings12 servings

Calories54 kcal

Prep Time5

Cook Time35

Total Time40

Ingredients

▢ 4 pitcher-size cold-brew tea bags, or 6 tablespoons orange pekoe tea leaves in a diffuser
▢ 3/4 cup granulated sugar
▢ Ice cubes
▢ 2 lemons, sliced
▢ Mint sprig, (optional)

Instructions

Place the tea bags in a large pitcher. Pour in 3 quarts (12 cups) of cold water and let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring 1 cup of cold water and the sugar to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and turns into what’s known as a sugar syrup.
Remove and discard the tea bags from the pitcher. Add the sugar syrup to the tea and stir. Serve the tea over ice, with lemon and mint, if desired. If you're serving the sweet tea with lemon slices, pass them on the side so that the juice can be squeezed into the tea and the lemon discarded. (If the pith is left to wallow in the glass, its bitterness will infuse the tea.)

Adapted From

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea

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Nutrition

Serving: 1 cupCalories: 54 kcalCarbohydrates: 14 gProtein: 1 gFat: 1 gSaturated Fat: 1 gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1 gMonounsaturated Fat: 1 gSodium: 1 mgPotassium: 25 mgFiber: 1 gSugar: 13 gVitamin A: 4 IUVitamin C: 10 mgCalcium: 5 mgIron: 1 mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Recipe Testers’ Reviews

I made two batches of this sweet tea recipe for a large summer dinner, and both easily qualify as a Testers Choice. The first I made with the orange pekoe tea. I steeped for precisely the 30 minutes specified and used precisely the 3/4 cup sugar and 3 quarts (or 12 cups) of water for the sugar syrup. I generously infused the fresh mint from our garden into the finished sweet tea before serving and provided lemons on the side. Delicious and refreshing! I felt I could have used less tea or more water, since the resulting tea was strong. I like that, but not everyone does. Greater dilution would be wise for anyone concerned about their evening caffeine intake—this was very strong black tea!

Since we had so much mint in the garden, I made the second batch solely with mint, and no black tea, creating a Sweet Mint Tea reminiscent of the tea that’s ceremoniously poured at all the couscous restaurants in Paris, for example, and at some Middle Eastern restaurants here in the States as well. To get a flavorful Sweet Mint Tea with fresh leaves, I used 3 cups of fresh mint leaves, which would roughly translate to 1 cup of dried (or slightly more than three times the amount of mint as black tea) for full mint flavor. Nonetheless, I used the same amount of steeping time, and quantities of sugar and water as with the orange pekoe batch. Again, delicious and refreshing!!

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Southern Sweet Tea

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