Sweet tea

[Bellaboo]

Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda into a 64-ounce, pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
Remove tea bags. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Add cool water. Refrigerate until cold.

[hotprincesscm]

Ooooh Thanks! I never knew that about the baking soda! I can't wait to try it!

[tervsforme]

I love sweet tea, but have never made it. Will be making some this afternoon! Thanks!

[Luckybustert]

I didn't know about the baking soda either....thanks for the great tip on that!

[KatieInLa2]

We drink sweet tea at our house too. I have found a new product and I love it for tea. Its called true lemon, a crystallized lemon powder. Its used for cooking, baking and seasoning.

www.truelemon.com to see it.

[Bellaboo]

Yeah I didn't know about the baking soda thing either until I was given this recipe. I hope you guys like the tea.

[tervsforme]

I just made this and it is soo good. Not too sweet. Thank you so much. I'll be making this a lot!

[Luckybustert]

This is so very refreshing on a hot day! And it's a great alternative to chemical-laden soft drinks. Enjoy!

[Paws]

Wow, I had no idea about the baking soda trick!
I'm gonna have to try this!!
I make a gallon of sweet tea every day for dh...He absolutely loves the stuff.

[pollypurebred39]

Wow! I wonder what the baking soda does? I grew up on sweet tea. My Grandmother made it every day, but she never added baking soda. I'm going to have to try this. Thanks!

[Libby]

I dont mind the cloudy appearance and I've never noticed the bitterness of the tea? Does that depend on your brand of black tea?

For my Jasmine Green Tea: I use 3 jasmine green tea bags and pour boiling water from the kettle in my coffee maker carafe (10c capacity) and let it steep for 15'ish minutes then remove teabags and let it sit to cool to room temp. After, I pour it into my 3Qt Rubbermaid pitcher along with 1/4c Splenda, shake and refrigerate.

I can't wait to make homemade black raspberry iced tea next!

I just started making my own iced tea this year and I agree - preference is given to hm natural over chemical packed.

[Luckybustert]

I dont mind the cloudy appearance and I've never noticed the bitterness of the tea? Does that depend on your brand of black tea?

For my Jasmine Green Tea: I use 3 jasmine green tea bags and pour boiling water from the kettle in my coffee maker carafe (10c capacity) and let it steep for 15'ish minutes then remove teabags and let it sit to cool to room temp. After, I pour it into my 3Qt Rubbermaid pitcher along with 1/4c Splenda, shake and refrigerate.

I can't wait to make homemade black raspberry iced tea next!

I just started making my own iced tea this year and I agree - preference is given to hm natural over chemical packed.

What brand black tea do you use? I hear the Luzianne tea bags make the best sweet tea. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to use up that giant box of Lipton I got at Costco...

[Paws]

What brand black tea do you use? I hear the Luzianne tea bags make the best sweet tea. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to use up that giant box of Lipton I got at Costco...

I can't speak for anyone else, but we use cheap-o brands of tagless tea bags...never had anyone complain about off flavor or bitterness...

Jasmine green tea...sounds very interesting...I've not seen them around around here...think I'm gonna have to go looking...

[Libby]

For my Jasmine Green Tea: I use 3 jasmine green tea bags and pour boiling water from the kettle in my coffee maker carafe (10c capacity) and let it steep for 15'ish minutes then remove teabags and let it sit to cool to room temp. After, I pour it into my 3Qt Rubbermaid pitcher along with 1/4c Splenda, shake and refrigerate.

Ugh - I realized I forgot a huge detail in my post...discovered it as I made a fresh pitcher of tea tonight lol. My carafe only makes 1-1/2QT of concentrated tea. I pour that into the 3QT pitcher and fill up with another 2QT of water - leaving 1/2QT room to shake the Splenda into it. For herbally caffeine free teas - I let those teabags soak longer b/c they have a much more milder flavour then a black tea or a green tea.

What brand black tea do you use? I hear the Luzianne tea bags make the best sweet tea. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to use up that giant box of Lipton I got at Costco...

I use Red Rose Orange Pekoe tea - its all my dad will buy now. Tetley is too strong for his tastebuds. I have to use 2-3 bags of Red Rose or 1 Tetley teabag for black tea based mixes. Don't forget I'm in Canada so our brands may differ slightly.

I use 2-3 Red Rose/3-4 fruity herbal teabags. They don't taste like the kind you buy - as in sweetened tea with a fruit syrup shot but I like how it tastes.

I do have a box of Lipton Ice Tea bags that are supposed to work in cold water but I figured I may as well clean out my tea stash before I add another box to it. But this summer will be going much better with hm iced tea.

Jasmine green tea...sounds very interesting...I've not seen them around around here...think I'm gonna have to go looking...

The kind I have was from an Asian grocery store - box of 100 bags for $1.50? But I'm imagining that there are a lot of other brands that would make a 'jasmine green tea' as well

[tnkyfrugalgal]

The pinch of baking soda is a new one on me. I have been making sweet tea for years but I use loose leaf tea instead of tea bags. I have a small (quart?) saucepan that I use to make tea in. I don't use that pan for anything else. I have a coffee scoop (1/8 cup) that I use to measure out my tea. For a half gallon of tea I use 1 1/2 scoops of tea. Years ago when I first started making sweet tea sugar prices were extremely high so I got use to drinking "not so sweet" tea. I use either a 1/4 cup of sugar or a 1/3 cup of sugar for my 1/2 gallon of sweet tea. It depends how sweet I want it the day I make it. I can drink almost the full 1/2 gallon every day. Love my tea. This was how my mother made tea but she used more sugar.