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You may be wondering why a Chicago girl is sharing her best southern sweet tea recipe. You may be even more concerned after learning I didn’t drink sweet tea most of my life. But after my son told me tonight that I make the BEST sweet tea and asked me to write down how I make it, I figured I’d share the secrets with you as well.
My Sweet Tea Secret
My sweet tea method has evolved over the past two decades, but according to my adult children and their friends, I’ve perfected it. To be honest, I wouldn’t take my own word for it. As the daughter of a Brit, I grew up thinking sweet tea was just tea that’s gone bad. I simply couldn’t understand why someone would drink cold tea!
But when your kids love something, you learn to make it. I say all this because I’m going to tell you how I do it, but I’m not going to recommend a certain brand of tea or sugar. For me, the key is in the homemade simple syrup.
Homemade Simple Syrup
Simple syrup is basically liquid sugar. It happens when you gently simmer water and sugar until they dissolve. You then have a sweetener that’s much easier to mix into drinks. The basic ratio for sweet tea is twice the amount of sugar as water.
For this recipe, I use half a cup of water and just shy of one cup of sugar.
If it were up to me, I would cut the sugar down to 3/4 cup, but everyone else who visits my house (including native Nashvillians) prefers the former ratio.
The other key is this: after pouring the simple syrup from the saucepan into the tea pitcher, I fill the same saucepan with cold water to make sure I’ve gotten all the sweetener out of it that I can. I then pour that into the liquid measuring cup with the used tea bags, soaking the last of their flavor, and then pour that into the pitcher until it’s full.
Brewing the Black Tea: How to Make Sweet Tea with Lipton Tea Bags
Perhaps I got ahead of myself by starting with my simple syrup secret. The true start of the recipe is brewing the black tea.
I use an electric kettle to boil just over 4 cups of water. Once boiled, I pour it over 6 Lipton black tea bags in a 4-cup measure (I found it at Dollar Tree). Side note, Lipton tea bags often go on sale (BOGO free) at Publix, so that’s when I stock up.
Steep the tea for ten minutes. Covering it while steeping enhances and intensifies the flavor. I just put a small plate on the top.
Once the tea is brewed, pour it into your half-gallon pitcher, gently pressing on the tea bags with the back of a wooden spoon.
The Best Southern Sweet Tea
The only other difficult part is waiting until it’s cool enough to drink! Try my step-by-step sweet tea recipe below:
Southern Sweet Tea
A southern sweet tea recipe that's been perfected by a Midwestern girl.
Ingredients
- 6 Black Tea Bags
- 8.5 cups water
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Boil 4 cups of water in a traditional or electric kettle.
- Meanwhile, gently simmer about 1 cup of sugar with a half cup of water. Stir to incorporate and as soon as the sugar dissolves, remove from heat.
- Put the tea bags in a 4-cup measure. Once water has boiled, fill to the top and put a plate over it to cover for ten minutes.
- After ten minutes, remove cover and pour the tea into a half-gallon pitcher (or larger), gently pressing the tea bags to make sure you get all the flavor out of it.
- Gently pour the simple syrup from the pot into the pitcher with the tea.
- Fill the pot with 4-5 cups of cold water, then pour over the used tea bags in the measuring cup, and then transfer that water into the tea pitcher (pressing out the used tea bags again).
- Cover and refrigerate until cold.
- Serve over ice.
Notes
* I typically use Lipton tea bags because they are frequently on sale at Publix, but the debate over which type of tea makes the perfect sweet tea is often debated here in the South!
