How We Make Sweet Tea
Sweet tea is one of those drinks that a lot of people would associate with people in the deep South having each and every day. However, this is not the case for us as we are in Ohio and have to admit we love to make our Sweet Tea and drink it all year round. The problem is a lot of people are not really sure how they can make sweet tea and this one simple fact tends to intimidate people to the point they do not make their own sweet tea. Since this is the case, we have decided to share how to make sweet tea that we use and this makes it easier for you to find the right tea.
Items You Need To Make Sweet Tea
Tea bags we prefer the [popup_product]Lipton tea bags[/popup_product] to make our teas.
Pitcher for making the tea in.
Sugar, we recommend and use Domino sugar because it tends to do a little bit better with our sweetener.
A 4 cup measuring cup that is accurate.
Hot water or sun is something else that you are going to want to have as well.
A spoon for stirring the sugar mixture
The Steps We Use And The Process
The first thing you need to do is make sure you have all of your supplies ready and on hand to use. This will make it easier for you to get all the work done quickly and easily without having to look for the items when you need to have them. We did forget to mention that we like to use 6 regular sized tea bags in the gallon pitcher that we use for making tea, so you should have this available to you if you want to get the work done quickly and have the tea brewed properly.
After you have gotten everything assembled you will want to make sure you check and get the pitcher filled up with hot water until it is about ninety percent full. The water needs to be hot if you are going to be brewing inside of the house, but if you are going to brew the tea in the sun then you are allowed to have any type of water because it will warm up with the sun.
You will want to put the tea bags in and let the tea brew for several hours with the tea bags inside of it. This is going to allow you to get most of the vitamins and nutrients out of the tea that you are trying to get, but also allows it to completely brew everything that you possibly can.
Once the brewing is done you will want to measure out 2 cups of sugar in the measuring cup. Then you will boil some additional water to bring the measuring cup up to a total of 4 cups. So it will have 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water to reach this level. You will want to make sure you mix the sugar mixture thoroughly or you could have some problems in getting the tea sweet enough. Now this is for a gallon size pitcher that we use, if you use something different base it off of a gallon measurement for the mixture here, but the 1:1 ratio of water and sugar tends to work out best.
While you are waiting for the water to come to a boil for the sugar you will want to take the tea bags out of the tea and squeeze them out, being careful not to cause the tea bags to explode. This way you get the last little bit of tea out, but also avoid having the bags sit in the tea pitcher. The easiest way to get the tea out we found is before you make the tea is to put the strings over the side and have them tied together. Then when you put the lid on the tea it will keep the tea bag in one spot for you.
Now the sugar mixture is ready to be poured into the tea. We recommend doing this in a sink because it can get messy at times. All you have to do is take your 4 cup measuring cup and pour it into the tea, with the lid off. Then you just have to put the tea into the refrigerator and the tea is done! Very easy to do and can be brewing while you are doing other things as well.
After the tea is done and the sugar is added in all that you have to do is make sure you wash the measuring cup up. If you are not doing dishes for a little bit, we do recommend putting some soapy water inside of the cup or you could have the problem of the dish starting to attract ants, but also have the issue of it getting sticky and harder to clean out when you do go to dishes.