South Carolina Sweet Tea

I was born and raised in SC, and if I made tea like this my mother would have tanned my hide. There are a few things wrong with this - One not people use an electric coffee make for tea only....if you use your coffee make for coffee too, it is going to leave a funny taste in your tea. Also You never specified what kind of tea to buy...that is important, I'vew had people come up and ask me all the time. I make teas the following way: 7 regular sized Orange Pekoe Tea Bags (orange peko is the type of tea leaf, its generally what is used in Lipton and your other brands...but double check. It doesn't taste like oranges either. 1 1/2 Cups of Sugar for a 1 gallon pitcher. Put tea bags in small pot and put on stove with about 3 cups of water...give or take. You want the tea bags covered, so the bigger the pot, the more water you have to use. Bring tea to a boil and let it roll for 2-3 minutes. Turn tea off. let tea sit in pot for 10-15 minutes. While this is happeneing, fill you pitcher up half way with WARM water. Hot is good too, but it takes longer to cool off. Put sugar in warm water in stir vigourously. The secert to sweet tea is adding your sugar to warm liquid to melt the sugar so it doesn't all all to the bottom. Next, add your tea, then, you can either fill the pitcher the rest of the way up with water and refridgerate or...put ice in it to fill it up and drink. But remember...if you drink it before the ice melts, it might be a little sweet.

the best way to make tea.............

This recipe is as close as I have come to the sweet tea I love in certain restaurants. I make it often!!

Wow I didn't realize making great iced tea could be this easy! Now I can make it often. I will probably cut down on the sugar though, although it did taste wonderfully sweet! Thanks Deanna.

I love this!! Tastes just like the restaurant ones and I will make it this way from now on! Thanks, Deanna!!!

I have been looking for a sweet tea recipe that resembles the tea that is served in kentucky. This is as close as I've come. I liked this tea! Good Job!

I have been making sweet tea on the stovetop for years, and then came across this recipe. I tried it, and love it! I put the sugar in the pitcher right before I add the first batch of hot tea to it so that way the sugar disolves completely. I also use regular tea bags because that is all they sell in bulk at the wholesale club - so I use 10 regular size tea bags, which equals to 3 family size tea bags.

I have been trying to make sweet tea that tastes like my Granny's did for years without success, until now. I use all the sugar for myself, but cut it down for my northern friends. I am going to buy a coffee maker to dedicate to tea, because even though I thought I had cleaned the coffee maker well, I still had a faint coffee background flavor in the first batch. Thanks Deanna. I make a couple of gallons a week.

We reduced the sugar to 1 cup, it was very good. Very easy to make. Thanks!

Wow! What a great recipe. It was so easy! I wanted a recipe that tastes like my GrandMother's, except not quite as sweet. I only used 1 cup of sugar and it was perfect! I'll add the 2 cups when my GrandMother visits. Thanks!