Although I lived in Mississippi for the first part of my childhood (and visited almost every year after we moved to California), I didn’t grow up on sweet tea. My mother never cared about sugar – she drank water and, to a lesser extent, Diet Coke – and my grandmother made her teapots sweetener with tiny single grains!Point saccharinthat I haven’t seen anywhere but in their kitchen.
But sometimes I crave some really sweet tea, so I make something. After all, I am an adult and being “adult” means that I can pamper myself whenever I want. These food cravings are never so severe that I want a full pitcher of sweet tea – one glass is plenty – but making a single glass isn’t as simple as adding sugar to unsweetened iced tea. There are best practices that you should follow. So let’s stroll through the process step by step.
Do not use whole boiling water
Most black tea – the tea you should use to make sweet tea – is best brewed above 200 ° C and below 212 ° C (boiling). There are some fancy black teas that taste better when brewed at lower temperatures, but sweet tea is not made from fancy tea. (Get the cheap stuff – you’ll be covering up any delicate, nuanced flavors with lots of sugar anyway.)
If you have a kettle with precise temperature control, use this one. For all others: Bring some water to the boil, then take it off the stove and let it cool for about 10 seconds. If you’re making a single glass of tea – and I mean worth at least a pint glass – you need a cup of this very hot water.
Add tea bags, not time
The longer you boil your tea, the more bitter it will taste. If you want a more flavorful brew, resist the urge to let the tea bags sit in the hot water for a long time and add more tea bags instead. This will add more tea flavor to your sweet tea without the astringency that comes from over-extraction. I like the taste of tea more than the taste of sugar (at least in a beverage situation), so usually Add two tea bags to a cup of boiling water and let steep for 4-5 minutes.
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Always add sugar before the ice cream
Sugar doesn’t dissolve in cold water, at least not at a rate that is helpful for sweet tea drinkers. To keep it from lingering Add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar to hot tea. (Some cute tea fiends may prefer three whole tablespoons, and I’m not here to judge.)
Cool, don’t shock
Some black teas don’t like cooling too quickly, and adding lots of ice at the same time can cause your tea to become cloudy. To prevent this, Combine your hot, sweetened tea concentrate with an equal amount of water at room temperaturestir this until it’s no longer hot, then add lots of ice.
Let’s check
To make a single glass of sweet tea you will need:
- 2 cups of water, divided
- 1-2 cheap black tea bags
- 1-3 tablespoons of white sugar
- ice
- A very large glass
Bring a cup of water to a boil. Once it boils, take it off the stove, pour it out of the kettle, or – if you’re a scumbag like me – take it out of the microwave. Let it cool for about 10 seconds then add your tea bags and let steep for four minutes.
Remove the tea bags, add the desired amount of sugar and stir to dissolve. Pour a cup of room temperature water into a large tea glass, add your hot, sweetened tea concentrate, and stir to cool. Once the water is no longer hot, add as much ice as the glass can hold. Have a sip on a porch, balcony, or near your best window.
