Hi from the uk!

[Condor24]

Haha well someone's got to stand in for us tea drinkers haha! I can imagine the mess it would make if one of them turned up in one of your outer city towns haha I have an image of pitch forks and torches... and 12 gauges haha! I gotta say... I tried sweet tea a couple of years ago and it's become quite addictive... anyone know how to make the stuff homemade?

Sacajawea - It's not fair that you guys get cool things like crocodile and alligator moats �� We are stuck with sheep and border collies haha

[Infidel]

pretty much tea bags in a water pitcher and a bag of sugar and let it sit(in the sun alot of times). now the question you will get conflicting answers is which tea bags.

[redman2006]

Good ol lipton's or lusianne and a cup of sugar per 1/2 gallon

[W.Lynn]

I like a strong tea, but not bitter, so I will bring a quart and a half, or more, of water to a boil, then take it off the heat and wait for the boiling to completely stop (same as for a hot cup of tea.) I'll add enough tea bags for a gallon of finished tea, put the lid on the pot, and push it to the back of the stove. When it's hardly warmer than room temperature, I'll put about a quart of water into a gallon pitcher, then a cup and a half to a cup and three quarters of unbleached, organic sugar (I like the taste,) remove the tea bags from the pot, and pour the tepid, concentrated tea in as well. Stir until there's no more sensation of undissolved sugar at the bottom, then top up the water to a gallon and give it a last careful stir. Lid on, and chill, serve over plenty of ice.

Fun things to add, for adults:
Peach schnapps
Peppermint schnapps
Amaretto
Blackberry schnapps
See a pattern?

For children, or anyone who doesn't take alcohol, a little splash of fruit juice, or fruit syrup, with slices or whole berries to match.

[Infidel]

oh boy she boils it, Morgan would cry.

[W.Lynn]

NO, never boil the tea! Boiling the water before hand helps do several things though.

Instead of drinking weak tea, the water drops in temperature from the boiling point to a heat level that gives you a lot of flavor. I'm sensitive to bitter flavors, so over-heated tea makes me sad too.

Also, as it cools, you get it put together while your concentrate is still just a tiny bit warm, that loosens up the sugar molecules for better dissolving.

And because you're using hot water to start, you get a gallon of full-bodied tea faster, and that can be important sometimes.

Plus, if the water is questionable, boiling it before you start to make tea reduces the chance of your tea passing along something dangerous. That is a LONG tradition in beverages, historically, people were safer drinking anything that started with boiled water. So a choice of either beer, tea, or coffee became culturally significant practically everywhere!

Don't you goobers know nuthin?

[Infidel]

I know I put my tea in the sun to steep

[W.Lynn]

I got a story on that.

When dad got out of the Air Force, he bought one property of what used to be a pair of lots owned by one family. Modular over full basement (dad's now,) and the place behind it, which had a small mobile home on it. The back doors faced each other, and even had a cement walk between them - sort of like a redneck mother in law cottage, but someone once told me that it had been for when their daughter married and wanted a little away from the parents, long run, didn't work out, both places sold. To make selling them easier, part of the cement walk was destroyed, and a fence put in, the rest of the walk was left as a decently level spot for grilling and such.

When I was in high school, the back neighbors took a liking to steeping their big jar of tea out on that bit of walk, where it would get the most sun.

One fine day, while they were out running an errand, we observed that their dog watered the jar, much as dogs will water any stump, branch, curb, and so on. When the neighbor came home, we let them know. That jar sat there so long that I lost track of the weeks, it was certainly most of the summer, and into the first part of the next school year.

[Infidel]

Lmao

[Kailani Kealoha]

Aloha. Welcome to the forum from Taxachusetts.

[Condor24]

Aloha! Thanks for the welcome!

I think I may need to order the tea online for the quantity it takes too make a jug it will probably be more cost effective. So it's just sugar water and tea then... like a big arse cup of tea but chilled and a crap load of sugar shoved in �� I love it!

[Infidel]

yeah pretty much guess thats why its call "sweet iced tea" LOL

[Cwi555]

Aloha! Thanks for the welcome!

I think I may need to order the tea online for the quantity it takes too make a jug it will probably be more cost effective. So it's just sugar water and tea then... like a big arse cup of tea but chilled and a crap load of sugar shoved in �� I love it!

Lipton is a blend of 20 teas, but the primary leaf is black leaf (ground).
Lipton that we use here is not so easy to get in the U.K., or at least in the areas I've been in (wales, London, and Portsmouth).
Loose leaf makes a better tea in my opinion.

1/2 gallon filtered water,
1 Oz your preferred tea leaves (we use a mix of black, oolong, and green[.5, .25, .25 ratio]),
2 cups of ice cubes,
1/2 cup sugar.

Boil water, take off of heat, dump leaves in, agitate 45 seconds, let steep four minutes. Strain into pot, mix sugar, then pour into pitcher with ice.
Those three teas can be found nearly world wide. I traveled a lot in my earlier career and came up with that as a way to get sweet tea in less civilized areas (anywhere out of the South east and Texas lol).

[W.Lynn]

A decent breakfast blend will do, made, sweetened, and served over ice. You know, if you aren't all OCD about your beverages like some of us.

[Cwi555]

A decent breakfast blend will do, made, sweetened, and served over ice. You know, if you aren't all OCD about your beverages like some of us.

I resemble that remark.