Southern Sweet Tea

Personally, I don't care for lemon in my iced tea

It's been in the 90's here for the past week. You'd think after living through one of the longest and coldest winters, we'd be happy. Uh, no. It's easy to forget all the snow and cold on days like we've had this week. One either needs to be in a cool swimming pool or an air-conditioned room. At the moment, it's raining. You'd think that would cool things off. Nope. It has just made things all the worse. It's hot, humid, sticky, and raining!

There's nothing better to beat the heat than to have your hand wrapped around a long cold glass of Southern Sweet Tea. I might just have to go make a gallon!

Southern Sweet Tea

What you will need:

8 Lipton tea bags (or your favorite tea--I love blackberry)
1 1/4 cups of sugar
1 gallon container

Into a large sauce pan, pour 12 cups of cold water. Add sugar and stir. Bring water and sugar mixture to a boil until all the sugar dissolves. Lower heat to simmer, and add tea bags. Let tea bags steep for 2 to 4 minutes. Carefully remove tea bags. Carefully pour hot mixture into 1 gallon container. Add enough cold water to fill the container, making one gallon. Place in refrigerator until cold and serve over ice.

Note: If you happen to have fresh mint available, take several mint leaves and roll them between your fingers, crushing them to release the mint oil. Place mint in the bottom of the glass and fill with ice and iced tea. Stir well.

I happen to have a 12-cup coffee maker I use just for making iced tea. Follow the directions above, except put the sugar in the bottom of the coffee pot and the tea bags where the coffee filter would be placed (there is no need to use a coffee filter unless you are using loose leaf tea). My coffee maker happens to have a "sneak a cup" stopper which allows the coffee pot to be removed while the coffee is still brewing. If your coffee maker has the same feature, pull the pot out when it's about 1/3 full and stir to help the sugar dissolve. After the 12 cups have brewed, pour the hot tea and sugar mixture into the one gallon container, stir and fill to the top with cold water. Refrigerate until cold and serve over ice.

Enjoy!