Sweet Tea in the Summer

Who hasn't heated a mug of water in the microwave and dunked a tea bag into it? Simple right? It follows then that making a glass of sweet tea would be ridiculously easy. As common and ubiquitous as it is in every southern household, there is truly an art to making a good glass of sweet tea. In the south, sweet tea has to be strong and dark, and it has to be sweet. Nothing is worse than watered down tea without enough sugar, although, since it is the south, it will be dutifully consumed with gracious thanks no matter what. And truth be told, when you're outside sweating and stinking from pushing the lawnmower around or dizzy from the sun beating down on your head while you're bent over digging the weeds out of the garden, any tea is nice and refreshing, just as long as it's cold.

We still have the pan that mom used from the days before they sprayed nonstick on everything and she used to make tea in. There is a permanent ring around the pan from where the steeping tea left it's mark. I no longer use it though because I want fewer dishes to wash so I take a few shortcuts. I boil the water in an electric kettle and steep the tea in the same plastic gallon jug that I throw into the refrigerator for chilling.

I've got my tea making down to a science. I experimented with different tea bag brands, temperature, tea to water to sugar mix ratios, steeping times, and so forth. I think I've come up with the perfect way, but with sweet tea as with everything else, people will want to adjust for their individual tastes. There are just two things that I caution to not do because it ruins the tea.

1) If you get a pot of water boiling and dunk the tea bag in immediately after, you risk a bit of a bitter aftertaste to the tea. It's best to let the water cool just a bit before steeping.

2) Don't steep too long. I know it's tempting to leave it in there to wring out every bit of tea flavor, but steeping too long causes a bitter aftertaste that no amount of sugar can mask.

I originally bought this electric kettle from Amazon for my winter hot tea fixation, but I found it works great for making summertime sweet tea too because it can be set to the perfect temperature for steeping. And it saves me the hassle of having a separate pot for boiling and steeping, which just makes everything easier.

Brands - I've tried both Luzianne tea and Lipton tea. I prefer Luzianne because Lipton tastes just a tad bit bitter to me, but my dad prefers Lipton. I don't think it makes too much difference either way. I use either the family size bags of Luzianne (3 bags for one gallon) or one gallon size Lipton bag from Sam's Club.

Temperature - Already touched on this one, but I do think temperature makes a difference. Definitely don't steep while boiling. Take the boiling water off heat and then steep, or better yet use an electric kettle with variable temperature settings.

Timing - I think the perfect amount of time to steep is 3 minutes. You can go up to 4 minutes easy but by the time you reach the 5 minute mark the tea starts tasting a little bitter.

Water to tea bag ratio - I use a gallon size jug and a gallon size tea bag but I don't use a full gallon of water. Because we like our tea good and strong we use slightly over 2 quarts worth of water. Anywhere between 2 quarts and 3/4 gallon will do. I use a PUR water pitcher because our well water smells like sulfur. A full 7 cup PUR water pitcher on top of the 2 cups of water for steeping is the perfect amount of water to use for making tea.