Sweetea Tip of the Day

I labored for years to find the perfect sweet tea brew. And I think I found it. Most females know you don't have to follow a recipe to the milliliter when cooking or baking, but those of us guys need to have things measured to the exact granule. So, here's the ratio that seems to work well for me. I'll be VERY specific with my recipe. Begin by bringing a medium saucepan full of water to a good hearty boil. Remove from heat, and add 3 LARGE Lipton tea bags (not the little guys, guys). Allow to steep for 5-7 minutes. In the meantime, add 1.5 cups of white granulated sugar to a 1-gallon pitcher. Squeeze the teabags individually to suckle the last of the tea flavor out of the bags. Pour the hot tea onto the sugar immediately. Stir the tea and sugar while its still hot and after the sugar is dissolved, fill the rest of the pitcher with cold tap water. (Or tap and ice if you're serving immediately.) If you like your tea a little stronger, add slightly less water, and if you like it weaker, oh well, too bad. This recipe has made many good brews for me recently. And it's important to get it to a science.

[For another sweet tea recipe check out Christine's illustrated step-by-step guide]

Comments

Kris said…
So, being specific...how big is the medium sauce pan? And, exactly how many cups of water go into said sauce pan?
Jay said…
I knew someone was going to call me out on that. Appropriately, it was Kris, the chemistry teacher! :-) The medium sauce pan is EXACTLY the size of MY medium saucepan. And, it's fill about 1/2 inch from the top. I believe it's approximately 1 liter of liquidy goodness.
JCo said…
Random question: has anyone ever tried to make sweet tea with honey? I thought of this while making a hot cup of tea with honey this morning.
Jay said…
No, but it sounds AMAZING!
Kris said…
Thanks, Jay, you really cleared that up for me! Now, you've got milliliters (metric), cups/gallons (English), and liters again...You're just like Home Depot. When you buy paint there, you can get it in a pint, quart, gallon, or 4 liter container! Just exactly which system do we use over here anyway?
Pete said…
That does sound good. I wanna try it.
Jay said…
I am such a proponent for the metric system. Sure, it's hard to know what driving at 100kmh is equivalent to, or what 23 degrees celsius is, but I remember in chemistry classes always HATING to convert stuff to English. It was so much more complicated. I mean, 12 inches in a foot? Who DOES that?
Jay said…
Oh paprika, just checked out Christine's illustrated version. I think when we get a second, we should put actual quantities in there from my tip, and come up with an EXACT tip on sweetea making. Sound good?
Anonymous said…
As someone whose parents make the best sweet tea in the world (according to most everyone who has tried it) I have two suggestions. 1) Don't squeeze the tea bags, that makes the tea bitter. Simply hold the bags over the tea until they stop dripping. 2) While the tea is brewing put half a lemon (sliced thin) in the pitcher then add the sugar. Pour the tea in over the lemon/sugar mix, then after the tea cools some pull the lemons out and squeeze them into the tea.
Jay said…
Thank you anonymous! Our labs will test this out. We'll also test the honey recipe and see what we encounter. Look for a follow-up tip in the future! (Probably the distant future!)
Jay said…
I just wanted to add that this weekend, our research lab tested the "don't squeeze the teabags" theory. And, "anonymous," whose mother makes fabulous sweet tea, you are right. Not squeezing the tender little teabags does result in an excellent-flavored tea! Thanks for this helpful addition.

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