Sweet Iced Tea

If you are from the south, chances are you like sweet tea.  I love sweet tea.  Why, then, do they sell gallon jugs of sweet tea at the grocery store when its sooo easy and cheap to make??  I decided to blog this today because I saw a woman at the store putting 3 jugs of it in her cart.  Three.  She wasn't buying bulk of anything else, so I can only assume it was normal grocery shopping.  That's like $6 worth of tea!  Crazy.  I learned how to make tea before I learned to microwave a can of soup.  Its not difficult.  It doesn't even take much time.  Okay, okay..I'm done.

I'm partial to Lipton, but use what you like.

For one gallon of tea:

14 regular tea bags

2 cups sugar

water

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil.  Remove from heat and add the tea bags.  Let them brew for about 10-15 minutes.  The longer it goes, the stronger it gets. 

**Do not boil the tea bags.  You'll just end up with a jug of bitter yuck.**

While the tea is brewing, boil then remove from heat 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar in a small sauce pan to make a simple syrup.  This is your sweetener.  If you just use regular sugar, it takes forever to dissolve, if it ever does completely.  Obviously, you can adjust the amount of sugar if this is too much or too little for you.

Once your tea has brewed, remove all the bags and squish all the liquid out by pressing them against the side of the pan with a spoon. 

Pour the concentrated tea into a gallon pitcher, add your simple syrup, then fill the rest of the way with water.  Refrigerate and serve over ice!

Christi