Recipe: Southern Sweet Tea

Here in Texas, restaurants sell Sweet Tea.

Southern Sweet Tea

Makes 64 oz.

1 pinch baking soda

2 cups boiling water

6 tea bags

¾ cup white sugar

6 cups cool water

In a 64 oz. glass pitcher, sprinkle the baking soda.

Add tea bags and pour in the boiling water.

Cover and allow to steep for 15 minutes.

Remove and discard tea bags.

Stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour in cool water; refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours.

Serve with fresh lemon slices and/or mint sprigs.

Edit to say: use regular size tea bags not family size tea bags.

That looks tasty, I think I'd subtract a bit of the sugar, but that's just me and its good to have a base recipe that people can alter as they choose, and this is a good base recipe.

Rionna, subtracting the sugar changes it from Sweet Tea per Texas restaurants to just plain tea.

Anne,

Thank you for the recipe.  I have never heard of the baking soda in tea.  I will have to give that a try.  Any idea what it adds?

Adding baking soda is like adding electrolytes from what I understand.

I made the recipes without the baking soda because I was too lazy to look for baking soda.

It is not quite as sweet as I remember though good.

Being short on tea though long on green tea, I thought I would experiment:

1] Made recipe minus baking soda
2] Made recipe with 5 tea bags instead of 6
3] Made recipe with 3 tea bags and 2 green tea bags
4] Made recipe with 2 tea bags and 3 green tea bags

I have not noticed a difference in flavor.

3 green tea bags change color to light shade.

Anne,

I tried tea with baking soda a few times, since we have had a 'heat wave' in the midwest.  the intersting thing, albeit anectdotal for now, is the tea has stayed 'fresh' longer.  I am a philistine and will make a pitcher of tea and leave it on the counter not refrigerated.  It gets that 'funky' taste after a day or so.  I have not encountered this when using the backing soda.  It may not be related, but a pinch of baking soda beats tossing a pitcher of tea and starting  over it is 'turns'.  Thank you for the suggestion.

From what I remember the person who furnished the recipe said the baking soda gave the tea something like a"zing", my words not hers.

I can't remember her words though refreshing might work ...

A gallon of this tea sell for $3.99 to $4.25.  I tried to find an image with prices that was clear enough to read.

I saw a discussion on Reddit about tea from other restaurants being sweeter than this one.  This one is the only one I have tasted.

And this is the one I was trying to duplicate.

Jack Edmondson wrote:Thank you for the recipe.  I have never heard of the baking soda in tea.  I will have to give that a try.  Any idea what it adds?

Baking soda is bicarbonate of soda and is rather alkaline. I wonder if it neutralises the tannins in the tea so a) making it taste sweeter and b) stop it stewing, which maybe what you found when you experimented with it.

Nancy is correct about neutralizing tannins. Baking Soda also helps keep cold tea from getting cloudy.

Please make sure you dissolve the baking soda before adding the tea.

Tannins dissolve in hot water, but bind to caffeine and other components in tea, especially when the temperature rapidly cools, and precipitate out, creating a cloudy appearance. Baking soda interrupts this process.

Similarly, baking soda improves tea brewed with hard water because it stops the tannins/polyphenols from forming complexes with the calcium and magnesium cations in the hard water. Those complexes, when allowed to form, increase the perception of bitterness and astringency while causing cloudiness, films, dull colors and deceased tea extraction capacity.

So, if you want brighter, clearer, smoother tea with less bitterness and bite along with deeper flavor, a pinch of baking soda is your ticket.

FYI, in a recipe like the one above, 1/8TSP would be a good starting point, but it would be wise to start low and increase to your preferred flavor.

A tea with "too little" baking soda will be perfectly drinkable, but a tea with too much baking soda will taste salty and metallic and will not be drinkable without dilution.

BONUS Features (heh):

You should feel encouraged to experiment with different sugars. Honey, molasses, maple syrup, turbinado sugar, brown sugar, agave, or any combination of your favorite sweeteners will impart anywhere from a mild to a massive shift in flavor.

If you're not in a rush, I'd also recommend a cold steep instead of a hot brew for your sweet tea. Start with just enough hot water to dissolve your baking soda, then add enough ice to cool the hot water and the imminent additional cool water. Add your tea bags on top of the ice, then pour the rest of the water in, stir for a short bit, then leave it in the fridge for 8-24 hours.

It'll be smoother, less bitter and more flavorful than hot brewed tea. It's okay to brew some up if you didn't plan ahead, but you'll enjoy your tea more if you try the overnight cold brew method.

Being in the South married to a man who loves his sweet tea, and making sweet tea at least a few times every week, I can add a bit.

The basic recipe I was taught was: 1 cup sugar, 2 Luzianne tea bags, hot water. In a pitcher, I believe two gallons of water.

Those who like their sweet tea like it sickly sweet (in my opinion). This or more sugar is true sweet tea.

Over time, I've managed to adjust the recipe. First, since he was having trouble sleeping, I reduced the caffeine. I now use one decaf bag and one green tea bag (still both Luzianne).

Also, I was able to reduce sugar so now I put about 1/4 cup of sugar and 28 drops of Lakanto monkfruit. According to my husband, not quite as good as the real stuff, but it's a fair substitute for the cup of sugar and drinking less sugar has definitely improved his health and sleep.

(And I think the Luzianne are special tea bags specifically for sweet tea. Others can be used, of course, but I think a Luzianne tea bag is a little bigger than a regular teabag I'd use to make green tea.)

Narrative:
According to our friend Ivy from Southern Living, this is the secret ingredient for getting the smoothest, crystal clear glass of tea, just like you’d see in commercials. Nicole compares two pitchers of iced tea--one with and one without baking soda. You’ll be surprised at the results.

Now, if any of you have Whataburger's recipe for sweet tea, please give it up!!! Strong enough to peel paint, sweet enough to give you diabetes, and as smooth as a baby's bottom. Yum, the best!!!

Becky Wiese wrote:
Those who like their sweet tea like it sickly sweet (in my opinion). This or more sugar is true sweet tea.

I'll confirm with anecdotal evidence since my husband calls my tea humming bird nectar. Good tea blends can be flavorful without much sweetener though, Twining's and Yorkshire for instance.

Lovely recipe! I'd love to try with baking soda to maintain electrolytes in this heat.

Anne Miller wrote:Being short on tea though long on green tea, I thought I would experiment:

Anne, if you have a lot of green tea around and enjoy sweet tea, make some green tea (I like using the overnight method, but you can make it however you want) and drink it sweet with ice and some kind of citrus-- lemon, lime, orange. We sweeten with stevia but you could use whatever sweetener you normally use. it is very tasty and one of our favorite summer drinks, something I make for parties/barbecues when it's hot, some of our guests don't drink alcohol and want something thats just as refreshing as a cold beer (and don't appreciate the normal unsweetened iced green, black or herb tea i'm usually drinking). It's always a hit.

Tereza, the thing is that I don't like green tea unless it is mixed with black tea.

That is why I have lots of green tea and only a small amount of black.

I have three boxes of green tea marked $.75 that I bought at a going out of business sale.

I use an electric kettle and old stained Rubbermaid pitcher to brew tea, just missing the moniker ‘Southern Sweat Tea’ by adding 3-4 more bags (8-9 in total) and not sweetening it, at the final step. I’ve instead, been making a ‘simple syrup’ of dissolved sugar in boiling water, chilled, than allowing one to make it as sweetly ‘Southern’ as they choose,…

I'm thinking maybe there's also the possibility of some discrepancy in strength of the final product, when we use only the word 'bags', as a measurement. I know of a few different sizes of bags, here in the USA (even within the Louisianne brand, which is also my favorite bagged tea), and am not sure how they might differ from those around the world. If I'm making a gallon of tea, and using the size bags that'd go in a teacup, I'm using 12. But, if I'm using 'family size' bags, there will only be 4. Then, then are other teacup sized bags that I think are so wimpy, I'll put 2 in the teacup. The different sizes creating different strengths would make a huge difference in how much sugar (or stevia, in my case) I would want to add.

Carla Burke wrote:I'm thinking maybe there's also the possibility of some discrepancy in strength of the final product, when we use only the word 'bags', as a measurement. I know of a few different sizes of bags, here in the USA (even within the Louisianne brand, which is also my favorite bagged tea), and am not sure how they might differ from those around the world. If I'm making a gallon of tea, and using the size bags that'd go in a teacup, I'm using 12. But, if I'm using 'family size' bags, there will only be 4. Then, then are other teacup sized bags that I think are so wimpy, I'll put 2 in the teacup. The different sizes creating different strengths would make a huge difference in how much sugar (or stevia, in my case) I would want to add.

Just regular one cup type tea bags, not family or what ever the larger ones are called...

Use one tea bag per cup [regular] or 2 tea bags for two quarts [family] per package directions