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Best Southern Sweet Tea

Jim Lastinger

Hi all! Jim here, pitching in one of my most treasured recipes. 

If you know me then you know that I absolutely LOVE sweet tea (or as we call it in South Georgia, tea). I’ve had sweet tea my entire life and can’t imagine life without it. There have been several periods over my 34 years where I’ve switched to the unsweetened variety, which is just fine and I do like it, but I always come back home to the delicious original.

I’ve used approximately 3,804 different methods of making sweet tea over the years, but I’m going to share with you my best current recipe. It’s a bit involved, and much more complicated that how most people in the south would actually make tea for daily consumption. But connoisseurs like myself don’t mind a bit of extra work to achieve a superior product, at least that’s what I tell myself.

Loose Leaf Tea and Why It’s Better

I’m a BIG proponent of using loose leaf tea whenever possible. The difference in quality of loose leaf versus the stuff you get in tea bags is tremendous. I like to think of it like this: tea bags are filled with the dust left over after all of the loose leaf tea has been taken out of the container. My favorite teas for sweet tea are Ceylon Sonata from Adagio and Golden Monkey from Teavana. Ceylon Sonata is more traditional, like the stuff you get in tea bags, just much better quality. Golden Monkey has more of a malty, chocolatey taste and is a sophisticated twist that I really like. You can mix the two varieties 50/50 or come up with your own blend. Experiment and have fun with tea varieties… lots of really good and interesting choices out there. 

Turbinado Simple Syrup

Another secret to taking your sweet tea to the next level is using simple syrup for sweetening as opposed to adding sugar to the entire batch. Simple syrup serves multiple purposes: 1) it allows everyone to sweeten the tea to their liking. 2) simple syrup converts the sugar to fructose, which is sweeter than sugar. This allows you to use less sugar in your glass. I prefer to use turbinado sugar in my simple syrup recipe because it has a richer, more complex taste.

It’s All About the Water

All water is definitely not equal. To make the best tea you will want to use the best water you can get your hands on. A good rule of thumb is to use the water that you like to drink for your tea. We live in Georgia and have very hard water, so I don’t like to use that in my tea. I prefer using bottled water, but filtered water from the fridge works in a pinch. 

Hardware Needed

I make a LOT of sweet tea, so I have all of the requisite hardware on hand. I like to use the PerfecTea maker from Teavana for steeping. It makes the process of steeping and then filtering out the tea leaves super simple. I can’t recommend the PerfecTea makers enough. Get the big size, you’ll need it. 

As for service, any pitcher will work well. I like to use a plastic pitcher when possible so I don’t have to worry about shattering due to the extreme temperature changes you get when adding hot tea to ice or vice versa. Just being on the safe side. As for what you drink iced tea out of… anything will work but you definitely get bonus points for using a mason jar.

Ultimate Sweet Tea
The best sweet tea around. Uses loose leaf tea and turbinado simple syrup.
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Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
10 min
Total Time
15 min
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
10 min
Total Time
15 min
Ingredients
  1. Turbinado Simple Syrup to taste
  2. 8 Tsp (heaping) Loose Leaf Tea
  3. 3.5 C Filtered Water
  4. 3 C Ice
Instructions
  1. Place the 8 tsp of tea in your tea brewer of choice.
  2. Bring water to a boil and pour into tea brewer.
  3. Let tea steep for 3 minutes then express into pitcher.
  4. Add remaining 1/2 C water to tea brewer (does not need to be boiling).
  5. Let tea steep again for 1 minute then express into pitcher.
  6. Add ice to pitcher and stir thoroughly.
  7. Serve over ice and sweeten with simple syrup to taste.
Notes
  1. Lemons are a great addition to the tea. Uses the simple syrup recipe attached to this post.
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Turbinado Simple Syrup
A great simple syrup recipe that can be used for sweetening any drink, particularly sweet tea!
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Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
10 min
Total Time
15 min
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
10 min
Total Time
15 min
Ingredients
  1. 2 C Turbinado Sugar
  2. 1 C Filtered Water
Instructions
  1. Combine sugar and water in a pot over high heat.
  2. Let boil for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure sugar is dissolved.
  3. Let cool and store in a covered container in fridge.
Notes
  1. This can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. It gets sticky, so be ready for that.
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Whew, that’s a lot of info. Hopefully you can digest it and make some amazing tea. Let me know how it turns out for you!