Emma and I made this one hot summer day, and it was the most refreshing glass of goodness I had tasted in a long time. One of my favorite chain restaurants use to serve a slightly sweetened herbal tea, but discontinued it during the pandemic and never brought it back. When I realized I found a close alternative that I could make by the gallon at home, I was over the moon. My hubby, a true southern boy, tasted it and told me it was very good, but that it was NOT sweet enough to be "sweet tea"...hence the name;) Needless to say, we polished off the gallon in 2 days. It's smooth, lightly sweet, and when served cold with a slice of lemon... well, it might just be the best dang thing you've tasted on a hot sunny day.
Ingredients
1 quartwater
12individual black tea bags
1c.organic cane sugar
thin lemon slices, for serving
additional water, for diluting
Instructions
Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a medium saucepan.
Add tea bags to the boiling water, gently stirring to fully saturate them. Remove from heat, cover the saucepan, and let steep for 6 minutes.
After the tea has steeped, remove the tea bags, gently pressing them with a spoon again the side of your saucepan to extract all of the water.
Add sugar to the warm tea concentrate and stir until dissolved.
Pour the concentrate into a gallon pitcher, and fill to the gallon line with water. Refrigerate overnight.
Serve over ice and top with a lemon slice.
Notes
I like to use natural spring water for a clean, crisp taste, but tap will do just fine too!