Recipe for basic iced tea?

Snooky's Soul Food Shack · 01-04-2004, 05:32 PM

.....Please? Something really basic and fairly easy?

My MIL gave me a bunch of "family-sized" Lipton tea bags. I grew up with a pitcher of iced tea in the fridge at all times, but I have never known how to make it.

1) Has anyone used the Lipton recipe on the box? Should I simply follow that?

2) How do you get that beautiful, amber, clear colored tea?

3) Also, I can't use sugar because my husband's a diabetic.

If anyone can help, it'd be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

roseannadana · 01-07-2004, 06:52 AM

I don't add sugar to my iced tea anymore. A friend of mine asked me once if I were a communist since I'm southern and don't drink sweet tea.

I put a pan of water on the stove, probably a quart of water or so. Bring to boil, add six family size bags, remove from heat, cover with lid. Let steep for about five or ten minutes. This is a matter of personal preference, depending on how strong you want your tea.

Then I pour the tea into my gallon size pitcher and fill the rest of the pitcher with water. (To fill the pitcher, I add water from the faucet to the bags in the pan and pour this in until the pitcher is full.)

If you want to add sugar, put the sugar in the pitcher before you pour in the hot tea.

There are so many different ways of making iced tea, some being very complicated. But I keep it simple since we drink iced tea all day long around here. You can add ice to the pitcher instead of water if you plan to serve the tea right away. That way the tea will cool down quickly and won't melt the ice in your glass.

ETA: I buy Luzianne tea because I prefer it. But Lipton is good too.

goldy · 01-15-2004, 10:58 AM

where i used to work we used to place the tea bags (made for 1 gallon of iced tea) into a pitcher and pour boiling hot water over the bags. we'd put enough water to fill up about 1/3 of the container. then leave it steeping for about 6 minutes (read the time recommended on the bags, oversteeped tea does not taste good). we would then add enough cold water so that the container was approximately 2/3 full and then fill it up the rest of the way with ice.
we did not sweeten our tea. if we wanted it sweet we would put sugar in the glass and add about a tablespoon of boiling water and stir it until the sugar melted, then pour the tea in.

curlyamzippity · 02-13-2004, 04:56 PM

sometimes when you make iced tea, the ice will make the tea cloudy. (I have an iced tea maker and this always happens).

There's an easy way to fix it, though. Just pour a cup of boiling water into the pitcher of tea and the cloudiness will disappear. (use less boiling water for less iced tea, more for more tea...) Usually, after cooling it wont come back. if it does, a small amount of boiling water will get rid of it.
HTH

Omalorrie · 04-18-2004, 09:36 PM

I use splenda now to sweeten my tea. It taste great.
For those that like to use sugar here is a trick that I would do. I would add the sugar(for 1/2 gal. about1/2 to 3/4 cup) to the water(about 2 cups) in a pan. Bring it to a boil and boil until sugar is disolved. Remove from heat and add your tea bags. Steep for 5 min. and then pour into a pitcher. Add cold water to fill pitcher.
This makes a very smooth tasting ice tea.

chappysmom · 04-30-2004, 06:55 AM

We just put the tea bags in the pitcher, fill it with water, and put the whole thing in the refrigerator. When the tea is dark enough, we remove the tea bags. No extra steps!

Also, we keep some "Instant iced tea" bags around--they're filled with really finely ground tea and will make a glass of iced tea in a matter of minutes, just by adding them to water. My mother carries a ziploc bag of them whenever she goes on vacation!

Deb in NJ

cunninghamair · 07-04-2005, 12:29 PM

I do the recipe on the box.