Sweet Tea

Iced tea is one of my favorite drinks in the summer.  I know it's something that you can drink year-round, but to me there is just something nice about sitting around on a hot day with a nice cold glass of sweet iced tea.   I played around with this recipe quite a bit and found that this is my favorite way to make it.  Of course, adjust this to your preferred tastes-if you want it sweeter, you can add more sugar, if you like your tea a little less sweet, go ahead and add less (or even no) sugar.  Sometimes I like to add a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice as well.

Sweet Tea

8 cups, plus 1 additional cup water
10 tea bags
1 cup sugar

Bring 7 cups water to a boil in a saucepan; add tea bags. Boil 1 minute; remove from heat. Cover and steep 10 minutes. Discard tea bags. If adding to a pitcher that is not heat tolerant, allow tea to cool.

Meanwhile, to make simple syrup, combine one cup sugar and one cup of water in a saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and boil until sugar dissolves. Allow to cool completely.

Combine tea and simple syrup in a pitcher of your choice.


Source: Simple Gourmet Original