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Sweet Southern Tea

Source of Recipe


From "The Blue Willow Inn: Bible of Southern Cooking"



List of Ingredients



• 1 gallon water
  
• 4 to 5 family-size tea bags
  
• 3 cups granulated sugar (at a minimum)
  
• Lemon slices or mint sprigs for garnish
  






Instructions



1. In a 1-1/2 gallon saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the tea bags. Cover and allow the tea to steep for 12 to 15 minutes. For stronger tea, let it steep longer, up to 20 minutes.
   
   
2. Add the sugar while the tea is hot, stirring vigorously until the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow the tea to cool, and then pour it over ice. Garnish as desired with lemon slices or a sprig of mint.
   
   Makes 4 quarts (16 cups).
   
   






Final Comments


"You know you are in a true Southern restaurant when you are offered only one kind of tea -- 'sweet.' If made in the true Southern fashion, there will be no need to add sugar as the tea comes already sweetened. It is best when drunk from a tall, wide-mouth glass with clear, fresh ice cubes or heaps of crushed ice -- lots and lots of ice. Southerners revel in their sweet tea and drink it by the pitcherful at every meal. Grandmothers in the South never served their children tea until they were twelve years old. Until then, it was milk, lemonade, or water -- never soft drinks at the dinner table."