Thursday's Ramblin...The Perfect Southern Sweet Tea

Sweet tea makes everything better
                                   ~Unknown

I know, I know...I'm not a born and raised southern gal, but that doesn't mean I don't love the south.  I love southern fried chicken, peach cobbler, southern accents, southern locations, Southern Living Magazine, and I really love sweet iced tea...

I've played around with different recipes and experimented on my own and without a doubt, this is the best sweet tea.  Years ago, way before Mr. Cottage and I spent our winters in Florida, I was so frustrated ordering iced tea in a restaurant, anywhere in the Midwest.  Even now, most places give you a choice of raspberry iced sweet tea or unsweetened iced tea.  So obviously you go to put a few packets of sugar in your iced tea, and it just settles at the bottom and never dissolves.

I figured out the sugar issue a number of years ago.  It must go into the tea while the tea is still hot.  Duh!  But getting the strength, sweetness and the perfect taste took a lot of pitchers of iced tea to find the one I really love...

THE PERFECT SOUTHERN ICED TEA

• Bring 2 cups water to a boil.
• Add 6 teabags to the boiled water, cover and let steep for 15 minutes.  I use Lipton teabags, but every now and then I make Sweet Ginger Peach Iced Tea, using The Republic of Tea brand.  You can usually find this brand at World Market...

• After 15 minutes, discard the teabags, and add 1 cup of granulated sugar to the hot tea.  Stir until all the sugar has dissolved.  Add 1/8 teaspoon baking power to the tea. Yes, I said baking power!  It actually cuts the bitterness that tea sometimes has.
• Add 6 cups of cold water to the pan, and pour into a 2 quart pitcher.  The pan I use, will only hold the 4 cups of cold water.  So after I add the 4 cups, I pour the contents of the pan into my pitcher and add 2 more cups of cold water.  Put in the refrigerator to chill.

Down south or in Texas, where our oldest son and his wife live, everyone makes iced tea by the gallon.  Just double the recipe and you've got your gallon.  

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