How can I make good iced tea?

[Lost Lake]

My son is really into Duck Dynasty (he's 11) and now I watch it.
The Robertson family is always drinking iced tea on the show which got my son interested in the stuff.

The wife bought some from the store and oh my God--- YUK!

We tried some Lipton flavors, not as bad.

My recent batch was 6 lipton packets steeped in hot water, then pour 1 1/2 cup of sugar in the hot brew to dissolve and add cold water to make a gallon. It may still be a touch too sweet.

Am I heading in the right direction? Is Lipton a good enough tea or should I look for something else?

I did like the bottled diet green tea I got from Costco last week, but junior sure doesn't.

 

[Rule3]

Home ? Luzianne ? Family owned Since 1902

Best Tea there is for Iced tea.

Also depends on your water. If your tap water sucks then get bottled water.

We drink gallons of it. I only add sugar when I pour a glass. I do not like it real sweet.

We have a MR Coffee Tea maker and use 4 family size bags per batch guess it's a around 3-4 qts.

Let it cool at room temp or it will turn cloudy.

 

[wetdog]

I use a Mr. Coffee Iced tea brewer, about $20.00 at Wal Mart. I'm on decaf so I use Red Rose decaf bags.
There are also cold brew bags from Lipton, I think.

 

[cowboy45]

Sun tea made in a gallon glass jar.

 

[Alnamvet68]

I second the Luzianne brand, but I like to mix and match my tea, using other fruit flavored brands along with the regular tea. That said, I found the following to work for me:

* If the tea bags have the string and tab, remove them.
* 1 tea bag for every 8 oz of spring or filtered water
* Put the bags in a glass, not metal or plastic, tea pitcher.
* Pour boiling water (1/2 of what's needed) and steep for no more then 10 minutes. Any longer, and you get an unusually bitter and cloudy tea.
* Remove the bags, add fresh squeezed lemon juice (not concentrate) if you like, and 1 heaping tbsp of raw turninated sugar (not refined white sugar) for each 8 oz of tea, and stir well untill dissolved.
* Add remaining ice cold water to tea, stir well and serve.

 

[kwselke]

I prefer Community Coffee Company iced tea. I bring two quarts of water to a boil in a tea kettle, pull the kettle off the heat, drop two quart sized bags in the kettle, steep for ten minutes with the cover on the kettle.

I chill the brew unsweetened. When I go to consume, the sweetener of choice is added to the glass and mixed with cold tea from the refrigerator. Ice is then added.

Luzianne is good tea too, but right now I really like Community.

 

[bricker]

I think the proper term is "sweet tea."

 

[tyusclan]

I think the proper term is "sweet tea."

And good sweet tea has to be strong and sweet.

Otherwise, I'll just drink water.

 

[rwsmith]

My Mom made the best

People were always complimenting my Mom on chicken and tea. It's kind of funny how she made it and have it turn out so good. She'd put about 6 bags (may have been more because we had a big family) of Lipton in a stovetop kettle and turn it on high. Then she would go lie down. Invariably the pot boiled over on the stove and one of us kids would have to catch it and take it off the burner. Put it in a large pitcher, add tap water (your way of putting in the sugar sounds better), then a teacup of sugar, Ice the glasses, pour and voila'. Great iced tea. We always teased her about her 'boiled tea', but it was dang good.

 

[laskt9]

You are clearly not from the south. Strong and sweet as said before or don't drink it at all. All your store bought stuff isn't going to be any good.

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[timn8er]

Sun tea made in a gallon glass jar.

Now that the weather is heating up its time to make sun tea. I use one of the family size bags, Lipton's or Luzianne, toss it in the old pickle jar filled with cold tap water & maybe three or four sticks of cinnamon, depending on my mood. I'll let it sit in the sun till its pretty dark;I like it strong so it'll stand up to the ice. When I bring it in, I'll let it come to room temperature before putting it in the fridge. That way it won't cloud up.

 

[Alpo]

You need a one-pint saucepan, a tea-strainer, a two-quart glass pitcher, some sugar and a box of loose black tea.

Put a pint of water on to boil. While that's heating, put a quart of water in the pitcher. Not hot, not cold. Room temperature. Add between a half-cup and a cup of sugar to the water (you're gonna have to play with that to figger out how sweet you like it). Stir it until the sugar is completely dissolved.

When the water is boiling, take it off the fire. Put three heaping teaspoons of loose tea in the water and let it set. After five minutes, pour the resulting liquid through the tea-strainer into the pitcher of water. There should now be approximately three pints of liquid in that two-quart pitcher.

Stir it up. Add water to make two quarts. Taste. Not sweet enough? Add more sugar. Too sweet? Next time don't use as much.

Put it in the refrigerator. About three hours later it should be cold enough to drink.

If you pour tea over ice, the ice melts and the tea is diluted. Don't do that. Cold tea out of the fridge, in a glass by itself.

You need to drink it within about 30 hours, otherwise it will start to sour. Ain't a whole lot nastier than sour tea.

 

[snowman]

Like chili, pizza, etc., etc., everybody likes it the way they like it, and it can be made to suit any tea-drinker's taste.

I boil a quart of bottled water(tap water here isn't good for drinking), put one family-size bag in for five minutes, put a bunch of ice in the pitcher, and pour the tea in over the ice. Let it set for a few minutes, put more ice in the glass, add tea. Sugar again depends on what each drinker likes. If I'm having tea with a meal I won't add any sugar. If I'm just drinking tea I'll add some sugar. It's up to you and yours.

Enjoy your tea, sir.
Andy

 

[Fishslayer]

You need purified water. Google "Sun Tea."

 

[GKC]

Another vote here for Luzianne tea! It's the best we've ever found, it tastes better, and stays clear longer.

When boil some water in a tea kettle, and then put several bags in it to steep (the amount of water and the number of bags vary, depending on how much we want to make.) We let that steep for a while, and then the brew into a pitcher with ice and water.

We don't sweeten ours, since I like Sweet & Low, and my wife likes Splenda. We each sweeten ours in our glasses.

 

[jkc]

My technique and formula is this:

Bring one liter/quart of tap water to boil by whatever means, pour into two quart pitcher. (I have an electric kettle, and also a large microwave vessel, that hold a quart of water, but you could as effectively, but less efficiently boil two full quarts, but it isn't necessary...)

Add two Luzianne "family size" ice tea bags, and one regular size Bigelow brand "Constant Comment" tea bag, and steep five minutes, no longer, and remove tea bags from pitcher. This makes a concentrate. Add enough more water to equal two quarts, let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Discard after four days, and start afresh.

Friends report satisfaction with freezing the above-described concentrate in ice-cube trays, and using the frozen concentrate to reconstitute "iced" tea from the concentrate, in the field, when camping or etc. I've no experience, and no comment on this technique...

 

[zoom6zoom]

Sun tea made in a gallon glass jar.

same here but I don't even bother with the sun anymore. Just eight Lipton bags in the jar. I use water filtered through the Brita and it never gets cloudy. Then straight in the fridge overnight. Soon as one jar starts getting low I stick another one in.

No more sweet tea for me as it's no good for my blood sugar. But since I've stopped drinking sweetened drinks the ones without it taste naturally sweeter by themselves.

 

[vigil617]

Lost Lake, we think too much of you to steer you wrong on this. Luzianne is the way to go. Game, set, match.

You add some of that Upper Great Lakes pure water to it, and brew it the way these fellows have described, and even if you throw Splenda into it (in case you have sugar issues, like many of us), it's God's own quaff.

Enjoy!

 

[charlie sherrill]

Three family size tea bags of your favorite tea. Chunk em in a pot with about a pint of water. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for a few minutes. Put a cup of sugar in a gallon size glass container. I like the ones the beer companies used to make. They can still be found at antique stores. Pour the tea over the sugar. Squeeze the bags with a fork and pour in the rest. Stir until the sugar melts. Add good (bottled if you have to) cold water to container until you have a gallon. Stir some more and pour over ice. Add lemon or moonshine to suit your taste.

 

[Hillbilly77]

Well, first you need some vodka....