Refresh your guests with a tall glass of Southern Sweet Tea garnished with lemon and a sprig of mint.
Course: Beverage
Cuisine: American
Servings: 6
Ingredients
5individual Luzianne or Lipton brand tea bags
1quartcool-filtered or bottled water
1/8tsp.baking sodaoptional
1(4-cup) glass measuring cup for steeping
2quartglass pitcher filled with ice
1c.granulated sugarmore or less, to taste
Fresh lemon slices or wedgesfor garnish
Mint sprigsfor garnish
Instructions
In a large saucepan, bring one quart water to a full rolling boil. Open and spin the tea bags together so all the strings wrap together and set them inside a 4-cup glass measuring cup with the tags hanging on the outside. Pour boiling water into the measuring cup and dip the tea bags in and out to begin releasing the tea leaves. Stick a plate on top and set the timer for 5 minutes. Let the tea bags steep.
Take a wooden spoon and press the tea bags up against the side of the measuring cup and toss the tea bags into your compost. Add just a pinch of baking soda to the steeped tea. It will not affect the flavor, but will take away bitterness if you happened to have burned your tea leaves.
Fill your glass pitcher with ice, pour the sugar on top of the ice and slowly and carefully pour the hot, steaming tea over the ice; stir well. Don’t pour hot tea directly into a glass pitcher without ice in it!!
Pour into glasses filled with more ice. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint