Perfect Southern Sweet Tea Recipe

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Growing up in the Midwest I thought Southern Sweet Tea was simply tea with sugar added to it. This is completely wrong, and most Southerners will turn their noses up to such an atrocity!

I quickly learned my lesson when I married a Southern gentleman.

When we were first married, there was a problem. My husband likes to have Southern sweet tea with his dinner every single night and I didn’t know how to make it.

The horrors!  🙂

I attempted several times to make him sweet tea during our first few years of marriage. But it never came out right, and I resorted to buying his tea from the grocery store for years. I spent $5 every week on sweet tea. That means I spent $260 a year on tea!

But I finally got tired of shelling out so much money on tea, so I searched and searched for sweet tea recipes and decided to give sweet tea another try. In my search I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. With all of the information put together, I came up with the perfect sweet tea recipe!

After tasting this version of sweet tea, my husband proclaimed,

“This tastes like Granny’s Sweet Tea!”

I did a little happy dance!

FINALLY, I hit the jackpot and have perfected Southern sweet tea.

I like to call this my perfect sweet tea recipe because it took me six years to get it just right!

If you like Southern sweet tea, and are looking for a great recipe, this is the one. Read on for the recipe and all the best tips. At the bottom of the post, you can click on the link to print out the recipe.

How to make southern sweet tea

Add 1-2 cups of sugar to the bottom of a gallon pitcher. Fill the pitcher with water until the sugar is covered.

Stir the sugar and water until it dissolves. This is key. You don’t want to skip this step.

Next, Add 4 cups of water to a pot and cover with the lid. Turn your stove top on high and bring the water to a boil.

Once the water is boiling remove the pot from the burner. Then add 7 tea bags to the pot and replace the lid.

Let the tea steep for 13 minutes. No more. No less. This is the best amount of time to steep tea. I’ve tried it at different times and 13 minutes is perfection.

After 13 minutes is over, throw the tea bags away. Pour the freshly brewed tea into the pitcher of sugar water.

Fill the pitcher to the top and stir. Let the tea come to room temperature on your kitchen counter before adding to the fridge.

Southern Sweet Tea Recipe

Sweet Tea Ingredients:

7 tea bags

gallon of water

1-2 1/2 cups of sugar* (depending on your sugar level tastebuds!)

*My husband LOVES his sweet tea extra sweet, and I get compliments on how good my tea is from other people too. But you may want less sugar. Just experiment.

Sweet Tea Recipe:

1. Add 4 cups of water to pan and bring to a boil.

2. Once water is boiling, remove the pan from the heat.

3. Add the tea bags to the water and cover with a lid for 13 minutes.

4. While the tea is steeping, put sugar in gallon pitcher and add just enough water to cover the sugar.

5. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

6. When the tea is done steeping, throw away the tea bags and pour the tea into the pitcher.

7. Add enough water to fill the pitcher.

8. Stir making sugar all the sugar is dissolved.

9. Allow the tea to come to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator.

You can print out the sweet tea recipe here. 

Why does sweet tea sour?

Adding ice or putting the tea in the refrigerator before it cools down causes the tea to sour early.

So add plenty of ice cubes to your glass and pour the tea into the glass. This way you can enjoy cold sweet tea without it souring too quickly.

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