Boil

• Boil: Bring 1 quart of water to boil in a tea kettle or medium saucepan. Remove from heat and drop in 4 family size tea bags and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
• Sweeten: Classic Southern Sweet Tea is known to be very sweet. Adjust the sugar to your taste. In a gallon tea pitcher, add 1½ to 2 cups of sugar. Pour 1/2 of the warm steeped tea over the sugar and mix to help to dissolve the sugar. Pour the rest of the tea into the pitcher. Add a pinch of baking soda and stir well. If serving immediately the soda may not be necessary. (baking soda mellows the tannins in the tea giving you a smoother-tasting tea) Fill the pitcher with cold water and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve over ice.

  Note: Baking soda mellows the tannins in the tea giving you a smoother-tasting tea. If you are serving sweet tea immediately you could probably skip this step.

  Always dissolve your sugar in warm tea before filling the pitcher with cold water. Some Southern cooks will make a simple syrup with sugar and water, then add this to warm tea before filling the tea pitcher with cold water to fill tea pitcher. Never totally mix your tea and water and then add sugar at the end of the process.