Home Brewed Sweet Tea Attempt

Lately, I’ve had a craving for Sweet Tea. Since my tolerance for carbonated drinks has gone down, I’ve started ordering Sweet Tea for take-out nights. I get a bit of caffeine without the repercussions that comes with iced coffee. A couple of years ago, I used to get Lipton Cold Brew Sweet Tea Bags. Like the name suggest, you don’t need hot water to make it. Just fill your pitcher, stew the tea for the directed time and add sugar. That’s not what I did this weekend.

You see, I keep meaning to buy Lipton Cold Brew Sweet Tea Bags and a new pitcher, but I keep forgetting to cross it off my shopping list. Feeling fed up, I decided to search for Sweet Tea recipes. I figured how hard could this be. It didn’t take much time and it called for individual Lipton tea bags. I needed 12 to make it. Luckily, I still had 15 Lipton tea bags in my pantry. However, I didn’t have a pitcher. Determined to avoid defeat, I took a look at my Tupperware shelf. There, I found suitable substitute. A few months ago, I bought a Rubbermaid 50-piece EasyFindLids Vented Food Storage set at Sam’s Club. Out of the 50-pieces, it came with with (2) 7 C (1.5 L) Food Storage Containers. I was able to use (1) 7 Cup Container and (1) 2 C (473 ml) Container to cool the tea in the fridge for at least 4 hrs.

I’ll admit, I went a little of script with Kathryn Hill’s recipe. After your tea bags have stewed in boiling water for 5 min, you’re supposed to use 1 c of sugar. I was like, “That doesn’t seem sweet enough.” Without taste testing, I added an extra cup of sugar. Then I transferred my tea into my Rubbermaid containers and put it in the fridge. After 4 hrs, my family and I taste tested my sweet tea. Let’s just say, the sugar hits you immediately. Since you add 3 C of Water to the 4 C of tea you brewed, it didn’t over power the tea. If your going to make Sweet Tea with 2 C of sugar instead of 1 C, make sure that you drink it with ice. It gives that thirst quenching chill and stops the sugar from punching your taste buds.

Final Thoughts

Boiled Lipton Sweet Tea takes more time to prepare than Lipton’s Cold Brew Tea, but it’s cheaper to prepare. If you have time, I recommend trying Kathryn Hill’s Sweet Tea recipe. If you don’t have a pitcher, make use of what you’ve got. That’s what I did. Thanks to that, I didn’t have to wait for a take-out night to get me Sweet Tea fix. Since my Rubbermaid Tupperware is pretty new, it’s less likely to leak. I’ll admit it makes it harder for my kids to pour their own tea. So, I am compromising convenience with this method, but that’s a small price to pay. Also, this is a more natural way of brewing Sweet Tea than using instant tea mix. You’re more in control of what your family is consuming. Sounds like a win win to me. I hope you enjoyed this recipe edition of Mystery Post Tuesday. Hope you’ll stop by for Trisha’s Go In Fridays!