Northern Sweet Tea

These leaves aren't mint.
Can you guess what they are?

Sweet Tea is a staple in the south.  Every restaurant and southern host has it.  But here in the north, for some reason it's not so sweet.  You can find fresh brewed iced tea but it's always unsweetened.  Maybe the sugar that's added in the south contributes to the welcoming southern hospitality.  Not sure, but sweet tea is a favorite of mine (big surprise I know) and I'm always trying to reproduce that flavor at home.  I still haven't mastered it.

It's iced-tea, how hard could it be?  I KNOW!  But still, the flavor just isn't the same.  Not sure if it's the brand of tea, the fact that I'm using decaffeinated tea or some secret ingredient I'm missing, but somethin's not the same.  Here's my recipe all the same.

4-5 tea bags (I'm using Lipton's Decafe)
5 cups hot water from my coffee maker (a DeLonghi coffee / espresso maker)
2/3 of a 2 qt pitcher filled with ice
1/3 c sugar (I must be a northerner cause some of the recipes I saw called for 1 cup of sugar for this amount of water)

My "tea" pot.  This is actually a self portrait.

 I put my tea bags in the coffee maker's pot and run it for the full pot of water.  I let it steep a bit and then pour the hot tea over the ice and sugar in the pitcher.  Stir it all together and enjoy immediately or let chill in fridge.

If I have any major break-throughs in the tea department I'll let you know...Or if you have any suggestions use the comments section to leave your recipe.  Either way, enjoy a glass and relax this summer.



 My oven is broken, what do you expect me to blog about??