Southern Sweet Tea, a strong infusion of black tea that is sweetened and served over ice, is as essential to southern cuisine as fried chicken and collard greens. Depending on personal preference, it may also include a squeeze of lemon juice. And it’s never limited to warmer weather here, it appears on our tables every day of the year!
Ahh, sweet tea. The nectar of life to a southerner.
I can’t remember a single day of my life when there wasn’t a pitcher of fresh, homemade sweet tea in my refrigerator. Its constant presence is just a part of the fabric of daily living. It’s the beverage of choice for lunch and supper, and it’s not unheard of to have a glass at breakfast on hot, sultry summer days.
Some of us are even guilty of putting it in babies’ bottles. Not that I would ever do something like that.
— This post was originally published on August 30, 2010. It has been updated with new photos and additional information.
Recipe Snapshot
Cuisine: Southern
Cooking Method: Stovetop
Total Time: 20 Minutes
Servings: 8
Primary Ingredient(s): Water, tea bags, sugar
Skill Level: Easy
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING …
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“If you come to my house, and there is no tea in the refrigerator, either:
a) we just finished the last pitcher, and more is in process, or;
b) I am sick.“
— Miss P
The Origins of Sweet Tea
While it’s impossible to nail down the exact date that sweet tea was invented, the first recorded recipe was published in an 1839 cookbook called The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan. Early versions were made with green tea and were served as alcoholic punches at fancy parties.
Over time, the recipe slowly shifted to black tea since it was less expensive and easier to get. During prohibition in the 1920s, the beverage evolved from an alcoholic drink into a “mocktail” of sorts and that’s the origin of the sweet tea that we know today!
Not Everyone Drinks Iced Tea All Year Round
It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I learned that not everyone in the world drinks sweet tea every day. And let me tell you, it was a rude awakening, too.
It was on a trip to Nebraska when we stopped in St. Louis for a meal. I, being the southern girl that I was, ordered sweet tea with my meal. After all, it was what we had at home and ordered any time we went out to eat.
Well, the waiter looked right down his nose and told me he was “very sorry, but iced tea is out of season.” Huh? Out of season? Whoever heard of such a thing!
Not to be outdone, though, I asked him if hot tea was available. “Why certainly,” he said! Well then, I said, “May I please have a cup of hot tea and a glass of ice?” Got my sweet tea.
Yes, It Really Is That Important
Don’t believe me yet about the importance of sweet tea to Southerners? When my husband’s company was planning the closing of its manufacturing facility in south Georgia a few years ago, they held a meeting for all the employees so that they could discuss the closure and possibilities for jobs with the company in its northeastern U.S. locations.
After some explanation, they asked if there were questions. They expected questions about benefits, moving expenses, transition assistance. You know the usual things on the minds of people about to be uprooted from their homes and sent halfway across the country.
What was the first question asked? Wait for it — “Do they serve sweet tea in the company cafeteria?” I am not joking.
Just in case you still don’t believe me, back in 2003 a bill was introduced in the Georgia state legislature that would make it a misdemeanor for a restaurant that offered tea on its menu to not offer sweet tea as well. They said the next day that it was actually an April Fool’s joke, but I don’t believe it.
You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook!
You can see this recipe on page 31 of my cookbook, My Southern Table! Get your signed copy today.
What You’ll Like About This Recipe
- It’s traditional; we’ve been drinking it since we were born
- Easy to make
- Goes with everything
- It’s budget friendly
- You probably already have the ingredients on hand
Ingredient Notes
This post contains affiliate links. Lana’s Cooking is reader-supported and earns a tiny commission at no extra cost to you when you shop from our links.
- Water – I’ve seen some recommendations for using “filtered” water. I’ve been making tea for more than 60 years, and I use plain tap water.
- Tea Bags – My preferred brand is Luzianne. Tetley is also good.
- Sugar – White, granulated sugar like Dixie Crystals brand.
The complete ingredient list with detailed measurements is included in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Here’s the Best Way to Make a Pitcher of Southern Iced Sweet Tea
- Place one quart of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the tea bags.
Pro Tip
I mostly use family size tea bags for making my tea, but you can use the regular size ones just as well. Remember that 4 regular tea bags (or 4 teaspoons of loose tea) equals one family size tea bag.
- Cover the pan, remove it from the heat and let it steep for 10-15 minutes.
Pro Tip
Now, I know that all the tea companies’ instructions say to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. But I’m telling you that most southern cooks will steep at least 15 minutes. Sometimes more. We just want to get all the goodness we can out of those tea leaves! When the steeping time is over, I also stir the bags around in the water for a while and then give them a good squeeze before I remove them.
- Remove the tea bags and add the sugar.
- Stir until completely dissolved.
Pro Tip
Now, here’s another thing you need to know. Make sure to add your sugar while your steeped tea is still good and warm. If you try to add sugar to cold water, you’ll never get it to go into solution (because science, y’all). Same as when they bring you some unsweetened iced tea and two sugar packets in a restaurant. Like two packs of sugar are enough to start with, but you’ll never get that tea sweet enough after the ice has been added. The sugar just won’t dissolve!
- Add the additional quart of cold water.
- Stir well.
Makes two quarts of the prettiest, sweetest tea you ever tasted. Serve the tea over ice. Lemon and mint are optional.
Recipe Tips
- Always start with cold water. If the water is warm or room temperature, it can make your tea cloudy.
- Be sure to add the sugar while the steeped tea is still good and warm. If you try to add sugar to cold water, you’ll never get it to go into solution.
- Use a non-reactive saucepan for boiling the water and steeping the tea so you don’t cause any unwanted chemical reaction.
- Never pour hot tea into a glass pitcher (ask me how I know this is a bad idea). Refrigerate the tea or at least cool it to room temperature first.
- Don’t skimp on steeping time. You want a really strong infusion of tea.
More Beverage Recipes You’ll Like
Pink Lemonade
Infused Water – a Summer Refresher
Baptist Church Party Punch
Southern Spiced Tea (Russian Tea)
- Pink Lemonade
- Infused Water (Agua Fresca
- Baptist Church Party Punch
- Spiced Tea a.k.a Russian Tea
- Watermelon Cherry Limeade
- Ginger Praline Coffee Float
- Scarlett O’Hara Cocktail
- Strawberry Lemon Limeade
>> See all my best Southern comfort food recipes. <<
Questions About Sweet Tea
You can use any brand of tea that you prefer, but you’ll find that most Southerners tend to use Luzianne black tea bags. The taste does vary between brands, just like coffee, with each brand having a unique blend of flavors.
Of course you can. Authentic southern sweet tea is sweetened with sugar, but my goodness, we can’t drink that every single day, right? To be honest, I only use sugar for special occasions these days. Our everyday tea is sweetened with Splenda.
We drink a whole pitcher every day, so storage really has never been an issue. However, you can actually keep sweet tea for about three days refrigerated. After that, it’s not so fresh. It’s best stored in a plastic or glass pitcher with a well fitting lid.
No, darling. Peach tea isn’t a Southern thing. It’s something made up to sell beverages like raspberry tea, strawberry tea, and hibiscus tea. (Can you tell I don’t like fruit teas?) But you add whatever you want to in your tea. It just won’t be southern sweet tea you’re drinking.
Some cooks do actually add a pinch of baking soda to their tea. They say it neutralizes the sometimes bitter taste from over-steeping tea. I don’t add it to mine, but feel free to try it if you like.
Have a question or thought to share?
If you have a question about the recipe or if you’ve made it and want to share how it turned out, I would truly enjoy hearing from you. Just scroll down to leave a comment or add your star rating.
Thank you for stopping by. It means a lot to have you here.
Recipe
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox.
Southern Iced Sweet Tea
Ingredients
- 2 quarts cold water divided
- 2 family size tea bags or 8 regular size tea bags or 8 teaspoons of loose tea (recommend Luzianne brand)
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Place one quart of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the tea bags.1 quart cold water2 family size tea bags
- Cover the pan, remove it from the heat and let it steep for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove the tea bags and add the sugar.1 cup sugar
- Stir until completely dissolved.
- Add the additional quart of cold water.1 quart cold water
- Stir well.
Notes
- For the best flavor and clarity, always start with cold water.
- Never pour hot tea into a glass pitcher. Refrigerate or cool the tea to room temperature before adding to a glass container.
- Don’t cut the steeping time short. You want a really strong infusion of tea.
- Store it in the refrigerator for about three days in a plastic or glass pitcher with a tight fitting lid.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
I’m Lana Stuart, an award-winning cookbook author, food blogger, and lifelong cook raised deep in Southwest Georgia. I started Lana’s Cooking in 2009 to share the tried-and-true recipes I grew up with. Around here, the food is full of flavor, the traditions run deep, and there’s always room at the table.
I always make sweet tea, I love it :) I use the lipton cold brew bags now, so much faster!
Love that story! I seriously love ice tea and always put a little bit of sugar in it. It’s so funny because in England no one drinks it. Tea is always hot. I make it myself and keep it in the fridge but ususally just in the summer months. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Do you think you could use an artificial sugar or is that like sacrilege?!
Heather – Honestly, we use Splenda (sugar substitute) in our iced tea for everyday. The “real” sugar-sweeted tea we only serve on special occasions these days. As much sweetened tea as we drink, we’d be killing ourselves with all that sugar!
Great photos Lana!
The story about the Georgia state legislature really hits home how important sweet tea is in southern life. Thanks for sharing this, Lana.
It truly is a part of the Southern culture.
I love sweet tea! I am a Yankee, but my girl Cheri taught me how to make proper sweet tea just like yours. I am a total convert!
Sweet tea was one of the few things that I grew to like very quickly when I moved down south!
It’s an easy thing to learn to like, isn’t it? I can’t imagine a day without sweet tea :-)
I’m with you, Lana. I was literally weaned on very strong, very sweet iced tea must have had hundreds of gallons of the stuff over the course of my life. I’ve toned down the sugar over the past couple of decades but still consider it my go-to, thirst-quenching drink of choice on hot days, which, of course, is almost every day here in FL.
Right, Barbara. Nothing quenches the thirst quite like a cold glass of sweet tea. I probably should have mentioned that we don’t routinely use sugar in ours anymore. Splenda does the trick and keeps down the calories.
No sugar? What? Oh Lana!
Well, no, not on a daily basis. We save the “real” stuff for special occasions these days :-)
I haven’t put that in a baby bottle or sippy cup, and I don’t drink it like water, oh wait, I’m lying. I did start to use stevia though instead of sugar and add mint in the summer. And I gave the baby unsweet, or with stevia or honey, I’m not that bad. Well I guess by today’s standards I am, you can’t give baby’s that huge list, that I threw out the window, I do everything the old fashioned way, works much better.
I do things the old-fashioned way, too, Angie. Works out fine :-)
A friend of mine keeps mentioning about sweet tea. I seriously need to give it a try. He’s been bragging about it to me every time i order an ice tea whenever we order out somewhere.
Give it a try, Jenn. It only takes a few minutes to make and it’s pretty inexpensive, too.
Just a 1/2 cup of sugar, please. That stuff is fattening, though, I’ve been drinkng it all my life. I love my sweet tea, too, but we’ve got reduce the sugar. I can, on a hot Saturday, drink a gallon or two, but I cannot imagine eating a cup or two of sugar.
Well, Phil, to each his own. You make yours with a half cup and I’ll make mine with a whole cup :-)
Very refreshing way of refreshing yourself. Love anything sweet but tea love it even more. Oh my I didn’t know about sweet tea being so important part southern lifestyle. I guess I will have to come at least for my sweet tea, to experience it the southern way.
Bless your heart! I’ve always fancied myself a southerner and believe I must have fanned myself on a plantation porch at some point in a prior life, surrounded by pecan trees and peaches of course!
I love that you put a Sweet Tea recipe on your blog, and I love the quote you chose from Steel Magnolia’s. And the part about Georgia legislature’s April Fools? Too funny!
fun read on southern tea and yes, there is nothing like it …
Although I have no Southern roots, this is the way that my Mother made what we called “iced tea” in Philadelphia. One thing, she always added some lemon while the tea was steeping. We drank it year round and I continue the tradition to this day. I prefer it to soda, which I haven’t drunk in years.
Hi Carole,
We call it “iced tea” also. Iced tea, though, could mean either sweetened or unsweetened for us, so to clarify we just shorten the “sweetened iced tea” to “sweet tea.” I prefer it to soda as well and drink it all day. I add lemon to individual servings since some of us like it and some don’t :-)
I lived in Japan for three years, and I several friends who could come over to my house just for my sweet tea. When we had potlucks, everyone would ask for it, so I would take over THREE GALLONS!! Trust me, those jugs emptied out fast!
If you find you are sweet tea challenged, or prefer to use a loose leaf tea, adagio.com has a neat device called an ingenuiTEA. They also have some wonderful naturally-flavored tea. I love their iced mojito tea and my mom loves their ginger peach tea.
One last thing, I was always taught to use stainless steel pans. My granny said that aluminum makes the tea taste “off” so don’t use it. Has anyone else ever heard that? Just curious.
I’ve never heard about not using aluminum pans, but I don’t use them anyway because of the relationship of aluminum with Alzheimer’s.
If you don’t use aluminum pans (I don’t either for the same reason), you might want to check your antiperspirant. Generally, the first ingredient is an alum compound. If you can find one that is strictly a deodorant, many times there is no aluminum in it. However, it’s really hard to find plain deodorant nowadays unless you go to a health food store. And then you have to get used to sweating again. I live in SW Florida, so that really was a concern for me. I got over it!!
I make my iced tea the same way but it’s not sweet enough to be called Sweet Tea. It’s funny how things like this happen – I poured myself a tall glass of iced tea today and I thought ‘this looks so southern, I wonder if it is’, and then tonight I saw your Southern Sweet Tea post!
Love your posts and how you bring old fashion foods and past traditions together.
Your comment about bringing old-fashioned foods and traditions together really made my day! That’s exactly what I try to do on my blog.
My Yanni is from New Orleans and he *adores* his sweet tea! Thanks bunches for showing me how to actually make the delicious sweet, sweet Southern tea!
Hi Wenderly – If you try this method, do let me know how he likes it!
I’ve never had authentic Southern sweet tea, but I’ve been dying to for a while now. This sounds fabulous!
Now you can make some any time you want! I do recommend Luzianne tea bags. They’re just the best and are meant specifically for iced tea.
The first time that I ever had sweet tea was when I lived in Chattanooga for 6 months when I was 20 years old. I was blown away for how friendly and gracious everyone was. For the longest time, I thought that having sweet tea meant pouring sugar in your tea. IT wasn’t the same. Tien :)
No, Tien. You just can’t get that tea sweet once it is cold. You have to dissolve the sugar in the warm tea and then put it over ice.
LOL – I remember when I first came to Montana and ordered iced tea – it was pretty awful. Now you can get it most places, but it’s never good old southern sweet tea. (I have to make that at home.)
I know what you mean, Vickie. Everyone has a little bit different recipe and they all taste slightly different. Homemade is always the best anyway!