Archive for Iced Tea

Sweet taay! (Sweet Tea)

Posted in CA to VA Roadtrip, Food Review, Miscellaneous Rambling with tags , , , , on June 30, 2009 by eternallylost

Throughout our cross-country road trip I was sippin sweet tea as soon as I could get my sugar-starved hands on it — up until the morning we went to the airport for the return flight back to San Diego.

So it makes sense that one of the things I had to bring back from the east coast was a couple of boxes of Luzianne Iced Tea! For those not in the know, Luzianne makes THE BEST iced tea bags. Trust me, there’s a difference. I’m a iced tea freak and I know what a good Arnold Palmer and good Sweet Tea tastes like.

After a few weeks of sweet tea withdrawal, I got a fix at GTM in Lemon Grove where they had  Arizona Sweet Tea for $.089!! I know I could simply order sweet tea at Chick-fil-A in San Marcos, but I wasn’t about to drive up there just for a sip of overpriced sweet tea.

My craving finally overcame my laziness this week. After a consult with Jeff’s wife and quick check on the Internet, I took a stab at making my own sweet tea with the Luzianne Tea Bags we brought back. I used Decaff tea bags since the wife is prego and refraining from caffeinated foods.

Here’s what I used:

  • Almost 1 gallon of water
  • 2 family-sized Luzianne Iced Tea bags (4 are recommended, but I like my sweet tea weak and sugary)
  • A boatload of sugar!
  • Ice cubes (optional; to cool down the tea faster)

Here’s what I did:

  1. Bring the water to a boil. I used an Electric Hot Water Dispenser to heat up 3 liters (1 gallon=3.7854118 liters) of water.
  2. Next, pour the hot water into a gallon container with the tea bags. Let step for 3-5 minutes. Longer if you want a stronger tea.
  3. Remove tea bags.
  4. Sprinkle in sugar and stir. The amount you put in really depends on how sweet you want your tea.
  5. Finally, I melted in a whole bunch of ice, stirring as I dropped them in. Essentially, I drop in enough ice to reach the 1 gallon mark on my container.

HOW MUCH SUGAR? I initially added 8 tablespoons, tasted the concoction, then added another 4 (or so) more. Debra told me she put in about 1.5 cups. I think that’s about what I ended up with in the end.

Ahhh… sweet taay!