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Just like your southern grandma makes, this Southern Sweet Tea Recipe is simple and easy. A staple in my house growing up, this one is as perfect as it gets. Not too sweet and totally refreshing!
There are things in life that can totally take you back to a memory in about half a second, a certain smell, the sound of the ocean, the taste of your favorite childhood treat. Know what I mean?
This Southern Style Sweet Tea recipe is it for me. My mom used to make this almost every day, it seemed. There was never a time, that I remember, our refrigerator being without a gallon of sweet tea.
It was the first recipe I ever remember making from scratch and, to be honest, we didn’t even call it sweet tea. We just called it Iced Tea.
I have an instant connection with all southern food like Chicken Fried Steak, or Shrimp and Grits. I truly think that I’m supposed to be a southern gal. It’s in my blood, I don’t know how it got there but the whole southern lifestyle is more my speed starting with a glass of Sweet Tea.
Ingredients For Sweet Tea
This easy Sweet Tea recipe is made with just a few simple ingredients:
- Water – Just plain old tap water works here because you’re going to boil it anyway. Save your fancy spring water for enjoying over ice.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar, aka white sugar, straight out of your pantry is what I use.
- Black Tea Bags – You can experiment with green tea bags but authentic sweet tea uses black tea.
That’s it, the simpler the better in my opinion.
What is Southern Sweet Tea?
Sweet tea is much more than iced tea with a spoonful of sugar stirred in. Southern style sweet tea is, generally, made in big batches by boiling water and stirring in sugar until it’s dissolved, sort of like a less sweet form of simple syrup.
Then, the tea is steeped in the sugar water for a bit until the water has cooled a bit. The tea bags are removed and you, now, have a sweet tea concentrate…in a nutshell. Pour the tea into a pitcher and top off with water.
Southerners keep pitchers of sweet tea in their fridge for last minute guests and to cool off in the sweaty summertime. We love it for the same reasons here in the northeast!
Can you make Sweet Tea with Green Tea?
YES! You can totally substitute the black tea with green tea for a lighter flavored iced tea recipe. In fact, sweet tea was originally made with green tea until WWII when green tea importation was cut off due to the war.
Americans switched to black tea, at that time, because it was easier to find….and that’s how Southern Sweet Tea came to be. History lesson OVER. 🙂 It is summer, after all.
Now, I’m making my own Southern Style Sweet Tea this summer and it’s just as good as I remember my mom’s to be.
I like to serve it up at parties on a big tray along with a bucket of ice (because some people are not as big of an ice fan as I am), some simple syrup (because who wants sugar granules floating around in their tea!), sliced lemons (for those that like a little pucker with their sweet). Kind of a “Build your Own Sweet Tea” bar, if you will.
Recipe Tip
To make your Southern Style Sweet Tea even sweeter, mix in a little bit of Homemade Lemonade for a DIY Arnold Palmer Drink or serve with a splash of your favorite sparkling wine and a handful of fruit for a tea-rific twist on Sangria!
What to Serve with Sweet Tea
More Refreshing Summer Drinks
- The Very Best Mint Julep
- Refreshing Orange Crush Cocktail
- Super easy Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
- Blueberry Mint Julep
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Southern Sweet Tea Recipe
Equipment
- 1 saucepan
Ingredients
- 4 cups water, plus more for filling pitcher
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 12 teabags
- lemon wedges, if desired
Instructions
- Bring 4 cups water to a boil over high heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved.
- Turn off the heat and add the teabags.
- Steep for 15-20 minutes.
- Remove the teabags and transfer the tea to a gallon pitcher.
- Fill the pitcher with water and chill.
- Serve with lemon wedges and simple syrup, if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
There are several ways we make tea, and have made tea for generations in my family . One thing for sure though, never did any even own a green tea bag ever. I’m pretty sure my grandmother and granny and maw maw, I’m 74 and speaking here of my grandmother, greatgrandmother and her mother…maybe further back, would have thought green tea was tea with something wrong with it. I pour hot water, heated cold water that is, over sugar and tea bags, let seep and taste the same as all the other sweet teas before it. Well, depending on amount of sugar and strength of tea of course.
Interesting! I shared the history of tea, both black and green, further up in the article. Black tea was used after Green Tea was no longer available. I love your method, too, definitely going to give it a try!