Works for me Wednesday....how to make the perfect Sweet Tea!

In case you didn't know, I'm a transplant to the south. It's not the deep south, but living in East Tennessee....it didn't take me long to hear the words SWEET TEA and wonder exactly what that was. You see, up north in New England, there is no such thing. We have three kinds of tea.

The first is hot tea...which you drink, when you have a sore throat.

The second is restaurant iced tea...otherwise known as UNsweetened tea. Add your own sugar. Have you ever tried to add sugar to a cold drink? Uh, yeah, the sugar doesn't dissolve and it sinks to the bottom.

The third is store bought iced tea....which comes in powder form. It is extremely sweet and tastes nothing like southern sweet tea.

I can honestly say that when I moved here 8 years ago, I really didn't care for sweet tea. I even had a hard time ordering it at a restaurant! Then I began to make it myself, with the perfect combination of tea, water, and of course SUGAR!

Here ya go....

First, you need a coffee maker.

Take out the thing you put the filter in (can you tell I have pregnancy brain???) and cover the entire bottom and up the sides a little bit with tea bags. You don't need the special tea bags for iced tea that they sell at the store. If they are the small ones....I find that 8 bags works well.

Next, put that back into your coffee maker and fill it with enough water to make a full pot....which is usually 10-12 cups. If you have a strong brew option, use it!

Brew your tea.

In the meanwhile, fill up a gallon container about halfway with cold water.

When the tea is done, pour it into the cold water. Add approximately 1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups of sugar and mix. If you need to, fill with more cold water to completely fill the gallon jug.

Serve over ice (the tea will be a little warm).

ENJOY!!