All,
Those of you who are perhaps purists about tea making methiods may find this this less than optimal, all I can say is; different methods for different folks.
So, I take a gallon, not quite 4 liters, of water, throw in two bags of my tea of choice, add 8 packets of sweetener, put in the 'frige and the next morning I have tea.
Of course if you try this you can experiment to your heart’s content.
Zuer-coli
I go a bit stronger, and no sugar. Four bags of normal tea and one of Celestial Seasonings Blueberry or raspberry or something similar for accent.
Moving to CS.
Half gallon pitcher, four tea bags. I like a strong black tea and tend to use a decaf Irish Breakfast for the iced tea. No sweeteners, guests can add their own if they want.
Been doing this for years! My sister calls it “Moon Tea.” Just the thing on a nasty hot sweaty day!
Two bags in the coffee maker, allow time to cool. Pour that into a gallon pitcher, top off with water and add 11 packets of Sweet and Low. Refrigerate.
Perfection!
I use a half-gallon pitcher with an infuser built into it.
I put ~1.5 tablespoons of my herbal blend in the infuser, some arbitrary amount of sweetener to the pitcher, then fill with water just a few seconds off the boil for the initial steep. After about 10 minutes, I put it in the fridge, where it continues to steep more slowly overnight. By the next day, it’s strong, sweet, cold, and very refreshing.
The point of starting with hot water is to dissolve the sweetener into the tea immediately. This is the difference between Southern “sweet tea” and other sweetened tea, and I apply it to my herbal tea as well.
I boil 4 cups of water in the electric kettle, then pour it in a 1/2 gallon pitcher with 3 lapsong souchong bags and one cinnamon tea bag. I pull the bags out after 5 minutes or so, add 3 heaping spoons of sugar, fill most of the way with cold water, then top off with apple cider and put in the fridge.
I use an iced tea maker. You put loose tea (which I can get from a nearby Afghan grocery) and sugar in a filter, pour half the water in the reservoir, and pour the other half in the pitcher. Push the button and wait. Then add some lemon juice squeezed from a lemon or two picked from our lemon tree.