I have been trying to cut down on my soft drink intake, so I have been making/drinking iced tea.
This is how I do it.
Bring a ~quart of water to a boil. Add three teabags (Lipton generic), remove from heat, and then let the water cool for 20-30 minutes, remove teabags, add some sugar (1/4 cup). Stir thoroughly to dissolve.
Fill my 2 quart pitcher 1/2 of ice, pour the ‘sweet’ tea into pitcher, top off with water add a tablespoon of lemon juice and refrigerate. Voila, Iced tea,
I don’t like unsweet tea, but the sweet tea at Southern Style restaurants is too sweet so I don’t use a whole a lot of sugar.
Its is a great substitute for the 3-4 soft drinks. I have been drinking a day. And much cheaper too. About 15 cents for 2 quarts. And it satisfies my caffeine fix.
After boiling/brewing the tea I pour it into gallon pitcher and top it off with water. I don’t add anything to the pitcher, rather I add lime and splenda to each glass as I pour it out. Lemon is for yankees.
When I was still making black tea, I used 5 bags of Luzianne per gallon (it’s formulated for 4 per gallon, but I like my tea a little strong, and the ice tends to dilute it). I honestly don’t remember how much Splenda I used to put in it.
Nowadays, I brew green tea, still Luzianne, but only 4 bags per gallon, because I only very rarely ice it. I put between 40-50 grams of Splenda in a gallon of tea, using my kitchen scale to measure it because I figured out that kept me from dirtying a measuring cup.
Hardly a purist. I make it in my Mr Coffee knockoff, using tap water & one of Luziane’s giant ice tea bags. After the water runs through, I turn off the burner so it doesn’t cook! Once it’s cooled off a bit, I pour it into a lidded glass pitcher & refrigerate. Add ice to each glass to* keep* it cool, not to make it cool.
For someone like me that generally doesn’t much care for the taste of brewed tea, I think that the canned Lipton’s powder (with lemon) is a good substitute. I really like that stuff for some reason.
IMHO, luzianne is far better than lipton. Also, you are letting the bags steep for far longer than I would. Last suggestion is something I learned here: Unless you like some bitterness, don’t squeeze the tea bags when you take them out.
I use a Mr. Coffee brand Iced Tea Maker. About half the water goes in the teamaker reservoir and the other half (either liquid or ice cubes) in the pitcher. Put a couple of family-sized tea bags in a coffee filter in the top of the teamaker along with a little bit of sugar (or not). Position the pitcher at the output, press a button and wait five minutes. Easy-peasy.
I make a three-cup pot of regular hot tea, usually a loose-leaf Jasmine. But English breakfast tea works, too. As would probably any tea you can think of. I drink said hot tea. Then I make another pot with the same tea leaves, take the leaves out after steeping, let the pot cool on the counter, and then put the pot in the fridge.
In other words, I make hot tea and then I make it get cold. No sweetener, no lemon (or lime).
I have one of these also. I use loose tea either from one of the few grocery stores that still sell it or from the nice Afghan grocery while we are getting our fresh Afghan Naan. I put in the loose tea, then half a cup of sugar. After it is done brewing, I let it cool for an hour or two and then add the juice of a lemon from our lemon tree. Then, into the fridge.
My only complaint is that the pitcher is so glazed from years of use that I can hardly see through it.
For Luzianne green tea: I bring the water up to around 160[sup]o[/sup]F, which on my stove in my stock pot means when it just starts making a noise. I put in the bags and set a timer for 5 minutes. When time’s up, I give the bags a good swooshing around in the water, then pull them. I do usually press them, but I may have to try without and see how I like it.
Fill a pitcher with cool water, add 5 or 6 Orange Pekoe tea bags (regular Lipton or Red Rose).
Let it sit in the sun or just on the counter for an hour or two.
Stir in a package of Crystal Light Lemonade.
I tie twelve regular Lipton bags together and toss them into my gallon pitcher. Then I boil some water, maybe a quart, and dump it over the top. I let that steep for five minutes exactly, then fish out the tea bags. Do not squeeze the tea bags! My husband does that and it tastes bitter. Then I just dilute the tea and stick it in the fridge. I add Splenda when I drink it.
