I’m not familiar with the concept of keeping tea out on the counter. In the fridge it will last for days. And it is *much * better after it’s had a chance to sit in the fridge for a while.
I make two pitchers at a time. If I see that I’m running low I always brew up a new batch in the evening so that I can take some to work the next day or so that has had a chance to sit for a while. Drinking tea that has just been brewed is something I have no inclination to subject myself to. (Sun tea may be a different case, however.)
I must note that I do not sweeten my tea. So those of you who dump a bunch of sugar in may have different results as to “keepability.” But I still don;t see why anyone would keep tea on the counter.
Yeah, but what do you get??? If I’m traveling in the North and ask for iced tea I have to remind myself of the all-important question: Do you brew it here or does it come from a mix? *At least * half the time it comes from a mix. Either out of the soda fountain, out of gallon jugs (the ones that look like milk jugs), or they want to give me Snapple. Ugh, no thanks, change that order to a Diet Coke please.
And I must have grown up in a weird part of the South. Never came across pre-sweetened tea. Order sweetened tea in a restaurant and you’d get unsweetened tea with sugar/sweetner packets and a tea spoon. It wasn’t until I moved to North Carolina that I came across “sweet tea” that one didn’t sweeten oneself after brewing. The restarant default was sweet, and boy do I mean SWEET.
I worked in a fast food restaurant years ago where we brewed unsweetened tea. Brewing it involved using giant tea bags , the coffee machine and combining the brewed tea with pots of cold water in a very large metal urn (at least two feet tall) with a spigot. Couldn’t refrigerate it because the only refrigerator the urn would fit in was the walk-in way in the back of the restaurant. Couldn’t just brew a pot of tea and then put in a smaller refrigerator because it would be too strong ( I think we brewed two pots from a single bag and then added a pot of plain water.) I’m sure if the tea could only be held at room temperature for an hour, a way to refrigerate it would have been found. But if it can be held at room temperature for eight hours, it’s a lot cheaper to throw away the leftover tea at the end of the night than to find a way to refrigerate it and still be able to serve it quickly.
Once again, dopers know everything. Thanks, doreen, mystery solved. Now if every restaurant would do that, life would be good. I was at a fine dining establishment on Saturday (McDonalds ) and the tea from the drive thru had turned. I went inside to exchange it at the self-service urn, and the tea from the urn marked unsweetened was sweet. Finally, third time was charmed–the tea in the urn marked sweetened was what I wanted–unsweetened, not turned tea.
I grew up in Alabama and Texas and there has always been a pitcher of sweet tea in my mom’s fridge. Ditto for my wife’s household in Texas. When my mom is having the family over for a big meal, she makes both.
We don’t make it in our house unless my in-laws are coming for a visit.
I used to drink unsweetened tea with all my restaurant meals, but I tried to cut back on Caffiene a few years back and switched to water.
Sweet tea tastes nasty. For most of my life I didn’t like tea, but that was because I had never tried unsweetened.
It can be a challenge around here to get unsweetened tea. I never leave a drive-through without tasting my tea first, and in restaurants I have to keep a close eye on my glass.
I have gotten soured tea from a restaurant before. It’s nasty, but it’s pretty subtle so you find yourself drinking two swallows and then making your husband taste it before you decide.
I make a pitcher of unsweetened tea every weekend. It sits on the counter, and on Sunday night I throw out whatever is left. If I put sugar in it I would keep it in the fridge, but without sugar I’ve never had a problem with keeping it 2 or three days at room temp.
My mother-in-law buys gallons of pre-made sweet tea from the grocery store <<shudder>>.
Thanks, doreen, mystery solved. Now if every restaurant would do that, life would be good. I was at a fine dining establishment on Saturday (McDonalds 
) and the tea from the drive thru had turned. I went inside to exchange it at the self-service urn, and the tea from the urn marked unsweetened was sweet. Finally, third time was charmed–the tea in the urn marked sweetened was what I wanted–unsweetened, not turned tea.