I would give this recipe 100 stars if I could!!! I am in love with McDonalds sweet tea. I would go every morning after I dropped the kids off at school and buy 2 large teas with no ice. I would grab a drink here and there!! I would crave it if I didn't have any left!! Well sorry Mcdonalds!! You have met your match!! I double this recipe and make a gallon of sweet joy!! I love the baking soda trick. It really does keep the tea clear and not bitter. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
The baking soda is the key ingredient in this recipe to make a smooth tea. It helps to cut the bitter taste that you can get from tea. It's really refreshing and for me it has the right amount of sweetness. Thx.
As if this recipe needed ANOTHER 5 star rating, but I couldn't help myself. I agree with another reviewer that the baking soda DOES take the bitterness out of the recipe. I had stopped making iced tea for that very reason, and then I found this recipe. It's absolutely delicious. For those of you who see the baking soda in this recipe and frown in curiosity, turn that frown upside down. The baking soda makes it delicious (and is necessary in my opinion)! Now, I will say that I did not use quite as much cool water as the recipe calls for. I think I stopped at about 4 cups. But the strength of your tea is such a personal taste thing, so I would recommend that as you're adding the water, give it a good stir after the first few cups and taste it and see whatcha think. As for the sugar, I used exactly what the recipe called for (keep in mind I used less water) and it tasted perfect. Not too sweet, because I don't like sweet, sweet tea. This recipe can be tweaked to suit any taste. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful recipe. It's absolutely delicious! Try it...once you do, you won't have it any other way!
Some of my family members are not sweet tea drinkers they prefer their iced tea unsweetened so I tried the pinch of baking soda in unsweetened tea and it seemed to be just as effective at smoothing the bitterness and preventing it from getting cloudy. Thanks for the tip!
A lovely recipe. I used 1 cup of sugar (If you've ever had the "Tradewinds" brand of iced tea, then you'll know what I mean when I say I prefer "super sweet" to simply "sweet". The baking soda worked its magic even better than I thought it would. I also substituted ice for some of the cold water which speeded up the cooling process. This will make you feel like you're sitting on your wrap around porch in a white rocking chair, even if you live in the city without so much as a patio.
I made this yesterday for my husband, as he's big on sweet tea. Yes. Thumbs up. He approves! I'll be making the sweet tea like this from now on. EDITED: This also works with Splenda and agave nectar!
Yey! No more cloudy tea! And all it took was a pinch of baking soda? So clear you can see right through it. Using 1/2 cup of Splenda was the perfect sweetness for us and I thank you cookincode3 for sharing your great tip!
I love this recipe! My man is from Ga and misses his sweet tea. This did the trick and thinks it is the BEST tea he has had. I double the recipe using 4 family sized tea bags and only add 10 cups of water after the 1 1/2 cups of sugar dissolves. He says its the BEST sweet tea ever.
Pouring boiling water into a glass pitcher (even a "heat-proof" one) is a recipe for disaster. The glass will crack/shatter. The best thing to do is to pour it into a plastic container first and then put it in the glass pitcher after it has cooled.
