Perfecting the art of Sweet Tea

Today's blog will switch focus from alcoholic beverages to tea. Tea is one of my favorite beverages, which is practically the only thing I drink these days. After drinking tea from morning till dawn for the last five years, I now dub myself as a tea expert with the ability to draw upon my vast knowledge of previous tea tastings. Therefore, I feel qualified to criticize the most popular tea outlets and offer you the reader my tips on how to make the perfect sweet tea recipes.

Mcdonalds often advertises their sweet tea as this delicious liquid that will bring joy to the mouth. One great thing about mcdonalds might be the uniform recipes used at virtually every location. For example, a big mac in Cali should taste similar to the ones in Florida. Their tea recipe is less than spectacular. Someone with a lack of tea knowledge might disagree, but after repeated tasting you will begin to realize that McDonalds tea is more like sugary water. Burger King, Hardees, and Wendys all score even lower. The next time you taste one you may start to realize the truth that has been hid from your eyes by walls of sugar.

Catering outlets make tea in large batches for events like weddings and such. Some caterers get it correct, by I feel that this shear accident at times. Some use too little tea, too much sugar, and over steep.

On the positive side, I have found a few good spots with tasty tea. McAllisters Deli in powell seems to produce a good tea. Chik-Fil-A is in the middle as well with decent tea. I am going to guess they use a little less sugar or slightly more tea. I don't know for sure what the differen is, but maybe it's even the brand.

To figure out exactly what I could do to better make tea for events I have made around 20 different pitchers of tea over the last few weeks and began to sample the differences. Without getting into heavy details, it is obvious to me that making stronger tea is the most simple way to make better tea. One of my favorites used so far is Luzianne. They recommend one family bag per 32 oz. However, I used 3 family bags for 64 oz and it really makes a difference. Also, I have experimented with the sugar used and eventually found a new splenda product that I like. Splenda now makes a bag mixed with real sugar and their product. I used 1/3 cup per 64 oz. of tea. In short, I now believe that the secret to making great tea is using a the right amount of sugar (usually less than most recipes) and more of the tea (usually more than most recipes). Also, I did find that steeping is important. Generally, I found the amount of time to steep was exactly as described on the directions.

This recipe and a yummy flavored one I liked were as follows;

Perfect Sweet Tea
3 family bags Luzianne Tea per 64 oz. water
1/3 cup splenda sugar blend

Flavored Sweet Tea
2 family bags Luzianne Tea per 64 oz. water
2 bags of celestial tea seasonings
1/3 cup real sugar