Sweet Iced Tea

Pour very hot tap water into a gallon-size pitcher or pail. Add tea bags. Cover and steep for 20–60 minutes. Remove tea bags, stir in sugar, and add cold water to make just less than 1 gallon tea. Add ice or pour over ice in glasses.

Notes:
• For the tea syrup method (makes 1 gallon syrup, about 4 gallons sweet tea, serves 40): Bring 15 cups water (just less than a gallon) to a boil in a Dutch oven. Remove from heat and add 30 tea bags. Cover and steep 20 minutes. Remove bags, add 6 cups sugar, and stir to dissolve. Cool and store in the fridge up to 2 weeks. To make 1 gallon, use about 3 cups tea syrup. Add water and ice to make 1 gallon. Adjust syrup more or less according to taste. To make a single glass of iced tea from this syrup, pour 1/4 cup syrup over ice in a glass. Add cold water to taste.
• When serving sweet iced tea for a crowd, 1 gallon serves 10-12 people.
• Water quality makes a big difference here. We love iced tea made with our naturally soft well water. Hard water will make your tea taste different.
• You can experiment with different flavors of tea, but for us it’s the Tetley orange pekoe black tea.