S/O Sweet Tea Sugar Concentration

[AndyJoy]

I used to think I liked sweet tea, but my only experience was at a restaurant in Idaho, which isn't exactly sweet tea country :).

 

My friend I visited in Missouri cautioned me to try hers before ordering my own. I'm glad I did because it was way too sweet for me.

 

But the real reason I ask is I had a friend who grew up in Georgia & Texas. When I tried hers I felt like puking! It was so sweet I had an instant headache. I tried watering it down by half but it was still too sweet. I asked her later how much sugar she used and I swear it was 5 cups in one gallon! This isn't normal, is it? Online searches come up with much less.

 

(When I make my own apparently lightly sweetened tea I use 3/4 - 1 cup of sugar per gallon :))

[Chelli]

In our 6 quart tea maker, I mix 1 cup of sugar into the hot tea. It's not as sweet as my grandma's was (hers was probably closer to 1 cup 1/2 or 2 cups in 6 quarts of tea), but it's close enough for me. If it's anything less than 1 cup, it's not sweet enough for my Southern taste buds, but 5 cups is WAY too sweet. That's not sweet tea anymore. That's just syrup.

[Kathryn]

DH is a Southern sweet tea drinker. I believe he uses one cup when he makes a two quart pitcher, so I voted 2+.

[Xahm]

I can't imagine 5 cups in a gallon! My inlaws use 2 and it is difficult to drink, especially without food. We use 1, or a scant 1, and I want to cut back. I am from the deep South, by the way. IMO, restaurants often go way overboard, as though they think it gives them "southern cred" or something. But 5 cups! Egad!

[Katy]

I typically use 1, but I'm pretty sure all my Southern relatives use at LEAST two.  I heard someone joke once that if it wasn't practically syrup it wasn't real tea.

[Artichoke]

Our southern relatives use about two cups to the gallon. I've not heard of using five.

[lllll]

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[Guest]

When I make it, I use scoops, so I just went and measured how much is three scoops. It is about 2/3 cup. But I know that southern sweet tea folks think my tea is not sweet enough. I actually want to accustom myself to less sweet even, but my family rebels when I try.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Our southern IN and KY relatives do 2 cups to a gallon. I'm a health nut because I only use 1 scant cup, or 1/4 cup plus 100% fruit juice sometimes.

[Plink]

Northerner - falling over imagining how much exercise one must have to do to counteract that much sugar. 

[SeaConquest]

An explanation of the raging obesity/diabetes epidemic in the South in one thread.

[Guest]

IME, when you make sweet tea, you boil the sugar with the water first, then steep the tea bags.  This seems to make the sugar sweeter than just adding sugar to hot tea.   I use 1-2 cups per gallon, depending on my mood :)

[PeachyDoodle]

My classic-Southern-cook grandmother used 2 cups/gallon, and you could just about leave the wooden spoon standing straight up in hers. I can't imagine 5+ cups!!

 

We use far less these days. I would guess my mom uses a cup or less. I almost never make tea (don't rat me out -- that's blasphemy around here!!).

[AmandaVT]

My New England teeth hurt reading this - I always have homemade iced tea in the fridge except in the winter. I do maybe 3 Tbsp per 3/4 gallon. So well under a cup. When I visited Charleston, SC, I got sweet tea and had a hard time drinking it. Had to switch to unsweetened. :-)

[zoobie]

I'm in GA. If I make sweet tea, it's 1/2 cup per gallon, but usually I make it unsweetened. I use 5 family size tea bags and 1/4 tsp baking soda per gallon. Stronger tea actually has a flavor other than brown sugar water.

 

If I'm splurging at a restaurant (some things *need* sweet tea, lol), I'll ask for half and half. Everywhere here knows that's half a pour of sweet and half a pour of unsweet. It's still too sweet for me so I'll ask them to refill with just unsweet.

 

5 cups in a gallon would have a pancake syrup viscosity practically! Surely she was measuring in "cups" as in whatever scoop shaped thing was in her sugar canister. My teeth hurt!

 

Tea dissertation there... Sorry!

[KungFuPanda]

For us, I use a cup for a gallon. For company I make it unsweetened and make simple syrup for the table because adding sugar to unsweetened tea is annoying and NOT the same. I grew up on 2 cups of sugar per gallon but have changed my ways.

[SeaConquest]

My New England teeth hurt reading this - I always have homemade iced tea in the fridge except in the winter. I do maybe 3 Tbsp per 3/4 gallon. So well under a cup. When I visited Charleston, SC, I got sweet tea and had a hard time drinking it. Had to switch to unsweetened. :-)

Don't you know that it's either sweet or unsweet? <Cringe>

[Peach]

We use 1 1/2 cups per gallon. We get our lovely sweet tea but can still taste the tea. I grew up in South Carolina and sweet tea was a fact of life! That is when sweet tea is good, when you can still taste tea and don't feel like you are drinking syrup.  It's a fine line though between the perfect amount and too much. Out here in Montana, almost no one has sweet tea except McDonalds and theirs is on the 'too sweet' side. I've converted many friends to the sweet side though :)

[lllll]

..

[Mama Geek]

Southern sweet tea is adding just a little tea to the gallon of sugar.  I didn't see that as an option. :lol:   I personally do 1/2 cup to 1 cup per gallon.

[UncleEJ]

Don't you know that it's either sweet or unsweet? <Cringe>

Or half and half :)

[Kerileanne99]

I used to think I liked sweet tea, but my only experience was at a restaurant in Idaho, which isn't exactly sweet tea country :).

 

My friend I visited in Missouri cautioned me to try hers before ordering my own. I'm glad I did because it was way too sweet for me.

 

But the real reason I ask is I had a friend who grew up in Georgia & Texas. When I tried hers I felt like puking! It was so sweet I had an instant headache. I tried watering it down by half but it was still too sweet. I asked her later how much sugar she used and I swear it was 5 cups in one gallon! This isn't normal, is it? Online searches come up with much less.

 

(When I make my own apparently lightly sweetened tea I use 3/4 - 1 cup of sugar per gallon :))

I am from Idaho and 'sweet tea' there is NOT sweet tea from the South, wow! When I joined the Army and went to the South I couldn't believe it was possible to drink that sugary concoction:)

 

Interesting chemistry note: Sweet tea in the South is a good example of a supersaturated solution. Restaurants have to add the sugar to the boiling waster to get that much sugar to stay in solution. If they try to add it after the sugar just settles to the bottom:)

[DragonFaerie]

I use a little more than one cup per gallon.  I think the tea we had when I was growing up was much sweeter than that, though.  My brother makes his crazy sweet.  I also think a lot of restaurants make theirs too sweet, so I'll get half and half.  

 

OT: I HATE it when a restaurant will try to tell me they "have sweet tea" when what they actually have is unsweetened tea that I am them expected to add sugar packets to.  That is NOT sweet tea.  Ick.

 

Southern girl born and raised. :D

[umsami]

I've lived in TN and FL (Jacksonville, which is more Southern than some Florida cities)...and I'd say 2 cups per gallon.  I've had it sweeter, though.  Most folks I know used 1 cup of sugar, either dissolved in the hot tea or made into a simple syrup, into a 2 quart pitcher.    Five cups sounds ridiculous. 

 

I've noticed that having an Arnold Palmer is more and more popular.  (Half lemonade, half tea.)  Depending on how sweet you like it, you can mix the lemonade with unsweet tea or sweet tea. :)

 

 

[TravelingChris]

That South being the most obese is a myth.  WHen they actually measured, it was not the case.  What is the case is that Southerners come closer to telling the truth about their weight to pollsters. 

 

I don't like sweet tea since I first started drinking iced tea in Southern Ca where we were first stationed as my dh entered the USAF.  In Southern CA, at least then, the default was unsweet and that is what we often had when we went out.  But the other thing we would drink even on warm days was coffee at times and even in the evening.  I was shocked when I was traveling here in Al not on the interstate and had a hard time finding coffee in the afternoon. 

 

Oh and yes, it is sweet or unsweet tea.

[DragonFaerie]

 

I've noticed that having an Arnold Palmer is more and more popular.  (Half lemonade, half tea.)  Depending on how sweet you like it, you can mix the lemonade with unsweet tea or sweet tea. :)

 

My DD loves her Arnold Palmers. :D

[Joker]

I lost my southern street cred years ago when I stopped making, or drinking, sweet tea. I can't stand it. It's funny because when I order unsweet iced tea here they bring it with one of those coasters that is usually used for decaf coffee drinkers.

[SeaConquest]

That South being the most obese is a myth. WHen they actually measured, it was not the case. What is the case is that Southerners come closer to telling the truth about their weight to pollsters.

 

I don't like sweet tea since I first started drinking iced tea in Southern Ca where we were first stationed as my dh entered the USAF. In Southern CA, at least then, the default was unsweet and that is what we often had when we went out. But the other thing we would drink even on warm days was coffee at times and even in the evening. I was shocked when I was traveling here in Al not on the interstate and had a hard time finding coffee in the afternoon.

 

Oh and yes, it is sweet or unsweet tea.

http://stateofobesity.org/lists/highest-rates-diabetes/

[AndyJoy]

Nm

[AndyJoy]

I'm in GA. If I make sweet tea, it's 1/2 cup per gallon, but usually I make it unsweetened. I use 5 family size tea bags and 1/4 tsp baking soda per gallon. Stronger tea actually has a flavor other than brown sugar water.

 

If I'm splurging at a restaurant (some things *need* sweet tea, lol), I'll ask for half and half. Everywhere here knows that's half a pour of sweet and half a pour of unsweet. It's still too sweet for me so I'll ask them to refill with just unsweet.

 

5 cups in a gallon would have a pancake syrup viscosity practically! Surely she was measuring in "cups" as in whatever scoop shaped thing was in her sugar canister. My teeth hurt!

 

Tea dissertation there... Sorry!

I would hope she meant scoops but given how crazy-sweet it was I believe it. I had an instant headache from one gulp and spent the next three hours drinking water constantly to try to counteract.

 

I just realized it really reminded me of the pregnancy glucose test! It was that level of nasty!

[Guest]

You missed the option for a tsp of stevia - plenty sweet for me!

[chocolatechip]

I do maybe 1/4-1/3 c honey per gallon.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I use more then 1.5 less then 2, and I brew it strong and let it sit in the pot for hours before making it up. 

 

ETA: Born in the Midwest but spent first 4 years of life down South.  Returned South as an adult and felt like I'd "come home".

[Laura Corin]

I'm in GA. If I make sweet tea, it's 1/2 cup per gallon, but usually I make it unsweetened. I use 5 family size tea bags and 1/4 tsp baking soda per gallon. 

 

Baking soda?

[Tsuga]

:scared:

 

You guys. That is a lot of sugar!

[Pawz4me]

Born, raised and lived all my life in NC --

 

When I make tea (several times a week) I typically leave it unsweetened.  The majority of us prefer it that way.

 

If I sweeten it I use Stevia or Splenda.  The equivalent amount of sugar would be 1 to 1-1/4 cup per gallon.

 

When I was growing up I'm pretty sure my grandmother used 2 cups, but I don't know how big her crock was.  Yes, she made a heavy crock full of iced tea each time she made it.  They were farmers who worked hard from sun up to sun down.  Nobody was anywhere close to overweight, let alone obese.

[zoobie]

Baking soda?

Yes. I put it in the hot water with the tea bags to steep. My grandmother did it. It's supposed to take away the bitterness? It makes a noticeable change in the color of the steeped tea and prevents cloudiness. I think it tastes better, but I know when I forget to add it, so could be entirely placebo effect! :)

[Slartibartfast]

http://stateofobesity.org/lists/highest-rates-diabetes/

 

What are they eating in Delaware!?!?!?!

 

Or does just one family of diabetics moving into the state throw off their statistic?

[Slartibartfast]

I lost my southern street cred years ago when I stopped making, or drinking, sweet tea. I can't stand it. It's funny because when I order unsweet iced tea here they bring it with one of those coasters that is usually used for decaf coffee drinkers.

 

 

I am in the deep south and I order UNsweet tea. If you just order tea it will always be sweet.

 

Sometimes I am in the mood for sweet tea and so at the self serve fountains I do like 19/20 of unsweet tea and 1/20 of sweet. :lol: It really only needs a splash of sweet tea in a BIG cup of unsweet for it to be adequately sweet to me.

[Ottakee]

I was born in South Carolina where they make GOOD sweet tea.

 

My mother made it up north here with 2 cups of sugar per gallon.  I have weaned myself down now to where I use 1/2 cup of sugar per gallon.  It isn't the wonderful southern sweet tea but I just don't need that much sugar as I love to drink my tea.

[Ellie]

IME, when you make sweet tea, you boil the sugar with the water first, then steep the tea bags.  This seems to make the sugar sweeter than just adding sugar to hot tea.   I use 1-2 cups per gallon, depending on my mood :)

 

Really? I don't do it that way. for a gallon of iced tea, I boil about 1 quart of water, add the tea bags and let them steep; remove the bags and stir in the sugar, then add three quarts of cold water (or two quarts of cold water, plus a whole lotta ice cubes, which cools it down quickly enough to be able to drink it right away). Sugar dissolves more quickly in hot water than in cold, which is why I add it to the hot tea, but I've never known anyone who boiled the sugar with the water first, before adding the tea bags. LSNED. :-)

[fairfarmhand]

Lifelong southerner, Making tea in the fashion that my mama made it.

 

1 cup per gallon.

 

Everyone who ever drank my mom's tea, or my tea say it is awesome.

 

 

Oddly, I don't care for tea at all. But I can make some good sweettea. (Yes, true southerners say Sweettea as one word.)

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Yes. I put it in the hot water with the tea bags to steep. My grandmother did it. It's supposed to take away the bitterness? It makes a noticeable change in the color of the steeped tea and prevents cloudiness. I think it tastes better, but I know when I forget to add it, so could be entirely placebo effect! :)

 

I add a pinch of baking soda as well, for the same reasons.  I don't notice a flavor difference at all.  The tea stays for several days in the refrigerator and doesn't get cloudy or "off" tasting.  I have never tested it longer than a few days because it disappears before that.