I’m a southern man born and raised, and I run on sweet tea. Lately I’ve been experimenting with lowering the amount of sugar (or splenda) I make it with. What I’ve found is that I like the reduced sweetness, but tea bags are so low quality and bitter that I need the sugar to cover it up. Cold brewing and adding a pinch of baking soda help a lot, but I still want more. I think a higher quality tea is going to get me the flavor I’m looking for. So, any suggestions on any part of the process are welcome! What teas to try, brewing methods, etc. Less caffeine is better, I have a lot of heart failure in my family history so I try to minimize caffeine intake.
Aight, there’s a few ways to go about it.
The typical thing to start with is your brand. If you’re going to be making big batches, you default to Lipton and Luzianne for southern sweet tea. However, Tetley does just fine. That’s the stuff you’re going to find in pretty much any grocery store. Luzianne and Tetley both do blends specifically for iced tea, and it does make a difference.
The next big thing is brew time. There’s two ways to get strength without bitterness. The first is to go with a drip coffee maker. No bullshit. You will need to add an extra bag to keep the strength right, but the brew is so fast that you never get much bitterness at all.
If you don’t want to do that, a boiling pot of water is your best bet. The size doesn’t matter much, but it’s a lot easier with a 3 or 4 quart pot. You bring it to a boil, drop the bags in, then cut the heat and steep for approximately five minutes, or until the tea is at the darkness you prefer.
Both of those will give you plenty of that deep strength that’s the main characteristic of southern style sweet tea.
Iirc, all three of those brands make decaf black tea. Not that it matters much; even strong tea is lower caffeine than weak coffee. I’m sensitive to caffeine; it throws me into this weird panic state, and I don’t get it from tea unless I’m basically guzzling the stuff. But the option is out there.
Now, if you’re doing smaller batches, say a quart or half gallon, you can be a little more free with your tea choices because you don’t have to worry as much about price or availability of larger amounts. Irish breakfast tea makes amazing iced tea, as does earl grey. English breakfast does a decent iced, but not as good as those two imo. Same basic idea, you either drip, or you boil and steep. All of those have plenty of decaf options for sure.
It really isn’t about the bags tbh. It tends to be more about the tea itself. A lot of the teas that are sold in bigger amounts are shitty tea that’s crumbled to dust. While you do get some of that in the name brands that make versions for iced tea, it’s still better than the off brands or generics. But if you go with something like Taylor’s, or Twinings, even their bagged teas are a better grade than most.
The cheaper the tea, the easier you have to be with it. Shorter steeps gives less bitterness than lower temps imo. I’ve never had great luck with cold brews or sun tea. They just sit too long before you get good strength, which means they’re bitter.