"I don't think the waiter ever recovered from it."
ROFLMAO!!!!
Howlin, I know you have a sweet tea recipe.
My mother in law from down East, NC, makes the best sweet tea in the world and it goes like this:
Boil in a sauce pan about 1/4th to 1/3rd depth of cold water with about 1/2 c sugar - depending on the number of tea bags you are going to steep.....1/2 c to 1 family size tea bag usually works well - or you can experiment and decrease the sugar if you like it not as sweet.
But heat up the water with the sugar until boiling. Take the pan off the eye. Add the tea bags (so they do NOT BOIL with the water - and either Lipton or Luzianne work just fine). Let the tea bags steep a minimum of 30 minutes or it just isn't Southern tea.
Then pour the sweetened tea/water into a glass pitcher and add enough cold water to make a half pitcher (for 1 tea bag) or 2/3 pitcher (for 2 tea bags - family size) or 3/4 LARGE pitcher (for 3 tea bags - and that is the size I fix for family gatherings because the sweet tea disappears fast!)
Now, Howlin, if you can straighten this out and give your recipe, that would be great.
By the way, I had minted sweet tea once and thought it was horrible. Lemon is not necessary either for sweet tea. But now that hubby and I drink unsweetened ice tea - to save on the sugary stuff - we must add lemon. No other way to tolerate it.
I use two family sized Lipton teabags; a cup of sugar and a Revere tea kettle full of hot water; sugar first, then hot water, then the teabags. And you are SO right; it MUST steep for no less than 30 minutes, the longer the better! Then add cold water!
BTW, this article reminds me of being in New York City and asking for a hamburger with mustard, chili, and slaw. It came open faced, with about a pound of CHILI BEANS poured on it, a small dish of slaw and another dish of mustard. It was UGLY to see!
Here is how I make sweet tea, and I ain't had any complaints:
1. Take a half-gallon pitcher and fill it approx. 1/4 way full with water. Add 1 cup of sugar and stir. This helps to melt the sugar while you are waiting for the water to boil.
2. Take 2 family size or 6 regular size tea bags (Luzianne is superior to Lipton) and put them in a regular size cereal bowl or teapot.
3. Fill the bowl with the tea bags in it with boiling water. The way I measure steeping time is like this: as soon as you pour the boiling water over the tea bags, go outside and smoke a cigarette. Don't linger, but don't rush either. By the time you're done, the tea is steeped enough.
4. Pour the bowlful of tea (without the teabags) into your already partially filled pitcher of sugar-water. You can squeeze the excess out of the tea bags using your spoon if you want, depending on how strong you want the tea. Stir while you fill the pitcher the rest of the way full with tap water. Doing it this way keeps you from having tea that's too warm and melts your ice too quickly.
5. Your pitcher of tea is best if it sits for a couple of hours, but when you get tired of waiting, pour yourself a big glass (already full of ice) of some of the best tea around.
The secret is 1 cup of sugar and 2 family size/6 regular size tea bags to the half-gallon. 1/2 cup sugar just won't cut it, but doing it my way, you won't end up with that too-sweet, syrupy tea, either, that you sometimes run into in BBQ restaurants.
People put too much sugar in tea. It's undrinkable. The tea at Stamey's in Greensboro is horrid and wretched. I've been drinking it for decades and it hasn't gotten better.