There's few things more a part of our life style than Sweet Tea — and yes, in the South it deserves to be capitalized. We serve thousands of glasses — er make that jars or to go cups — of Sweet Tea each day. Folks are nice enough to come in sometimes just to get a tea.
Lots of guests ask me how we make it and it really ain't a secret — it's made with love. Yep, lots of love and caring and that's the real secret. It's always been one of my favorite projects cause it always bothered me to get less than good Sweet Tea at a few other places — you know the places where they don't sweeten it till they serve it to you over ice — good luck with gettin that sweet.
The recipe goes like this. First, buy a good Southern Orange Peko tea — don't waste your time on English brands and such, they're great for hot tea but not iced. Second, always make it stronger than they say. I've never seen a box recipe that did justice to ice tea. Third, use a good cane sugar and put about 16 oz by volume to every two quarts of tea. Also make sure you use water filtered to remove chlorine and other off flavors. Put your tea bags in the pot, bring just to a boil, turn it off and steep for around 5 minutes or so. Be sure to sweeten while it's hot so the sugar will dissolve. Let it cool awhile pour over ice cubes and enjoy or just come to Country's and ignore most of the above 🙂