Short and Sweet {Tea, that is}

In our family, few things are as refreshing on hot days as sweet tea.

Yes, we Northerners get excited enough about sweet tea to talk about it like it's not part of our way of life.
Silly, I know.
Hubs LOVES Mc-E-Dee's sweet tea though we are both partial to Chick-Fil-A's brew.
{oh, chick-fill-uh... we miss you! ... waffle fries...}
ANYWAY... the stinker about both of those recipes is that they're IN-SANELY sweet. Like, crazy, you can chew it, sweet.
At home, we tone it down a lot.
My mom taught me to make it with 2 cups of sugar per gallon.At this point you still need to brush your teeth after consuming.
Since I've been working to cut WAY back on the sugar consumption of our family I weaned us down to 1 cup per gallon last year and even less this year.
So here's how we do it...

For one gallon of tea, open, de-tag, and tie together 5 Lipton tea bags (I guess you could use whatever tea you like, flavored or fancy but I definitely do not recommend Red Rose tea for this. We find it just plain yucky!)

Boil approximately 4 cups of water and pour into your pitcher.
Add 3/4 c refined sugar. {If you use organic sugar or sugar in the raw, you'll need more as "natural" sugars tend to be less sweet than refined. I would imagine the same goes for Rapedura or Sucanat though I've never tried them.}
Stir until sugar is dissolved and let steep for at least 5 minutes. I usually forget and leave it for at least half an hour.

Remove bags and squeeze out excess water.
Add enough cold water to fill the pitcher and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or add ice and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

{Top Photo Credit}