Wonder if that would also work for coffee?

I've never had it that I know of. Harry's sister makes the best sweet tea I've ever tasted. She doesn't take the credit though. Says it's the Luizanne (sp?) tea bags. She basically makes it like your mother, but without the baking soda or lemon.

Now you have me wanting sweet tea!

I don't drink sweet tea so I guess I don't notice the bitterness in tea.

I love iced tea made with China Mist Iced Tea bags. Some are flavored but they are fruity or woodsy and never sweet.

The rest of the time I drink black iced tea. Lipton, plain, not even lemon.

At home I make my iced tea in a Mr. Coffee iced tea maker.

I don't like the bitter taste either, but I just make my tea weaker. I brew my tea for ice tea in a measuring cup, fill my glass with ice and water and add the tea to the desired "look". LOL

Sometimes I do use baking soda in mine. I do not make sweet tea nor use lemon in it. I use Luzianne decaffeinated.

Sue

Never heard of adding baking soda, maybe that is my girlfriend's "secret" sweet tea recipe she got from a man friend of hers. He said his southern grandma had a secret recipe for sweet tea and he let my friend in on it. She is sworn to secrecy.

I could never make good iced tea. That is up until a couple weeks ago. On a tea discussion forum I frequent, someone "cold brewed" their ice tea and claimed it tasted as good if not better than hot or sun brewed tea. Fill a glass jar or pitcher with cold water, add a tea bag for every cup of water, place in the fridge for two hours, remove the bags, sweeten to taste and serve. Well, I've made two pitchers of it so far and am very satisfied. It did not get cloudy either. I used four Yorkshire tea bags the first time, the second I felt it needed one more.

mom used to use cream of tartar in a lot of things like that including tea and lemonade etc. just a pinch.

Another really good brand of tea and tea bags besides Luzianne is Community also from Louisiana.

I could never make decent iced tea until I found and posted the recipe for iced tea syrup. I cut the sugar down to my taste and it's really good and I've been drinking it regularly.

I add a pinch of sea salt to my coffee, which cuts out the bitter taste.

I have used it! Just a pinch will do it!

All the time...

I make my iced tea similar to schoolhouse. I just fill up my stainless water pitcher with cold water, add 7 teabags and put it in the fridge. Never cloudy, never bitter. I drink mine plain. No sugar, no lemon.

I like the fact the sugar dissolves easily in hot tea. How do you get it dissolved in cold? I've often found sugar crystals in the bottom of my glass, till I started making the syrup.

I've thought about doing it, but never have. Will try one of these days. Last week I was drinking iced tea with a dash of OJ and a dash of cranberry juice in the glass for something different. I usually drink plain unsweetened.

Among our group of friends, I had the reputation for making the best tea ever. I don't bother to mention sweet tea because among my family and friends, there is no other kind.

I make tea like my mother did, and never heard of the addition of soda, but that is interesting. My DM always used Lipton loose tea. I did change that to tea bags though. Probably 10-12 years ago I noticed my tea wasn't tasting right. Even my DGD said she had noticed it too. I wrote to Liptons and asked what had happened. They said they had changed the way the tea is harvested, but that would not change the flavor. I asked other people if they had noticed a change; they said yes, they had. Later I contacted Liptons again, and I received a letter saying they had combined their plantations with one (or some, don't remember) and mentioned processes, weather, maybe rain forest, quite in depth etc, ending up with something about a certain kind of frog. Really! If you notice on the Lipton boxes now you will see a little frog! I wish I had kept that letter. I have tried several other brands and always go back to Lipton. I may start looking for the brands mentioned here.

Have any of you noticed the little frog?

I am a definite T-totaler. Don't like coffee. Wish Liptons had left well enough alone; I just tolerate it now. I will try the soda, though

Sue

I agree that the bitterness comes with the boiling, and not even OVER boiling. I cold brew mine, too, and end up with a flavorful, full-bodied, MILD tea. I've cold brewed mine for many years.

I'd advise anyone that does like sweet tea to purchase some extra fine sugar...not powdered sugar, but labeled extra fine. It's used in the same amounts as the regular granulated sugar but dissolves quickly.

I use it ALL the time for baking (especially frostings), the hummingbird feeder (no boiling), and iced tea.

Sun tea???

I made it couple times.

Not a tea drinker, prefer water for the past 10 years, but it has to have ice.

My grandma always made Sun Tea with a ton of sugar in it. It was delicious. I love tea with lemon and sugar but stay away from it for the most part now because I avoid sugar and the sugar substitutes just don't cut it.

Now that it's summer, maybe I should do a little experimenting with sun tea and see if I can find a healthier way to make it so that it's still yummy to me.

TEA should never be boiled. I should be made with BOILING water.

Sue

That is a LOT of sugar! I use only three tea bag for a 1/2 gallon/2 quart pitcher. It is plenty strong!

The same guy on the tea forum, when discussing sun tea said he thought it wasn't exactly safe. Something about bacteria being able to grow from the tea sitting outside in the sun for hours. I never thought about bacteria, have made sun tea before and so far haven't gotten sick.

I sweeten my tea, hot or cold, by serving, not in the pitcher or pot. The artificial sweeteners are really too sweet for me but if that's all I have on hand I use that. I've never tried honey in iced tea only in brewed hot. Anyone sweeten iced tea with honey?

You boil water for humming bird feeder to get rid of the chemicals the water treatment people put in the water.
I put a pinch of cream of tarter in my coffee this morning after reading this thread and I have been tasting it all day. YUCK..but the coffee was less bitter.

Yep....I add baking soda to my tea when it's boiling! Never noticed a bitter taste with tea (but use a sprinkle of salt in with the coffee to cut bitterness). The baking soda (I was told...pulls all the strength out of the tea bags (Luzianne)

Cold brewed tea doesn't need to sit outside in the sun for 5 minutes, lol. (That's all a big myth.) I usually keep mine on the kitchen counter for two or three hours, but it can be done in the fridge.

I only sweeten tea that I get in a restaurant...just to cut the bitterness.

Gave up tea drinking multi years ago.

Just give me iced water and I'm a happy camper.

I'm a coffee drinker myself, or plain cold water.

"Cold brewed tea doesn't need to sit outside in the sun for 5 minutes, lol. (That's all a big myth.)"

Who said anything about cold brewed tea in the sun for 5min?