I drink a quart of iced tea most days and in the summer my family joins me so we go through a couple. So I use Lipton Cold Brew bags (available at Ralphs and probably other stores in SoCal). They must be similar to the ones you link to. They're very large bags so just 2 will brew a quart in cold water in 10 minutes and if I forget and let them go 15 I haven't noticed bitterness.

I'm sure it's "sweepings" of cheaper black tea and I doubt I'd be interested in these bags as hot tea. But when it's drunk cold the harder notes fade and it does the trick. Besides, really good or great tea would be wasted on something I drink by the quart.

I would *never* sweeten iced tea with sugar. Personally, I'd rather have unsweetened tea — hot or cold. And if I want it sweetened, as for an Arnie Palmer, for instance, I use Splenda, myself. So I recommend also preparing a sugar syrup for my friends who *do* want sweetened. You can add up to 4 parts sugar for one part of very hot water and keep it on hand in the fridge for up to a week.

For a great Arnie Palmer take a large piece of zest from half a lemon and twist it over a glass of ice to release the oil. Dump it in the glass (zest won't add the bitterness over time that a piece of lemon with it's pith would). Squeeze in the juice through a small strainer. Add iced tea and sugar syrup or sweetener to taste.

The only way — short of a Margarita — to get through a SoCal summer.

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I would never make sun tea. My father used to work at a tea processing plant. He said salmonella can contaminate tea. I always use boiling water.

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Thank you, Rainey, for pointing out that not all iced tea needs to be sweetened. However, I have to say that there's no waste involved in drinking good tea, hot or cold, by the cup or the quart. I *love* iced earl grey, and in fact Twinings even provides a recipe. I adapted it to Safeway's EG and it's yummy. Unsweetened.

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Nicole- Let's keep up the good fight! I travel Western Canada trying to convert them to the sugar syrup option.

They think unsweetened ice tea is a completely bizarre concept and, yet, they'd never consider serving you coffee that had already had sugar and cream added. Go figure...

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I have had a "The Iced Tea Pot" by Mr Coffee for about 9 years now and swear by it. It makes the same exact sweet tea every time and I have the recipe perfected. Heaven.

Brian

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Thanks Nicole for the excellent post. I've been drinking iced green tea all summer, and highly recommend it. Another great party idea is Cranberry Vodka Iced Tea.
http://www.thesimpleleaf.com/learn/learn.main.asp?idPage=iced#cranberry

Nikhil

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