On Tea
Greg:
Uncle says iced tea should be sweet with lemon. While I don’t mind sweet tea, you can always sweeten it yourself, but you cannot un-sweeten it.
No, you cannot. And you also cannot sweeten iced tea with sugar. It just goes to the bottom of it. It must be sweetened when it’s brewed or not at all.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Agreed. The only thing you get by trying to sweeten tea with sugar after its already been brewed is something similar to a urinal mint in the bottom of your glass. 🙂
December 9th, 2009 at 11:40 am
What’s your take on iced tea mix? That’s all I have to work with here in NY.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Yes and no. You can sweeten it somewhat – some of the sugar will still dissolve – but it’s nowhere near what you get by sweetening it when it’s brewed. Adding sugar when it’s hot and then cooling it allows it to become supersaturated, holding more dissolved sugar than it normally would be able to hold at drinking temperature.
Essentially, if you don’t do it when you brew it you get tea with sugar added, not sweet tea.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Uncle, there’s “sweetening your tea”, then there is “dangerously close to diabetic coma”.
Jake is right. You can sweeten already iced tea, just not as much as you can sweeten still-hot tea. So if you like your tea sweet enough to dissolve your teeth, you have to sweeten before you chill.
But you still can’t un-sweeten sweet tea.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Two words, guys: Simple syrup. It works. I was a believer too, until too many of my kin kept dropping from diabetes complications.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
…and stop omitting crucial parts of what i said to advance your teeth-rotting agenda. 🙂
I specifically said that “correctly made” sweet tea is sweetened when it is freshly brewed.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Or just use some of the sugar substitutes. Both nutrisweet and splenda seem to dissolve in unsweetened iced tea much easier than normal sugar.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Maker’s Mark and Ice Tea work well, I have one for lunch everyday.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
My vote is not at all. Blech! This is one part of the southern culture that I have not gotten used to yet.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Phelps speaks the truth. Simple syrup is the way to go when sweetening already iced tea.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Just goes to the bottom…?
Not if you stir it gently first. And certainly not Sweet & Low, which dissolves rather quickly when stirred.
Super-sweet southern sweet tea is ok every now and then, but all the time would be a bit much. Still prefer to dump in my 2 packets of Sweet & Low and stir vigorously…but YMMV.
Also like natural, unrefined sugar, too….the brownish chunky kind.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
sweet & low is not sugar.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Make a simple syrup. Two parts sugar, one part water in a sauce pan bring to a boil and remove from heat. It’s sweeter than that much sugar because the heat breaks the link in the sucrose between the one fructose and one glucose. This will mix in with your tea.
December 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Drink beer and the problem does not arise.
December 9th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Beer, is there anything it can’t do?
December 9th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Sweet tea is made by adding sugar when the tea is brewed.
Adding it afterward is not sweet tea, but simply tea, with sugar in it.
There is a difference.
December 9th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Sugar? Who the hell uses sugar to sweeten anything? That’s what sweet n low is for. If you get “pre-sweetened” tea, they could have used ANYTHING to sweeten it. Anti-freeze, high-fructose corn syrup, cocaine, ANYTHING!
December 10th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
“sweet & low is not sugar.”
Agreed. I can’t use it anyway – I’m allergic to nutri-sweet and it’s ilk.