[claudius753]

Does anyone have any good recipes for Iced Tea? I know how to brew tea, but I am not sure how to get a good taste and sweetness without sugar. I have cut out regular soda and would like to cut out even the diet stuff, but I just don't want to drink water all the time.

I love Mickey D's sweet tea once the ice has melted a bit to water it down, but I know it is extremely sugared and high in calories.

I've had "Honest T" that is an organic bottled tea and it is pretty good, but barley sweet at all, 35 calories. I would like it to be a little sweeter than they have it, so I add a little honey. The only problem is that it is very pricey at nearly $2.00 per 16oz bottle.

I'm just not sure what combo of sweeteners to use to get a good brew at home. Honest T uses agave nectar and honey. I'm not sure how much Splenda or other sweeteners to use or does any one use a combo of artificial and natural sweeteners?

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, I'm just not to good at coming up with recipes on my own, even a simple Iced Tea recipe

[Suzanne 3FC]

Oh boy, I live in the south where a pitcher of iced tea has a whole cup of sugar This may be one of those things that you have to tweak on your own, to suit your own tastes. I'd suggest not trying to sweeten a whole pitcher, but just to sweeten by the glass - at least until you get the mixture exactly as you'd like it.

[elisa822]

Well, I hope that this is a question I can help with!!

I love homemade iced tea but for years I tried to make it myself and it just never seemed quite right. For me the secret is lots of lemon juice, it really made it taste more like iced tea, rather than just cold tea, if you follow what I'm saying.

If you want an exact recipe, try this. It's a no fail recipe that calls for a fair bit of sugar. The first time i made it I tried half sugar and half splenda and then just kept moving down until it was all splenda. Here, sugar twin is much cheaper than splenda so I've tried lots of different combinations. You can start with this and adjust it any way you like. I hope you like it as much as I do!! I usually make a batch and a half because it goes so fast. Any more and my pitcher isn't big enough.

Lemon Iced Tea Recipe
8 cups water
3 tea bags (the recipe called for Lipton, I've always used Tetley)
3/4 cup sugar (or sweetener)
1/3 plus 2 tbsps lemon juice (bottled is fine)

Boil the water in a large pot. When the water comes to a rapid boil, turn off the heat and put the tea bags into the water and cover. Let the tea steep for approximately 1 hour. Pour into a pitcher and add the sugar/sweetener and the lemon juice and chill.

[OnePerDecade]

I'm a big believer in sweet tea too -- just without the calories!

I boil 2 quarts of water w/8-10 packets of Splenda or Sweet & Lo in it. That makes the water sweet -- and once it's boiled, pour the water over 6-7 tea bags (or 3 of the family sized) in a pitcher. I worked at a coffee joint for awhile and what I've learned is not to boil the bags in the water since it causes them to burst many times

I've been making sweet green tea for awhile too - just as a different way to get green tea into me.

[godsgirlnmo]

I love tea - I like to make sun tea by adding a mixture of regular tea bags and Peppermint tea bags it naturally sweetens the tea without all the calories.

[willmakeit]

Have your tried Celestial seasonings? I love that brand of teas. I usually drink it hot but i do make it iced at times and it tastes very good even without sweetners.

My favourite flavour is Mandarin Orange. Its caffiene free and it smells and tastes very refreshing! They also have wellness teas like ones whioch help sleep, ones with soothe throat, ones which aid calorie burning, ones which relax tension... check their website,

[LittleElectron]

I love tea! I prefer mine unsweetened, so my tastes will be a bit different. I have found a lot of the herbal orange teas to be very naturally sweet. I make my own iced tea by putting two tea bags in a mug, steeping for one minute and then immediately pouring it into a glass filled with ice. It is fast, easy and delicious! I would just sweeten to taste.

[sapphire9]

I drink hot tea with sugar and milk, but don't like anything in iced tea. I'm too lazy to make it myself so buy bottled tea. The best one is Teas Tea's Green Jasmin tea. It's expensive though. You might want to make iced jasmin tea yourself for a little exotic treat.

[nelie]

I actually can't stand the taste of most bottled iced teas, they have such a weird flavor to them.

I have gotten used to unsweetened tea/iced tea over time. I used to use artificial sweeteners but then one day I stopped and never looked back. One thing I do is mix half regular unsweetened iced tea with an herbal iced tea. Celestial seasonings has some of the best herbal iced teas out there so I highly recommend them. Maybe you can slowly cut back on sweeteners and see how well you do? Or maybe switch to agave and slowly cut back on that?