The Best Luzianne Southern Sweet Iced Tea recipe makes the perfect iced tea! Iced tea reminds me of my grandmother. She always had a jug of tea in the fridge. Always. She drank unsweetened tea and so that is what I was used to drinking as a young kid. There was always a big glass of tea on the table next to her so anytime I got thirsty I wold go ask her for a drink. I could always count on getting a drink out of that large glass I had to hold with both hands.

A glass of tea with a slice of lemon on the side of the glass, the words sweet tea are above it.

Now as an adult we put sugar in ours to make this amazing sweet tea. It is so tasty and refreshing served over a nice tall glass of ice, perfect on a hot summer day!

A pitcher with some tea in it and two glasses with tea in them, one has a slice of lemon on the rim of the glass and the other has lemon slices in the glass.

Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
How to Make the Perfect Southern Sweet Tea Recipe
More beverage recipes
Recipe ↓

A pitcher of sweet tea in the background and two glasses of tea in the foreground.

Ingredients

See recipe card for exact amounts.

One gallon of spring water, four Luzianne family size tea bags and a blue measuring cup full of sugar sitting on the counter.

Ingredient Notes

Tea – family size tea bags, we like Luzianne tea bags for iced tea, it has orange pekoe tea and pekoe cut black tea in it.

Water – we usually buy a gallon of spring or filtered water to make the best tea. You can certainly use tap water.

Sugar – we add sugar to the warm tea and it dissolves perfectly, it isn’t necessary to take the extra step to make a simple syrup for this.

Garnish – a little lemon juice, a few lemon slices or lemon wedges or fresh mint all work great.

Four Luzianne family size tea bags steeping in a medium saucepan full of water.

How to Make the Perfect Southern Sweet Tea Recipe

Bring eight cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Take it off the stove and let it stop boiling.
Add tea bags to the hot water and let the tea steep for 5 minutes. Do not steep too long or it will give your tea a bitter taste. Remove tea bags.
Mix a cup of sugar into the hot tea and stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour tea and cool water into a gallon pitcher of jug. Do not pour tea that is too hot into a glass container that is too cold or it may break.

Cool water being poured into a glass pitcher with the steeped tea in it.

We don’t have a glass pitcher large enough to hold the entire gallon of tea so often times we just keep it in the plastic jug the gallon of water came in. It fits handily in the fridge so why not? I just mix the steeped tea and water in a large plastic pitcher that has a spout and then carefully pour it into the gallon jug. My gallon sized pitcher is kinda cumbersome and not handy like the water jug. You can also mix equal parts steeped tea and water and then pour that into whatever smaller containers you have if you don’t have anything big enough to hold a full gallon.

A gallon water jug full of The Best Luzianne Southern Sweet Iced Tea sitting on the counter.

How much sugar should go in a gallon of sweet tea?

This is really personal preference. We like about a cup of sugar for one gallon of tea. You can use more or less sugar, depending on how you like it.

Why does tea turn cloudy?

This may be because of the brewing method used to make the tea. It also could be because the steeped tea was mixed with cold water and ice while it was too hot. As you can see in the photos my tea is not very clear, I am not a patient person so when I make it I want to drink it shortly thereafter. So I steep it, mix it with the cold water and then put it in the fridge so I can drink it soon. If clear tea is important to you then let the steeped tea come to room temperature before you mix the cold water with it.

When I make a recipe for this blog I try to make it like most people would make it. I doubt the average person is going to take hours to make a batch of tea so it won’t be cloudy. Art of Tea has an article that explains exactly why it happens and how to prevent it, if that interests you.

One glass of The Best Luzianne Southern Sweet Iced Tea with a lemon slice on the rim of the glass sitting on a table.

What about putting baking soda in the tea?

A [not so secret] secret ingredient a lot of folks swear by is baking soda. I have put it in my tea in the past but have since abandoned the theory and leave it out. It is said that baking soda takes the bitterness out of tea that it can sometimes develop after it has sat a while.

Kate over at Southern Kitchen explains that this really doesn’t do a thing for bitter tea and that bitterness comes from the tea being steeped too long. If you want stronger tea then you will have to take care not to let it go long enough that it gets bitter. It would be better to use more tea bags than to steep fewer tea bags too long.

How long will the tea last?

It is best to drink it in 3-4 days. We have had it in the fridge for as long as 6 days and it tastes fine.

Two glasses of tea sitting in front of a vintage gold rack of glasses, you can also see part of the pitcher and some lemon slices on the counter in front of the glasses.

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Recipe ↓