Although I am a nice Italian girl, my paternal grandparents settled in Georgia. My Nonna was likely to serve spaghetti with meat sauce and cornbread. One of my favorite childhood dishes was fresh steamed green beans with hot bacon drippings.
As a result, I do love my iced tea. Lipton and Nestea both make credible bottled versions, but there's nothing like a fresh brewed batch of home made iced tea. And I like mine Southern style, with lots of sugar and real lemon.
This is my time tested recipe.
4 tea bags; I prefer the Lusianne brand specifically for iced tea
Half cup sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Boil a small saucepan of water. Add tea bags while still boiling. Remove from heat. Let tea steep for 8 to 10 minutes. In the meantime, juice half a lemon into a pitcher. Add the sugar and stir. After tea has steeped, add to pitcher with enough water to make 2 quarts. Serve over ice with lemon wedges.
If you want to get really crazy, add some fresh mint leaves to the tea while it's steeping and remove before adding to the sugar/lemon mixture.
I'm not a big fan of sun tea; for one thing, it always tastes a bit bitter to me and for another, without boiling the water, the bacteria natural to tea leaves is not killed.
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