Copycat McAlister's Sweet Tea {secret ingredient recipe} (2024)

FAQs

What kind of tea does McAlister's use? ›

Specially filtered. Made fresh with Orange Pekoe Black Tea leaves. Sweetened and poured over ice.

Adding a little baking soda to your tea will clear away any cloudiness left from the mixing process, and it's also thought to cut down on any lingering bitter tastes from the steeping tea bags, leaving your tea clarified and smooth and providing your get-together with one fantastic pitcher of tea.

Sweeteners like honey and sugar blend more easily in warm tea, so mix them in just after brewing, before you chill it. If you need to sweeten cold tea, use simple syrup. Simple syrup is just sugar that's been heated and dissolved in water, and it's the best way to add sweetness to cold tea.

Sweet tea is most commonly made by adding sugar or simple syrup to black tea while the tea is either brewing or still hot, although artificial sweeteners are also frequently used. Sweet tea is almost always served ice cold. It may sometimes be flavored, most commonly with lemon but also with peach, raspberry, or mint.

To make a gallon sized tea, use 2 cups of water to boil, add 2 cups of sugar and ⅛ teaspoon of baking soda after it has been removed from heat, use 4 family sized tea bags when steeping, and add 14 cups of cold water at the end. Never pinch the tea bags when removing them from steeping.

Why is it that almost nowhere North of Kentucky serves real sweet tea? One of two reasons: They have no idea how refreshing it is during really hot weather, or they know that sweet tea is invariably cloyingly too sweet.

Most Southern “sweet tea” is made with the sweetener in the water. It gives a more natural and well blended flavor to the tea. Most other sweet tea is brewed, then sweetened. This method creates less savory flavor since it is generally brewed using hot water and then the sweetener added after the fact.

LPT: when making sweet tea, add a little baking soda during steaping to make the tea less bitter. The baking soda lets you steap the tea longer before it starts to go bitter. I recommend 8 black tea bags steaped in 4 cups of hot sugar water and 1/8 to 1/4 of a teaspoon of baking soda (not powder).

Medium Invert Sugar

The actual amount of sodium may be higher or lower depending upon the sodium content of the water where the beverage is dispensed.

Does sweet tea have more sugar than co*ke? ›

The organization We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition) states that an average 12-ounce serving of soda contains 10 1/4 teaspoons of sugar, amounting to 41 grams and 150 calories. The same amount of sweet tea contains 33 grams of sugar — or 8 1/2 teaspoons — and 120 calories.

An inviting elixir, sweet tea has its sugar added early on: The sugar crystals dissolve fully when stirred into piping hot tea. And by brewing the tea extra strong, you can push the limits of just how much sugar you use, since that sugar balances the tea's bitterness.

Honey vs Sugar In Tea: Why Honey Is A Better Choice

Both have fructose and glucose. While sugar is an equal 50/50 when it comes to fructose and glucose, honey has 40% fructose and 30% glucose. What makes up the remaining 30% in honey? Along with water and pollen, there are minerals such as magnesium and potassium.

Stevia contains high quantities of diterpene glycosides, which cannot be broken down or absorbed by the digestive tract. Therefore, intake of stevia sweetener does not affect the blood glucose level.

Iced tea has a long history in the U.S. You'll find iced tea in two traditional variations: iced tea and sweet tea. The big difference? Sugar. Sweet tea, which originates in the South, has added sugar.

This most beloved of herbal teas gets its comforting aroma and perfectly balanced flavor from a blend of soothing herbs, including delicate chamomile, cool spearmint and fresh lemongrass. Wind down your day with Sleepytime® tea! Sleepytime is the original bedtime tea.

Orange Pekoe is a very familiar kind of tea because it's the type used in a lot of black teas from supermarket tea suppliers. Orange Pekoe is not orange-flavoured tea or a specific kind of blend. It is actually a tea classification.

It's not a specific blend of tea, either. Instead, orange pekoe is part of a classification system for black tea, based on the origin, quality and size of the leaves. Orange pekoe, then, is a particular grade of black tea.

Brewed Tea

Ingredients: Water, Orange Pekoe And Pekoe Cut Black Tea.