Southern iced tea, with the perfect amount of sweetness, to cool you down on a hot summer day. A refreshing pick me up! Instructions included for both sweetened or unsweetened iced black tea using convenient Lipton tea bags.

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While you can serve almost every tea iced, the iced tea we're talking about here is Southern iced tea, made from black tea.

Refreshing and cold, this iced black tea recipe using Lipton tea bags will hit the spot! Just enough sweetness, not too sweet. A spot-on homemade iced tea recipe for both sweetened and unsweetened iced tea. Perfect as a summer drink or for parties.

Prefer hot tea? My morning beverage of choice is a strong creamy hot black tea.

🧄 Ingredient notes

Lipton Iced Tea Bags, my preference for making Southern Iced Tea. How to Make Perfect Iced Tea by Very Veganish

You'll need:

water
black tea bags (I like Lipton)
sugar (optional, for sweet tea)

What kind of tea bag should I use?

You can use any standard black tea bag that you can get where you live. Each has it's own distinct flavor.

Speaking of tea bags, the two main choices here in southern states of the USA are Lipton and Luzianne.

I've tried them both, but my favorite is Lipton.

To make 8 cups of tea, you'll use 6 standard-size Lipton tea bags or 2 family-size Lipton tea bags.

To make more or less tea, just adjust the number of tea bags and sugar in the recipe below according to the amount you want to make.

🔪 Instructions

Here are step-by-step instructions for how to make strong Texas iced tea using Lipton tea bags!

Steeping a pitcher of iced tea with lipton tea bags

Step 1: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a kettle (we love our electric kettle for this) or in a medium saucepan. Add Lipton tea bags (6 standard size or 2 family size) to a heatproof pitcher. Pour boiling water over tea bags and let steep for 20 minutes.

Pulling the bags out of a pitcher of iced tea

Step 2: Remove tea bags with a long wooden spoon, squeeze the tea out of them and then throw away the tea bags.

Step 3: Pour in sugar, if using.

Step 4: Stir to dissolve the sugar into the tea. Then, stir in 4 cups of water to the pitcher.

finished pitcher of iced tea with two mason jars filled with ice and yellow straws

Step 5: Fill glasses with ice.

two mason jars of iced tea with yellow straws

Step 6: Pour tea over ice and enjoy!

Expert tips

Use boiling water. Far from the delicate water temperature needs of an organic oolong, this hearty black tea requires boiling water. Not hot water. Not lukewarm water. Boiling water.
Use filtered drinking water, not tap water, for the best flavor.

🫖 Sweet or Unsweet?

Iced tea is a staple drink in many Southern homes. Next to water, sweet tea is what people drink.

When we have company over, we always have a pitcher of iced tea on hand. If it's a large enough group, I will prepare two pitchers - one of sweetened iced tea and one of unsweetened iced tea - to make sure everybody's happy.

If it's true sweet tea you're after, then you can double, triple or even quadruple the sugar in this recipe until it's reached the dessert-level sugar high of a beverage known as "sweet tea".

Please know that if you travel anywhere in the south, particularly in the country, and ask for sweet tea, this is what you will get.

If that's not what you want, you can always ask for unsweetened tea and add sugar until it's sweet enough for you.

Or, you can ask for "half and half", which is half sweet tea and half unsweet tea.

When traveling, I know we've left the South when iced tea isn't on every menu as a drink option!

Traditional Southern iced tea is made with black tea bags. Some people like their tea on the weak side.

I prefer my tea strong, so I steep it longer to make sure it's nice and strong and will still hold on to that wonderful tea flavor even after the ice has melted.