Strawberry Sweet Tea

This beautiful Strawberry Sweet Tea is deliciously sweet and the perfect refresher to sip on outside during warm summer days!

REFRESHINGLY SWEET

I just love iced tea in general because it’s always refreshing and never fails to hit the spot on warm days, but sweet tea, sweet tea is both an experience and a way of life! This Strawberry Sweet Tea doesn’t just quench my thirst, it puts me in a good mood because you can’t be sad sipping on something so sweet!

If you love fresh iced tea then you need to try my Peach Iced Tea, or branch out and try my favorite Thai Iced Tea!

OTHER RECIPES TO SERVE WITH STRAWBERRY SWEET TEA

• Strawberry Shortcake – A simple strawberry shortcake is always the perfect summertime dessert!
• Strawberry Jello Cake – If you’ve never had a Jello cake before, have you even experienced summer?
• No Bake Berry Icebox Cake – This chilled dessert is perfectly cool on hot summer nights.

INGREDIENTS

Tea: This recipe uses 8 black tea bags steeped in 2 cups of boiling water. I use Lipton, but you can use any brand you have on hand.

Fruit Syrup: You’ll need 4 cups of fresh, chopped strawberries which you’ll simmer with 2 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of sugar to make a sweet strawberry syrup for this Strawberry Sweet Tea.

Add-ins: You’ll combine the concentrated tea and strawberry syrup with 4 cups of water and a teaspoon of baking soda. Serve this refreshingly sweet tea in a glass over ice.

HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY SWEET TEA

STEP ONE: Start by bringing 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan. Remove the boiling water from the heat and steep the 8 black tea bags in the water for 5 minutes.

STEP TWO: After 5 minutes, remove the tea bags and carefully squeeze out any excess tea using a pair of tongs. Transfer the concentrated tea into a large pitcher with 4 additional cups of water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

STEP TWO: Next, using the same saucepan, add 2 cups of water, the chopped strawberries, and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Stir and bring the mixture to a low simmer for 20 minutes. When done, remove the strawberries from the heat and allow the mixture to cool.

STEP THREE: Once cooled, strain the strawberries through a fine-mesh sieve into a separate bowl. As you strain, make sure to press the juice out of the berries to collect the most syrup. Then pour the strawberry syrup into the large pitcher and stir to combine the tea. Pour this delicious tea over a glass of ice, serve, and enjoy.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

• Adding baking soda helps reduce any bitter flavor the tea may have.
• This Strawberry Sweet Tea is pretty sweet, but you can reduce the sugar by half if you prefer.
• This tea has a sweet strawberry flavor, more like strawberry ice cream than a fresh strawberry.
• For a fruitier flavor, you can add lemon juice and some zest.

HOW LONG DOES STRAWBERRY SWEET TEA LAST?

You can store this sweet and delicious tea covered in a pitcher in the fridge for up to a week. I recommend giving it a stir before pouring a new glass after it’s sat and settled for a while just to reincorporate the sugars.

HOW CAN I KEEP TEA CHILLED WHILE SERVING?

Putting ice directly into the pitcher of tea may lead to watered-down tea and no one wants that! Try freezing whole strawberries and floating them in the pitcher to keep the tea chilled for longer. If you do decide to add ice, remember that larger ice cubes result in a slower dilution. Also, adding more ice tends to dilute the pitcher slower than adding less ice.

OTHER SUMMER SIPS

• Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade
• Homemade Sweet and Sour Mix
• Plum and Peach Margaritas
• Tropical Moscato Sangria
• Strawberry Peach Frose
• Meg’s Hot Pink Summer