It’s hard to believe that ten years ago I didn’t even like brewed tea. I’ve come a long way, and am glad that I broke down and acquired the taste for iced “leaf juice“.

Fast forward to last year. I bought a sun tea jar and some Lipton Specially Blended iced tea brew. I tried to make it my own with different ingredients and cooking times, but it was almost always a good idea to just follow the directions on the box.

Failures included adding lemon juice (or lime) during or after brewing, adding the sugar before brewing, how many tea bags to use per cups of water… etc. But I knew I had a winning recipe when it wouldn’t last the whole day! Nobody wanted to help me make the tea because it was so time consuming, but boy did they liked drinking every last drop.

I had enough. It was taking too long to brew this nectar of the gods. So on a dark and cloudy day, when sun-brewing was out of the question, I had an epiphany. Everyone gave me strange looks as I scampered about the kitchen, preparing for my eureka moment.

Now that you know the history, it’s time for the special trick recipe!

Ingredients & Tools:

• Coffee Maker – with enough room for 11 cups of water
• Three (3) Lipton family sized tea bags
• Two (2) cups of sugar
• Twenty (20) cups of water

Directions:

Put 10 cups of cold water into a (22+ cup) jar. Put 10½ cups water into your coffee brewer. (the extra half cup is lost to evaporation from the steam) Place the 3 tea bags into the brewing container, usually designed for coffee grinds & filter. Do not stack them, but rather arrange them to occupy the full scope of the base. Turn on your brewer and wait for the 10 cups of water to drip out.

Meanwhile, dissolve 2 cups of sugar into the 10 cups of cold water. I like my tea sweet, so cut back to 1½ cups of sugar if you wish.

When the tea finishes brewing turn off your coffee maker and slowly & carefully pour the extremely hot tea (160ºF) into the 10c of cold water. You can substitute ice if you wish, but make sure you got 22 cups of liquid when you’re done pouring the tea into the big jar.

This yields 22 cups of tea. (20c water + 2c sugar) Chill for 2 hours or serve it over ice, or combo, and enjoy!

I have been told by friends and family that it tastes just like “restaurant-X” and “fast-food-Y” tea, where they go out of their way to get their tea fix.

PS: This recipe cannot be doubled or halved properly. To double, just do it twice and use a large container that holds 44 cups at least.

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