I’m a southern man born and raised, and I run on sweet tea. Lately I’ve been experimenting with lowering the amount of sugar (or splenda) I make it with. What I’ve found is that I like the reduced sweetness, but tea bags are so low quality and bitter that I need the sugar to cover it up. Cold brewing and adding a pinch of baking soda help a lot, but I still want more. I think a higher quality tea is going to get me the flavor I’m looking for. So, any suggestions on any part of the process are welcome! What teas to try, brewing methods, etc. Less caffeine is better, I have a lot of heart failure in my family history so I try to minimize caffeine intake.
Have you tried making sun tea? It generally is not bitter or cloudy but it takes a bit of time. As for the sweet - get some bottles of Torani simple syrup and pump to flavor as you make a glass.
I’ve seen some reports that sun tea spends too long at unsafe food temps. That’s why I cold brew in the fridge instead. I had not considered using a premade, flavored simple syrup instead of doing it myself. I’ll definitely look into that.
This is a top tier comment. I am a tea enthusiast and as I explained recently; sun tea never gets close to boiling (under most circumstances). It’s difficult for it to become bitter without external forces. I can make a batch of sweet sun tea for the boyfriend and it’ll be gone in no time.