First off, can I tell you I have been reading all your emails and I hear ya loud and clear, these Mason jar drink dispensers are the cats meow! It makes me smile to hear how many of you are fellow Mason Jar lovers 🙂 I am so glad that you enjoy their awesomeness as much as I do!
Now I am trying my hardest to find the store that I bought them at but it’s taking a little bit of time and the harnessing of my super sleuthing powers. What happened is that for the last half of the summer my laptop has been giving me that annoying ‘your disc is full’ pop-up window every time I tried to download pictures. So in a space saving effort, I started going through all my trash bins and deleting things to open up hard drive space. Then I moved onto my email accounts and started deleting all mail I thought I didn’t need anymore too, purchase order and shipping notices included. Which brings me to the Mason jar situation at present. I am trying to figure how the heck I found them online since I can’t remember the store’s name…it was a really random store that I had never heard of before. As many of you know googling ‘Mason Jar Drink Dispenser’ gets you no where, blerg 🙁 So knock on wood, throw some salt behind your back and cross your fingers for me that I can find that store or jog my memory enough to remember how I found them.
**Edit!! Wahoo, one of you wonderful readers found the jars!! Thank you so much Mary!! You can find them here, they call them Lemonade Jugs, doh! No wonder they were so hard to track down. Now go and buy them up before they disappear, they are 125th anniversary limited editions!!
Here is my Sweet Tea recipe I promised to share with you. Remember, I made it at Penelope’s party seen here. It is so smooth and lovely and really just one of the best sweet tea’s I’ve ever had 🙂 Yum!
Enjoy it with the last bits of your summer. If you can believe it, it’s already starting to get pretty cool here at night…Fall is on it’s way!
Sweet Tea
Recipe Type: Beverages
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
- 2 cold brew iced tea bags per quart of cold water
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Brew 2 cold-brew iced tea bags/quart of water for 3 minutes, just like the package directions read.
- To make simple syrup, combine remaining one cup water and sugar together in a small saucepan.
- Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
- Let cool slightly and add in 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, stir.
- Add the simple syrup to the iced tea to taste.
This is the cold brew iced tea that I use…love it! You could make your iced tea with any flavor regular tea bags and hot water but this method is just soooo darn easy. You brew your tea in cold water, awesomesauce! No need to boil a gallon or more of water if you are entertaining a lot of people, total time saver!
One of the things I learned when I lived in Virginia many years ago was the secret to making super smooth sweet tea. All you need is a baking soda!! Whaat? Baking soda? Yeah, for reals! It totally helps to cut the bitterness, it makes all the difference and your sweet tea doesn’t get that yucky bitter taste after sitting our for a bit.
Now to make a non-gritty sweet tea you need to make a simple syrup this way the sugar is perfectly dissolved. Simple syrup is 1 part sugar to 1 part water. Easy. In a small saucepan, pour in 1 cup of water…
Then add in 1 cup of sugar and mix well. Bring to a boil while stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Ahh, just take a look at that lovely simple syrup….yum!
Now depending on how many gallons of iced tea you made you will want to add in your simple syrup to taste. I usually use one cup per gallon…I like it nice and sweet!
Now you’ve got yourself some ice cold sweet tea to enjoy on a hot day!
So grab a glass (or a mason jar, who are we kidding) and fill it up with ice….
Pour your sweet tea over and enjoy!
And if it’s decaf you can give the kids a sip…if you are feel like sharing that is! 🙂
Happy Friday!
XOXO,
i love the mason jar drink dispensers! i haven’t been able to find some like yours, but i did find these on amazon the other day: http://www.amazon.com/Napa-Style-Classic-Drink-Dispenser/dp/B00558V1NM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1314969990&sr=8-4 they are also pretty stinkin’ cute, but i like yours better!
thanks for the sweet tea recipe…baking soda, who knew!?!
baking soda? Really? I make tea every single day, I will have to try this recipe, thanks for sharing.
OOHHHH!! I’m a sweet tea lover, gotta try this with the baking soda! Love the mason jars, my kinda tea!
Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
I think I found your jar… http://ruralroot-store.stores.yahoo.net/bonegacojarw.html
Here is what I found when searching for the drink dispenser. This is the closest Mason one I could find so far. I like the one you bought WAY better though.
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/mason-jar-drink-dispenser/?pkey=cpitchers-decanters
I didn’t see Mary’s post before I posted mine. Here is another site I found for the Ball Mason jar 1-gallon but without the spout…it is just the jar and it is pretty cheap if someone just wants the look of the jar- http://www.freshpreservingstore.com/detail/TCL+1440070016
I will have to try this recipe for sweet tea. I’ve been craving some and love that you used decaf. That’s all we drink around here! I LOVE the jars. Just passed the info on to my hubby for a gift idea! I almost bought the regular jar at Super Target yesterday but put it back. Now he can get both! Thanks for sharing!
Geesh, I went to order this wonderful Anniversary Lemonade Jug and the shipping alone was $25.00. Wish they had a Canadian Mercantile. No Jug for this Canuck!
Thanks for posting this. I recently moved to the South from Indiana and had never made real sweet tea before and really didn’t know how. Looks quite simple. Thanks for sharing!
yipppeee!!! thanks again maggie – going shopping right this second and adding that baby to my cart!!
Maybe I missed it in the tute, but how much baking soda are we supposed to use for a gallon of tea? I’m in the south and never heard of that but DO HATE the bitter after taste of tea.
Wow you make make some really strong and sweet tea. When I use the cold brew I use one bag for each quart so thats 4 bags for the gallon and 1 cup of sugar for the gallon. I couldnt imagine it being any sweeter and trust me I love sweet tea. I am from the south woot wot.
I will have to test out the baking soda part. I have made sweet tea for years the way my Mama taught me. I just always boil my water and them steep my 2 teabags for at least 10 minutes. Then I put in my 1 1/2 cups of sugar to a gallon and stir. I use Louisianna tea bags though.
april, i do mine the same way, and i’ve done it for 40 years, and my mama before me. My secret is adding the sugar while the tea concentrate is still hot, stir it til completely dissolved, then put it in a gallon pitcher and add water to fill.
I use Luzianne tea. No need for the baking soda. Lipton and Nestea can’t compare to the taste of Luzianne. S&D has good tea, too.
How much baking soda do you use for a gallon or 2-qts of tea? Thanks
I guess it goes “different strokes for different folks” I have used a gallon container filled with filtered water with 3 luzianne family size tea bags and “nuke” it for about 7 min, lthen let it steep. Remove tea bags, Then add 1 cup to 1 1/2 cup sugar while it is still hot so sugar will desolve really well and then fill it up with filtered water cause we got really bad tasting water here in the middle of west Texas. When I run out of lusianne tea bags and I have the LARGE Lipton bags I use one of those or 3 of the family size and I still have great tea. It just has to have really good water and keep it cold after you make it,
I have seen the Ball brand mason jar drink dispenser at Target too. I was wondering though…how much baking soda do you use?? I am not sure if I just missed it somewhere, but I didn’t see if you told that or not. Thanks so much! I get tired of throwing tea out because it gets that “day-old” taste. Thanks for the tip!
I flavor my syrup with a cinnamon stick! I add a broken up cinnamon stick to 1-1/2 c of water. I bring the water and cinnamon stick just to the point of boiling and then simmer on lowest setting, covered, for about 10-15 min (this will reduce the water TO about 1 c) then I add 1 c of sugar stir to dissolve and cover while cooling slowly. This helps the sugar to dissolve. Then I strain the syrup and pour it into a nice glass bottle which I keep, covered, in the fridge. When I serve (unsweetened) tea I serve the pretty bottle of syrup with long handled tea spoons, so each person can sweeten their tea according to their own personal taste. Everyone loves it!