6 black tea bags
2/3 cup raw sugar
water
ice
The ingredients sound simple, but believe me, it's all in the technique if you want perfect sweet tea.
Put the raw sugar into a small sauce pan. Add enough water to fill the pan about half way. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring once or twice to dissolve the sugar. While the sugar and water are coming to a boil, tie the strings of the tea bags together so they'll be easier to remove later. Once the sugar water is boiling, throw in the tea bags, and give them a stir, just to get them all wet.
Remove the pan from the heat and cover with a tight fitting lid. Let this steep for about an hour. If you're in a hurry, you only need to let it steep for about ten minutes, but if you leave it alone longer, it tastes a lot better, trust me. After an hour has gone by, fill a 2-quart pitcher half full with ice. Pour the tea syrup into the pitcher. Fill the rest of the pitcher with COLD water. Remove the tea bags, squeeze them a bit. Give the whole pitcher a stir.
Serve in a tall glass over ice with a big fat wedge of lemon, if you like.
This should really only be kept for about 24 hours, otherwise it starts to taste nasty.