Sweet Tea

This is how I make sweet tea at the restaurant when I have all the time in the world to make a good batch:

1. Here is my giant urn. I fill up 70% of it with hot water.

2. I drop 3 industrial-sized tea bags in there.

3. Then I let it soak for at least 2-3 hours.

4. I fish the bags out with a ladle and inspect the color of the tea-water. If it's lighter than a golden brown, something went wrong.

5. I keep the tea bags in an empty pitcher in case I still need them and pour hot water into a new pitcher--not much, let's say 25%.

6. I scoop 3-4 cups of granulated sugar into the new pitcher and stir until all of the sugar has melted. The sugar-water should feel slightly gooey against the ladle.

7. I deposit the mixture into the giant urn and mix for several minutes.

8. At this point, the urn should be about 80% full. Now I fill the rest with cold water or ice until it reaches the rim.

9. Stir more.

10. Taste-testing time! My ideal sweet tea is sweet, but not too sweet, and you should be able to taste the tea itself as well. It drives me crazy when I order tea and get brown sugar-water instead.