A friend of mine always has sweet iced tea when we go visit, but I haven't asked her yet how she makes it.

Do you pour boiling water into a large container and then add sugar till it dissolves, then add the tea bags?

Do you put it all into the container together?

Does the container have to be glass or metal?

How much sugar do you add? Ever add Splenda instead of sugar?

What other ingredients do you add?

I have a great recipe from my Mom.
I use a glass jar full of water, a half gallon size, put several teabags in it, then put it outside in the sun for several hours.
When done I add a can of frozen lemonade. No other sugar is needed. It's soooooo refreshing!!

I use my 12-cup drip coffee maker and put a family size tea bag where the coffee goes. While it's brewing I dump 3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar into a 2 quart pitcher. Pour the hot tea on the sugar to melt and add water or ice to completely fill the pitcher.

I'm trying to wean my kids off sweet tea, so I've been using less and less sugar. They haven't noticed. Tea is great with fresh lemon slices and mint. I prefer it unsweetened.

If you use glass and hot water poured over the tea bags, make sure you put a spoon in the glass pitcher. If not it will break. Something about the spoon. I usually put two large bags in my coffee filter basket, 1/8 cup sugar and then fill the container with water. Then I let it do it's thing. I then take a large pitcher filled with ice and pour the hot tea over the ice. I have gone through three iced tea makers in three years. I only like a little sweetness in our tea. Use more if you want. But the hot water brews and dissolves the sugar.

We put large tea bags (2 large tea bags) in our coffee pot (which is a Bunn) and pour the water into it. We place Splenda (I am a diabetic) into our pitcher which will hold the final sweet tea. My husband makes the tea by the way. We let the tea cool, pour that into the pitcher where the Splenda is, and place same amount of water into the same pitcher.

It works for us, but maybe not for everyone.

I cheat, I use the generic tea mix at Target. I like the raspberry, it comes in measured containers, makes a half gallon at a time. It is artificially sweetened so no calories at all. I pretty much drink it all the time. I'm a tea person, either hot or cold.

has anyone ever made it with stevia?

We use a plastic pitcher. Put water in the tea-kettle and wait for it to start boiling pour the water into the plastic pitcher. For small tea bags tie them all together than cut the paper off the top.
For a big teabag just put it in. Let it sit for a while. When it's ready, put 1 cup of sugar in. Put ice in your cup, pour it in and its deilicious! :D

The plastic pitcher we use is 2 quarts.

I do because I am trying to keep my kids from having too much sugar in their diet and Stevia is all natural. I don't like that even Splenda requires a chemical process to make. I also know that stevia comes in different flavors, so I can add some flavored stevia and get great tasting tea.

(I also just started an HCG diet, so I cannot have any sweetners except stevia in my tea, so I am glad I have a few bottles of stevia on hand in the fridge.)

Some great things to try here. Talking about stevia reminds me that I got some agave necter a while ago. I wonder if that will work just as well.