I just came back on Sat. from a 3 week business trip to South Carolina, where I was introduced to sweet tea.
The first day I arrived, my co-worker, who'd been there 3 weeks already, suggested I buy some groceries to keep in the tiny kitchen in my room. So the 2 of us took off to the nearest grocery store, where I thought I'd pick up a container of instant iced tea. Imagine my surprise when I didn't find any!
I then found out why: people in the South prepare iced tea a certain way. Heat about 3 cups of water, with one cup of sugar added to it. Once the sugar is dissolved and it's about to boil, add 8-10 tea bags, turn off the heat and let it brew for 20 to 30 min.
Discard the bags, add another 3 cups of cold water. Fill glasses with lots and lots of ice. Pour the lukewarm sweet tea over ice. No lemon, no mint. Just tea, water and sugar. Chug!!
So that's why there was no powdered instant tea. Southerners wouldn't stoop so low! And now, after 3 weeks of being served sweet tea at every dinner, I'm addicted to sweet tea.
Err, that sounds far too sweet for me!! A cup of sugar for what is basically six cups (sans ice) of tea? Even though it sounds quite strong, I am guessing for the ice factoring in, I think it sounds like drinking Koolaid. At most I would be putting in no more than six tablespoons of sugar, probably far less, and I have to have my lemon!! With the rind, that is what makes it!!
I read somewhere once that adding sugar to the hot boiling water and then trying to extract the tea cuts down on the infusion - it is better to infuse the tea first and THEN add any sweetening. In any case, that is how I make it, and I am sticking to it. Sweet tea for me is no different than drinking those horrible bottled or canned "iced teas" here in the States - yuck! You might as well have a soda. When I am out, however, and have to have my tea fix, I have found a great answer - fill up your cup with some ice, and then fill it 3/4 of the way with plain unsweetened iced tea and top it off with the lemonade. Perfect amount of just barely sweet with the lemony taste, for those times one is stuck at a movie theater or fast food drink station.
As far as milk or cream in my hot tea, GAG!! Seriously, I could never drink it that way, and I really hate chai drinks to boot. While certain strong hot brewed teas may seem bitter, I do not find them overly so when I add just a drizzle of honey to it with my beloved lemon slice, it is not sweet at all, but it does remarkably well in cutting the bitterness. In any case, the strongest and thus most bitter teas seem to be the Indian styled ones, I never find the Chinese or Japanese ones that way at all.