I could not live without my southern sweet iced tea.
Here's how my mom, grandmother, and now I make it with a little revision from the old standard depending on the tea I use. Tetley works the best for me because I can submerse the bags in boiling water. Luzianne and Lipton have changed the bags so they burst in boiling water.......grr! I put the tea bags in cold water and bring to a boil, then remove it from the burner and let it steep for 10 minutes. Then I put the sugar (in my home 1 1/2 cups to one gallon) in the pitcher and pour the water from the tea bags into the pitcher. Then stir the sugar to mix well. I add cold water to the pot with the tea bags and then pour it into the pitcher, stirring each time until the pitcher is full. Pour over ice, garnish with a wedge of lemon and enjoy!
A simpler method that I use with Luzianne or Lipton is to put the bags in my coffee maker where the coffee would go and make a pot of tea, then pour into the pitcher and make as above. With this method, I do not pour the cold water in the pot with the tea bags.
HTH!