I’m a southern man born and raised, and I run on sweet tea. Lately I’ve been experimenting with lowering the amount of sugar (or splenda) I make it with. What I’ve found is that I like the reduced sweetness, but tea bags are so low quality and bitter that I need the sugar to cover it up. Cold brewing and adding a pinch of baking soda help a lot, but I still want more. I think a higher quality tea is going to get me the flavor I’m looking for. So, any suggestions on any part of the process are welcome! What teas to try, brewing methods, etc. Less caffeine is better, I have a lot of heart failure in my family history so I try to minimize caffeine intake.
To minimize bitterness with a fast brew as others have mentioned, try out CTC black tea, it’s machined (“crush-tear-curl”) tea that comes in a coarse powder/pellet form and extracts completely and quickly due to enormous surface area. You’ll be sure to find it some an Indian grocery store. Brooke Bond Red Label, Lipton Yellow Label, and Wagh Bakri are the names I remember seeing, IIRC I’ve tried all of those and they’re all about the same. Terrible sounding process name but give it a chance!