Tea Time!

When Mother knew we would be home for a visit, she would start brewing jars and jars of tea. She had developed a method that seemed unbeatable, and pretty much unreproducible to us all. Finally, one visit Evan asked her for her recipe. She laughed and said there was none, but then went on to explain her, by now, deeply ingrained procedure.
Using two 6 cup Corningware teapots she would bring water to a strong boil. Turning off the heat, she immediately added the equivalent of five tea bags to each pot, putting the lids back on the pots and setting the timer for fifteen minutes. After the time had elapsed, she would pour the brew into sparkling clean glass quart jars, each of which had a scant third cup of sugar in the bottom. If poured while still hot, the tea would easily melt the sugar. She would pour tea not quite to the top, and then finish out each jar with cold water. The tea was allowed to cool to room temperature before the lid was placed on and the jars set into the refrigerator to finish cooling.