An automatically controllable commercial system for brewing a consistently high quality cold brewed beverage from a supply of purified water, optionally sweetening the brewed beverage, and dispensing the cold brewed beverage is provided. The system of the present invention includes automatically controllable integrated components for purifying the water supplied to brew the beverage and for maintaining the system in a sanitary condition that can be serviced on site or from a remote location. The present invention further provides an automated, commercial scale method for brewing tea from real tea leaves and naturally sweetening the tea to produce cold sweet tea with the high quality taste of homemade sweet tea.