Nostalgia on ice: Cold, sugary tea is a sweet Southern tradition

wilmington star ^ | 13 June 2007 | Lisa Singhania

[stainlessbanner]

More than 140 years after the Civil War ended, a Mason-Dixon line of sorts still persists when it comes to iced tea.

Order an iced tea at a restaurant in the Deep South or Texas, and the frosty beverage set before you likely will be a world away from what you’d be served in New York or Chicago.

Sweet tea, as Southerners call their iced tea, is named for its two key ingredients – tea and lots of sugar. There’s no such thing as an unsweetened sweet tea. And unlike its summer-loving Northern counterpart, sweet tea is consumed year-round.

“About 85 percent of tea consumed in the U.S. is iced. And no one in the world except for us drinks sweet tea, and no one in the U.S. sweetens their tea as much as they do in Southeast,” says Peter Goggi, president of Lipton’s Royal Estates Tea Co.

Sweet tea is something people either love or hate. And often that relationship is determined by geography.

“It’s just very, very sweet. Most people who try it in the North don’t like it,” says Linda Stradley, food historian and founder of food history Web site www.whatscookingamerica.net. “The first time I tried it, I didn’t like it. But then I got addicted to it.”

Why the emphasis on sweet in the South? Stradley speculates sweet tea may have started as a sugar-and-tea punch.

Another theory is that sweet tea may have just been a cheap and convenient stand-in for wine and other alcoholic beverages, which historically were less available and frowned upon in the South.

“Sweet tea has always been a substitute beverage for what wine was doing in other regions,” says Scott Jones, executive food editor at Southern Living magazine.

“The tannins from the tea cleanse your palate, there’s sweetness from the sugar and then the acidity from the lemon,” he says. “It goes well with a lot of food.”

Nonetheless, there is nothing delicate or ethereal about sweet tea.

In addition to the loads of sugar, sweet tea is characterized by an extremely strong tea taste. Sweet tea usually is brewed hot, with tea bags squeezed to get every last bit of flavor.

Sugar then is mixed in while the tea is hot to maximize the amount that dissolves. Water then is added to dilute some of the potency and increase the volume, then the tea is refrigerated to chill.

“Everything they tell you not to do with tea today is pretty much how sweet tea is made,” says Jones, referring to the lower water temperature and more nuanced approach most hot tea drinkers use. “My mom would boil the tea bags in the water, and then squeeze the living daylights out of them.”

It turns out, though, that sweet tea’s role in Southern cuisine is evolving. Twenty years ago, it was hard to walk into a restaurant in the Southeast and find anything but sweet tea.

But increased health consciousness as well as the growth of chain restaurants that cater to a national audience means unsweetened tea is becoming increasingly popular.

“A lot of these old-school men and women who were weaned on sweet tea you now see them drinking unsweetened iced tea with a lot of pink and blue packets,” Jones says. “There’s been an explosion of diabetes in the South, and the doctors are saying you have to cut the sweet tea out.”

But, it’s hard to undo generations of loyal drinkers. Sweet tea tends to be more about memories than health trends or precise recipes. No one, it seems, can quite make sweet tea as well as your mom or grandmother did.

“I make it how my mother made it, with regular tea bags, sugar and boiling water. There’s no new-age tea making kit or anything like that,” says Whitney Sloane Sauls, 27, of Ocean Isle Beach. “It’s just so refreshing and it brings back good memories of childhood and of growing up.”

Sweet tea recipes
While many iced teas are made by steeping tea leaves in cool or sun-warmed water, the authentic sweet teas of the South are made by brewing black tea in boiling water. The recipe for blackberry iced tea uses pinch of baking soda to preserve the vibrant colors of the berries in the tea.

Southern sweet tea
Makes 1 gallon

12 bags black tea

6 cups boiling water, plus additional cold water

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar

Ice

Lemon wedges or fresh mint sprigs (optional)

Place the tea bags in a large heat-proof 1-gallon pitcher. Add the boiling water and steep for 5 minutes. Spoon out the tea bags and squeeze them into the tea, then discard the tea bags. Stir in 1 cup sugar. Add enough cold water to fill the pitcher. Taste and adjust with remaining sugar as desired.

To serve, pour into ice-filled glasses, then garnish with lemon wedges or fresh mint.

Recipe adapted from Southern Living magazine

Blackberry tea
3 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (if frozen, thaw before using), plus additional fresh as garnish

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint, plus additional sprigs as garnish

Pinch of baking soda

6 bags black tea

4 cups boiling water

2 1/2 cups cold water

Ice

In a large pitcher, combine the blackberries and sugar. Use a wooden spoon to crush the berries and mix them with the sugar. Add the chopped mint and baking soda. Set aside.

Place the tea in a large heat-proof measuring cup. Add the boiling water and steep for 3 minutes. Spoon out the tea bags and squeeze them into the tea, then discard the tea bags.

Pour the tea into the blackberry mixture. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Pour the tea through a mesh strainer and discard solids. Return the tea to the pitcher.

Add cold water and stir well to dissolve sugar. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

To serve, pour into glasses filled with ice. Garnish with fresh mint and fresh blackberries on short wooden skewers. Makes about 7 1/2 cups.

Recipe adapted from ‘Southern Living’ magazine.

[Resolute Conservative]

Well the guys wanted a Whataburger ( my staple food ) but I talked them into going for a real lunch. I had Chicken and Dumplins ( big fat dry in the middle dumplins ), green beans, steamed carrots, and rolls with about half a gallon of sweet tea...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yup. When ever I’m in Memphis, I head to Corky’s for the ribs.

[cbkaty]

Hot tea?

Surely all Gentlemen south of the Mason Dixon line will understand the penalties associated with such heresy...

Tea is served iced....in a sweatin glass, on the porch, while the kids are sit around the pecan tree stabbin a 10 pound slab of ice with a fine point ice pick (kids like ta play) to pack around the ice cream churn.

Then we get to watch em argue over who gonna turn the churn.... Kids...God luvem...

[luckystarmom]

I live in California now, and In-n-Out Burgers makes the best iced tea. The good thing about California is that they usually serve tea with fresh lemons. I love fresh lemons in my tea (and I squeeze the juice out). I can’t stand the fake stuff.

[Wallace T.]

The cuts of steak used for chicken fried steak are usually the less expensive, less desirable ones, such as chuck steak, round steak, and occasionally flank steak, cuts of meat usually relegated to hamburger or stew meat. The better cuts are seldom used for this dish. It probably originated in Texas, where German immigrants applied their weiner schnitzel recipes to the tougher cuts of steak. It spread from Texas into the South and Midwest, and is sometimes called country fried steak in those regions.

[Ol' Sox]

Loved your post. I came to enjoy sweet tea, even though I am a Connecticut Yankee. My Tennessee grandmother, transplanted to Cape Cod, brought it with her. My childhood summers at her house included bacon and butter sandwiches and a glass of that sweet tea at the crack of dawn;
- striding knee deep, gathering Pleasant Bay quahogs in seawater so cold it made your feet cramp up;
- evenings on her screened porch 50 yards from the beach;
- mornings where the fog was so thick, the only sensory input was the smell of beach roses;
- spearfishing enough flounder in a half hour to feed the whole family;
- Friday night band concerts at the town green, kids running through the summer night while parents sat on blankets forming a "home base";
- Art Gould's boats for rent - the crustiest old yankee SOB you ever came across, until you learned of his WWII exploits as skipper of a destroyer and gained some respect;
- rediscovering my fishing rod complete with last year's dried out sandworm still on the hook, sitting in the garden shed that was 120 degrees hot and smelled so strongly of rose dust that you thought you might be fumigated;
- the smell of the giant honeysuckle on the back fence;
- the light from Chatham lighthouse up the street racing across the outer bar and blinking in the upstairs bedroom.

I realize that much of my adult ambition stems from trying to recreate that time and place. My backyard smells of beach roses and honeysuckle, and occasionally, when my good wife allows, we all indulge in bacon and butter sandwiches (now named "Thelmas" in honor of my wonderful grandmother).

[MissouriConservative]

bump for later drooling.

[luckystarmom]

I think I’ve never had a weight problem because I drink unsweetened tea instead of Coke (or sodas).

[Juana la Loca]

don’t forget the fried okra, sweet potato cassrole, cheese grits, biscuits, and fried catfish.....YUM!

[beckysueb]

I don’t know but the other day something reminded me of childhood and the memory was so strong I could smell the sweet hay fresh from cutting. I mean, I could literally smell hay. It was wonderful!

[JoeSixPack1]

N. Georgia Sweet Tea

3 Luzianne large ice tea brew tea bags
1 cup sugar
1 gallon water

Remove tea from bags and place in 12 cup coffee maker and brew 12 cups. (Use paper filter)
In small cup mix sugar and at least 1 cup of Hot tea, stir till dissolved.
Pour tea, sugar mix & water into 1 gallon jug and refrigerate.

Take yesterdays sweet tea from refrigerator, pour into 24 ounce tumbler, add 6 cubes of ice, get cigar, get 22 long rifle.
Sit on back deck, load 22, sip tea, light cigar, wait for varmints.

[luckystarmom]

I was just asking my daughters if I had ever made them cheese grit. I haven’t. They’ve never had fried okra either.

Yesterday, they had chicken fried steak for the first time.

I’m in California, and I am definitely doing a poor job of passing on Texas favorite foods.

[RockinRight]

Unsweetened tea. Blech.

Sweet tea - yum.

[RockinRight]

Remind me not to come by for dinner then! ;-)

[RockinRight]

To each their own, but I don’t get it. Tea with no sugar is bitter and not tasty. If I don’t want sweet I just order water!

[uglybiker]

Time for lunch.

In the South, that would be dinner.

Breakfast, dinner and supper.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

What wonderful memories. What a wonderful place to “visit” from time to time. There’s a little “Tennessee” in all of us and a little “Connecticut,” too. The last vacation I took was to Williamsburg and then to Norfolk just so I could smell the sea again.

Couldn’t wait to order seafood that wasn’t frozen and shipped across the country. I remember riding bikes around Cape Cod on vacation with my folks. What a wonderful summer!!! I can still taste the “clams” I tried for the first time at the hands of the most handsome young man (I was seventeen). He told me to just close my eyes (yeah, at 17 I still was innocent to believe it) and I could get past the looks of the things. ;-) I order them whenever I can.

Thank you so much for sharing.

[beckysueb]

I'm back living in the North, although my family lives in the South. Whenever I'm down for a visit and they ask me if I want a soda

I am a southerner and its always been called a cold drink. I have only heard northerners call it a soda. Its always a cold drink or a coke. No matter what brand, its always called a coke.

[RockinRight]

Agreed that HFCS is not only bad for you, and doesn’t taste as good as sugar.

I prefer sweet tea with real sugar.

However, in restaurants that only sell unsweetened tea, I use Splenda, because it’s damn near impossible to dissolve sugar in ice cold tea.

I think the reason some places sell it presweetened is partially due to that - it’s difficult to get the sugar to dissolve once it’s cold.

[Abigail Adams]

I have a friend here (midwest) who married a guy from NC. At their rehearsal dinner, they had these plastic jugs with some dark brown liquid in them. The jugs were marked “sweetened” and “unsweetened”. We had no idea what the stuff was. Needless to say they had a lot of it left over.