Posted on 06/15/2007 9:47:49 AM PDT by 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.
You're kidding? Dr (Ph.D not MD) Clark is an out and out fraud.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/clark.html
One of her wacky claims:
All cancers are alike. They are all caused by a parasite. A single parasite! It is the human intestinal fluke. And if you kill this parasite, the cancer stops immediately. The tissue becomes normal again. In order to get cancer, you must have this parasite. . . .
This parasite typically lives in the intestine where it might do little harm, causing only colitis, Crohn's disease or irritable bowel syndrome, or perhaps nothing at all. But if it invades a different organ, like the uterus, kidneys or liver, it does a great deal of harm. If it establishes itself in the liver, it causes cancer! It only establishes itself in the liver of some people. These people have propyl alcohol in their body. All cancer patients (100%) have both propyl alcohol and the intestinal fluke in their livers. The solvent propyl alcohol is responsible for letting the fluke establish itself in the liver. In order to get cancer, you must have both the parasite and propyl alcohol in your body [5:1-2].
I hope you don't own a syncrometer or one of her zappers.
Oh my bad...
I am going to lunch and pack on about 3-4 pounds...
I believe that's "okra".
BTW, where's the chicken fried steak with white pepper gravy?
Sugar goes in first, then the tea bags; boiling water is last. And it sounds a little weak if the bags just stay in for 5 minutes. It also helps if you use about 3 one quart teabags to make a half gallon of tea.
You are correct, this article notwithstanding.
Sweet tea is from East of the Sabine. It did spill over into East Texas, but it is less common in Central Texas, and almost always is an option, unlike the deep south where if you ask for unsweetened tea they'll give you the dog-heard-a high-pitched-sound look.
I’m inclined to agree. I was raised in the Texas panhandle and called Dallas home for years. Tea at restuarants was always served sugarless, and waiters never asked if you wanted sweet tea.
Here in Florida, they do, and it’s too sweet for me. I order unsweetened, then sweeten it.
As to lemon slices, I stopped for lunch at a Coco’s restuarant in Green River, California and had iced tea with my meal. I squeezed (squoze?) my lemon slice into the tea and drank.
The waiter saw me and said he’d never seen anyone squeeze the juice out of the lemon wedge before. I asked how he got the flavor into the tea otherwise. He said he just put in lots of wedges. LOL
**Freeper Kitchen Ping**
I was born and raised in West Texas and for much of my life we drank unsweetened tea. But when I was contracting in Central MS a few years ago I ordered unsweet tea...only to find that what they meant was “not as sweet” tea. hahahahaha. Drinking sweet tea in MS reminds me of Sunday dinner (lunch) at my grandmother’s house....man o man that was good.
That's your problem. Try making your sweet tea with Luzianne.
I’ve always had to specify whether I wanted sweet or unsweetened, or they leave it unsweetened but have packets on the table, I’m in North Texas/DFW.
gravy on hushpuppies!
I've seen more places offering "sweet tea" that is really flavored tea (like rasberry).
Ordering tea can be tricky depending on where you are. Best to bring some home brew, when you can.
You forgot the roasted corn grits!!
Chocolate chess, please.
LOL Gravy improves everything.
Maybe I’ll try Darjeeling - sounds fancy. I’ve always used Luzianne
Back in the 1970’s, while living in Chapel Hill, NC, we used to debate the exact location of the “sweet tea line,” above which the default in a restaurant was unsweetened tea and below which it was sweet tea. I recall we finally decided that the line was approximately coincident with I-40/85 as it ran east-west between Winston-Salem and Durham.
you do not boil the water it makes the tea cloudy looking use the water just before it boils,and it tastes much better.
I think his point is that Southerners don’t like sweet corn bread. My grandmother never used sugar in cornbread, my mother used a mix that was a little sweet. I will eat it almost anyway it is served. I LOVE cornbread. My husband is from TX and he likes it with real corn, cheese and peppers in it.
I do not eat sugar on grits though, heresy. lol
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