Southern Sweet Tea

[shipperx]

Ah, 'sweet tea' is dear to a Southerner's heart (yes, there is a difference.  If you've iced  or cooled the tea before sweetening it, give up now.  You're never going to have the iced tea taste like it's supposed to taste.  And Twinings teas, British teas, etc.  won't work for Southern Iced Tea.  They're great for hot tea, but iced?  Not so much.  My sister and I tried when she lived in London.   Don't bother.  It really does require Red Diamond, Luzianne, or Lipton.  Straight Orange Pekoe will have you in the ballpark, though).

Anyway, I laughed when reading the article (and still more when reading the comments).  My family has lived in the South just short of forever, and I've never seen anyone make sweet tea this way (though, I wonder, is this why Milo's tea doesn't become progressively sweet with storage? )  It amused me that most of the comments agree that this a 'Yankee' making sweet tea.  (I'll even argue with the "store overnight."  Oh, shudder.  It gets sweeter with storage and by the time it's been around over 24 hours it's vile and disgusting.  Old tea is awful.   In my little world, good sweet tea is hot, strong, just fresh from brewing, and served over ice.   I want to hear those ice cubes crack and break as the liquid is poured.  Any other way, and you're bastardizing it (and don't even speak to me about cooling it then sweetening.  That's, quite simply, a crime.  Ineffective as well.  Bleurgh.)  It's tactile and auditory in addition to sweet and strong.  There should be strong tea with melting cubes that are diluting the heat, the strength, and the sweet.  The time when it is 'just right' is brief and to be savored.

At any rate, the contention over exactly how it should me made (and what actually constitutes 'sweet') amused me.

Comments

[appomattoxco.livejournal.com]

I love my adopted home dearly, but I can't manage to drink sweet tea. It may have more to do with being raised by a diabetic than being raised a Yankee though. We were alowed sweet stuff but only as treats. Until I was 14 we almost never had anything to drink or eat with cane sugar added to it. I drink my tea hot or cold without any sweetener of any kind. Unless Ihave a cold then it's hot with honey.

But I agree if you add sugar it has to be while it's hot or all you get is unsweet tea with sugar on the bottom. When my sister goes out to eat she will ask for half sweet tea and half unsweet for this reason.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I tend to find the more common problem (because the degree of sweet is always debated) is that so many places simply don't make the tea strong enough. It's at least as, if not more important that the tea be strong and dark.

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

This is why God has invented Spenda and Equal. You can have sweet tea and be diabetic and southern at the same time.

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

Oops meant Splenda.

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

There are three things a Yankee must always remember when talking to a Southerner:

1. If the Southerner tells you they used their mother's receipe to make the biscuits, tell them how tender they are. If the biscuits are like shoe leather, still tell them how tender they are. If it's Meemaw's receipe, better throw in flaky as well.

2. Never admit you can't tell the difference between KFC fried chicken and their secret family receipe fried chicken.

3. When offered sweet tea, never, never say: I prefer water, that tea is so sweet is sets my teeth on edge.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

With the understanding that my family lived in the South even before Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee were states:

1) My Granny did make great biscuits.

2) For reasons unknown, we've never given a damn about fried chicken. I remember Granny making it once or twice, but never, ever my mother. On the other hand, we were both somewhat offended and perplexed last week when watching Food Network's Next Food Network Star and a contestant professed a loathing of lima beans and calling them 'chalky'. First, dude, they're called butter beans in many parts, and that's for a reason. If they're chalky, you're making them wrong. They're called 'butter beans' because they should have mild and buttery texture (there is no butter involved). And, finally, my Grandaddy's garden grown butter beans (and he had a big sheller in the yard) and Granny's home cut cream corn were what I would term ambrosia. :)

3. Indeed tea can become too sweet. On the other hand, there's nothing worse on the planet than my childhood friend Mary Leslie Whatley's mother's insipid, tasteless, brown water tea. When that was offered up, we all ran the other way!

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Appendix: If you're a Yankee of Italian descent, go light on the biscuit gravy. Your lactose intolerance will thank you :D

(even though it's wonderful)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Lactose intolerance?! Feh. Smite the intolerance and embrace the masochism (required for Key Lime pie, anyway).

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh that's a no no for me. Consumption requires 3 hours of lying on floor with ouchies :(

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

You clearly have better restraint than I do. There are certain things I eat with the sure foreknowledge that I will be sick afterward (Key lime pie, Coconut pie, Backyard Burgers, and creamy substances on hot days)

[molliemole.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Tennessee and Florida my whole life, and I've never seen tea made like this. Syrup? No. Just... no.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I know! I read the simple syrup thing, blinked, and went - wha-huh?!

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

As a Northern born and bred person I often get asked "Sweet" or "Unsweetened" when ordering iced tea around here. I'm not exacly sure what "sweet" constitutes in this part of the world because I drink mine unsweetened but I suspect a Southerner would think it wasn't sweet enough.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

See, I'm a Southerner through and through. I cannot imagine the purpose of unsweetened iced tea. I'll drink hot tea unsweetened, but not iced. It's just dirty water then. >:) And god forbid anyone go with so futile a task as to try to sweeten unsweetened tea. As someone else above stated, then you only end up with tea with a coat of sugar on the bottom of the glass. Yech.

[msclawdia.livejournal.com]

Artificial sweetener tends to dissolve cold just fine, but with sugar? Indeed, that's not happening.

Few things taste as bad as weak tea.

[xionin.livejournal.com]

oh, i beg to differ. PG Tips, Typhoo and Barry's all make for some *excellent Sweet Tea. Twinings, not so much. then again, i've never been a fan of what i call 'tea for tourists' heh.

ever put a few drops of vanilla or rum extract in your Sweet Tea? omg, heaven. my mom's from georgia and i grew up on ST. there's nothing like it!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I just remember my sis's and my dismay when trying to make tea in London. All my life I had grown up with those dorky Luzianne commercials claiming that it never made cloudy tea. I never remembered any tea being cloudy.

Then we made tea with Twinings. Suddenly, I understood what Luzianne meant. :)

Hadn't tried rum or vanilla. Sounds promising.

Well, we could always ask the best way to make 'slaw

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

and watch as everyone's head explodes.

I do love it when this sort of thing happens, it makes me laugh like a hyena.

Re: Well, we could always ask the best way to make 'slaw

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

With wars over mayo vs. vineagar?

My recipe:

Go to store. Buy "John's Greek Slaw Dressing". Pour on cabbage. Delicious.

Re: Well, we could always ask the best way to make 'slaw

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

Really? Hmm. I may have to peruse the salad dressing isle. Of course, you do know that REAL slaw is made with Mayo and sugar, right? And no green pepper. That is such a wisconsin thing. blech.

I wanna hushpuppy really bad.

Re: Well, we could always ask the best way to make 'slaw

[hazel75.livejournal.com]

Hee! In my Mississippi family, coleslaw is cabbage, mayonnaise, salt and cayenne pepper. Nothing else -- no liquid, no sugar and no carrots...there's nothing worse to us than sweet coleslaw.

Heresy! Heresy I say

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

Although I don't know it I spelled it right.. No sugar? No liquid?

Monstrous. Although I like the cayenne. How fine do you chop your cabbage?

Re: Heresy! Heresy I say

[hazel75.livejournal.com]

Kind of a rough chop, I guess -- by hand. Not chopped fine like in restaurants at all.

I grew up hating KFC and Chick Fila's coleslaws because they were so sweet, soggy and finely chopped.

The cayenne's great, and it gets spicier as time passes. I think it's better than black pepper for coleslaw -- less flavor and more subtle heat.

Re: Heresy! Heresy I say

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

This is the one I was telling kate about:

http://www.johnsfamous.com/


It's the only slaw I've ever been more than 'meh' about. Though I tend to side more with vineagar based slaw than mayo based.

Really? Hmm. I like it...

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

You really don't want the pepper to hit you over the head, rather, that subtle heat- that sounds excellent.

Re: Well, we could always ask the best way to make 'slaw

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain that the John's Greek Slaw thing is local.

http://almarketplace.com/shop.asp?action=cat&catID=4192

I'm not sure how widely available it is. Even the dressing linked isn't the slaw dressing... it's red (and the only red slaw dressing I know. But it's GOOD.)

Well, then.. I may have to check it out..

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

In the interest of science and experimenation and all that...

Re: Well, then.. I may have to check it out..

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

This is it:

http://www.johnsfamous.com/

Thanks!

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have to check it out.

I love the internet!

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I agree that plain sweet tea is icky overnight. But when I make raspberry or peach tea, the fruit flavor seems to intensify, and it's YUMMY :D

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I like Snapple. Dt. peach tea...

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I love *making* the raspberry tea as much as drinking it - it scents the whole house!

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Apparently, tea is just like real estate - it's all down to "location, location, location." I'm a southWESTerner, and out here, unsweetened sun tea is what most places make (and those who let our sun boil it for hours on end usually have just bitter, dirty water, but that's beside the point - at this time of year, one's sun tea can often be finished in about ten minutes). Since I use Sweet & Low, it does dissolve rapidly in pre-iced tea, unlike sugar; if I want to make sweet tea, with sugar, I put in the sugar while it's hot.

I grew up with Mom's jar of sun tea out on the cool deck, ready to come in just as we got home from school (or Gramma's sweetened instant NesTea... and the less said about that, the better... *g*).

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, NesTea can be kind of nasty.

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

We'll have to agree to disagree, I suppose. I think Twinings makes great sweet tea- you just have to start with "English Breakfast" not "Earl Grey." I got spoiled for Twinings and now Lipton tastes nasty to me.

And I still make my biscuits the way mamau's stepmother made 'em, my tea with too much sugar, my chicken (and pretty much everything else) in a cast iron skillet so old I don't know which ancestor it came from.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Alton Brown once devoted an episode to the cast iron skillet!

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'm more than a little bit in love with my skillet collection. I inherited them from Mamau's side of the family, Papau's side of the family, and even one from Joe's greatgrandmother. Consequently, I have skillets from "one egg" sized, up to "Fry the whole damn chicken at once" to choose from. I use them for everything: Frying, baking, saute'... The only downside is how bleeding heavy they are, all stacked up.

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

We have my grandmother's, are any of yours flat ?

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

The woman who wrote that article was on crack.
My mother's family has lived in VA and NC since at least the 1800's. My father's became southern in the 50's, it's something to see when your Bubbie cooks fried chicken.
Though I still hate grits. Don't forget trying to can butterbeans, and collards. My grandfather considers soybeans to be something you give pigs.
What state are you from ?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Bet if you made Frank Stitt's recipe for gourmet baked grits you'd like them (because they are, quite simply, stupendous)

And butter beans. Yum! I adore butter beans. Edamame are simply knock-off, not-as-good-as butter beans as far as I'm concerned.

As for collards, the only way I've ever liked them is a recipe from Frank Stitt's book where he stuffs them in roast lamb. They are quite delicious.