Sweet Tea: The Elixir Of The South
Nothing, I mean nothing, is more Southern than sweet tea. We drink it at almost every meal (yes, iced tea for breakfast is quite good, actually), we make it daily, and we even put it in our baby’s bottles.
Dr. Phil once jokingly mentioned that Southerners started drinking sweet tea at age three, but Mama and I looked at each other in complete confusion as we knew perfectly well all of us had started on it by age one!
Go to any southerners home and the first question they ask after sitting down is “Ya wan’ some tea?” These days I make my sweet tea with Splenda, but it tastes just as good. Sweet Tea just makes the meal. Mama did these photos for me so you get to see more of her beautiful sun room. I’m also including the email she sent me where she put some writing ideas for the post!
Mama Says, “The drink that puts the drawl in our speech and the pep in our step. It has been known to be fed to our babies in their bottles as soon as they can have something other than formula. Do you remember when you came back from Gusty’s and was so surprised that they served milk at supper??? You had never seen anything other than tea served at suppertime. Just thought I would give you a few things to write about.”
She’s right. I was sixteen the first time I had dinner at a friend’s house and they served glasses of milk with their supper. I had never seen nor heard of such a thing in all of my life. To my sixteen year old self, they could have just as well had walked right out of a flying saucer and started playing the bagpipes and it wouldn’t have been any stranger than seeing milk on a dinner table!
There are two popular ways of brewing tea. The one Mama and I use the most right now (this may change when the wind changes direction) is the saucepot method. For a half gallon of tea, put five regular sized tea bags in a pot. Cover with water. You want about three inches of water in your pot.
I use Luzianne tea because I hate to take all the little envelopes off the tea bags. I even leave the tags on them when I brew the tea. It hasn’t killed me yet. I guess it adds fiber.”
In a pot, bring tea just to a boil and then remove from heat and turn off eye.
Your tea is now ready to be mixed.
The other thing you can do is place your 5 tea bags INSIDE your coffee pot and just run a cycle of water through the coffeemaker. Once the cycle goes through, your tea is done and ready to be mixed.
Be careful if you do this, though, to remember to remove the coffee grounds from your basket. Many times growing up Mama would have supper on the table looking all wonderful and we’d take a sip and discover we were having “Coffee-Tea”. Hehe, we always had fun with her when that happened!
No matter which method you choose, in a matter of minutes you will have brewed, concentrated tea.
Mama adds:We always drink the tea fresh. It can be kept in the refrigerator but southern people prefer their tea fresh. I always throw out the leftovers and start fresh the next day. I don’t personally like lemon in my tea. If I add anything, it is a slice of orange.”
Sweet Tea
5 tea bags
3/4 cup sugar
Makes 2 quarts
Place tea bags in sauce pot or coffee maker (down in the coffee pot). If using coffee pot, run a cycle of water through to make tea. If using a sauce pot, fill about three inches and bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.
Fill pitcher 1/4 of the way with cool water and add sugar. Stir. Add hot tea, stir. Add more water, if neccesary, to make two quarts. Serve over ice.
I am busy busy busy working on a great suprise at the end of the month so hang in there! I have lots of great things yet to post! For downloadable Southern Plate Goodies, go here. For information on the Southern Plate Cookbook, go here.
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Thank you for reading Southern Plate!! Have a GREAT Day!
~Christy
I just made a gallon of sweet tea. I also use Splenda and I truly can’t tell the difference.
I have lost 100 pounds in the past 2 years and sweet tea with Splenda has helped curb the sweet tooth.
Now if there were just a replacement for Chicken fried steak, mashed taters and gravy…
LOL Bill, I know EXACTLY what you mean!!!
And thank goodness for our SPLENDA!!! Diabetic, dieting, and hypoglycemic Southerners would die of misery without it!
Chicken fried steak and gravy fall under the “in moderation” category……so I think I’ll make a moderate amount tonight!
I’m a Midwestern gal, but we LOVE Sweet Tea in our house too! I always make sure and have some on hand for my Mother in Law
Big smiles here!
Luzianne (2 family bags)
put into sauce pot that I’ve had for 29 years…I mean the handle is gone it is so old!
3/4 cup Splenda…gotta watch that sugar ya know!
I drink it cold no ice straight from the fridge of a morning…everyone knows not to speak to me till I’ve had it too…LOL!
I have visited your site, but this is the first comment . . .
Thank you, I will have to try this, I have lived in the south since I was 10, but I really do not like my sweet tea . . .my mom never made it, being from colorado.
Maybe now I can make GOOD sweet tea!
Yes I am a southerner but not good a making tea.:) No one ever taught me. But I do remember having tea all the time.:) Love it.:) Thanks for this. I will have to try it.:)
Sharon:)
So true…it’s funny, I had the same “milk” experience when I was about 11 at a friends house. They’d just moved to our little southern town from CALIFORNIA!! Our world was so small then that they might as well have landed from Mars. They probably thought we were all nuts!
I found your blog one night when I was desperately searching for a good Chicken and Dumpling recipe. Sure enough…yours did the trick. I have made it many times since and am actually making it again tonight! I have your link on my blog. Thanks for sharing your recipes!
http://www.jexamae.blogspot.com
My family loves sweet tea! We have even converted one daughter-in-law from Michigan! We all grew up in Georgia, but now live in Oklahoma. The other day we were asking one son for some suggestions of a “new” place to eat out. He included in EVERY suggestion, “they have great sweet tea”, or “they don’t have sweet tea”… I laughed because that pretty much sums it up!
Gotta have that sweet tea!
Coffee has never been made in my coffee pot
OH YES,
There is ALWAYS a pitcher of sweet tea in the fridge here. I think if I ever accidentally cut myself, sweet tea would spurt out of my veins instead of blood. LOL. You always come up with winners Christy. We need to have a big ole picnic and just make recipes from here and all get together and have a ball.
Nico Lets hear it for the Midwestern gals! Sounds like you have some great hospitality at your house!!!
That Good Part I use family bags, too! I use four for a gallon and then a cup and a half of splenda, sounds like we have the exact same formula! There is something about just thinking about sweet tea that makes you smile!
Lmerie Hey! I bet your sweet tea is great! If you do try this, though, let me know if there is a difference and if you like it!
Sharon I think tea is one of the things we teach the least as southerners. Its not because we don’t want folks to know how to make it, I think it is just that it is as common as water around here and everyone just assumes we are born knowing how! I do hope this helps and I am so glad you find it useful!
Belle hehe! Don’t you miss the days when your world was that small and innocent? Nowadays we have to live in this world where we know such travesties as families sitting down to glasses of milk are happening every day! ‘makes ya worry fer yer kids!’ So fun that you had the same experience as me! You can understand that I was seriously stunned!
Life as I know it WOW! Thank you!! I am so glad you liked them and have a new favorite! Its hard coming up with new things for a family, I know! Thank you so much for letting me know how they turned out and for putting them on your blog, too!
Merrie That sounds like something my son would say, how funny!! At least you know where his priorities are!! It is very strange for us whenever we travel somewhere that doesn’t have sweet tea, or worse yet, doesn’t even have ICED tea!
Rachel Now THAT’S a true southerner!!!!!
Citycowboy You know, I actually thought about titling this What Southerners Bleed When They’re Cut or something of the like!
Thank you for your compliment, cowboy!! I try but I always worry a bit whenever I post something, thinking “what if they think this is silly” or “what if they don’t like this one?” or “what if this isn’t southern enough?” , lol! It helps to know you think I’m on target!!!
I DEFINITELY Want a big old picnic! Y’all just hang on, if I ever get rich we’re having us a big old SOUTHERN FOOD FESTIVAL!!!! I’ll just fly all of y’all in from the corners of the world and we’ll fast for a few days before hand and then eat so much we have to roll ourselves back home!!!
Thank you all for reading Southern Plate and for taking the time to comment!! Your comments are so very appreciated!!
Gratefully,
Christy
I laughed about the milk story - you see, I was raised in Louisiana by parents from Oregon and milk was served with a meal - not tea. Now I HATE milk - lol! I don’t know if my mom ever made sweet tea when I was living at home. Now that I’ve been married for almost 24 years I have learned to make great sweet tea and chicken fried steak! I love your blog - you have inspired me to try some new recipes - last week we tried 5 in one week. My family probably thought I was crazy.
Of course, being from Mississippi, I grew up on Sweet Tea as well. But imagine my chagrine when I married a man who drank his tea with NO sugar! Yikes! It was almost unpatriotic to me. It still blows my mind that somebody can drink it without sugar.
Splenda is MUCH sweeter than sugar so if anyone is planning on using it they might want to experiment a bit with the amounts. Also, people prone to migraine headaches should stick to sugar. Splenda is a known trigger for migraines.
Life At The Lake Isn’t it funny how we live so very close to each other but our cultures are so very different on some things? LOL Oh wow, five new recipes in one week, that IS inspired!!! I’m so glad you are reading Southern Plate and you have my mouth watering for your chicken fried steak and tea now!!
Donna Bless your heart, having to live with such a travesty! LOL I can drink unsweet with no sweeteners if nothing else is available but….yeah, gimme something sweet any day!!!
Anonymous Its amazing how many of you have the same name! (that was a joke).
I have always found that splenda substitutes in equal amounts for sugar with no additional sweetness. Could you possibly be packing your Splenda when you measure it out, or using the smaller grained variety as found in the packets? When using the fluffy grained splenda which is designed for baking, it works out just fine for me and everyone else I know! I am sorry you’ve had difficulty with it, though!
Myself and my son both have migraines from time to time but Splenda has never been a trigger for either of us. Sounds like you and Splenda just don’t get along. I’m glad you are able to use sugar!
Thanks to you all for reading!
Christy
Great recipe, thanks so much. I LOVE sweet tea but being a (darn) Yankee, I didn’t know how to make it. One tip, though: Another cause of bitter tea is the type of tea used. Now, I love Luzianne tea, but I find most of the standard commercial brands (eg Tetley, Lipton, etc.) far too bitter because the orange pekoe content is too high. When I make any kind of tea, I go for blends such as English or Scottish breakfast. These are true “black” teas and give strong flavor without any hint of bitterness.
Your site is wonderful! My beloved late Aunt Betty was married to a southern gentleman whose mother taught Aunt Betty how to cook, Southern style. I bought her a covered biscuit server because hers were so light and airy that they’d float away otherwise. Gosh, I used to beg Mom to go to Aunt Betty’s for dinner. (Mom was a great cook, too, her specialties being southern Italian and plain old comfort food.)
Anyway, thanks for giving me the inspiration to learn a bit of Southern style cooking myself.
mmm.we drink sweet tea EVERYDAY!
(made w/ splenda)!
YUMMO
Oh Christy I love love love iced tea. While I was overseas I visited a store which produces their own coffee and tea products, and I bought home with me packets of their ice tea mix - I know that must sound dreadful to you to have instant ice tea. I’ve been drinking it non stop since I came home. The rate I’m going I will run out in no time. Actually it’s not meant to be ice tea, they sell it as a warm lemon tea drink, but I’ve been making it up and then chilling it before drinking.
I have tried in the past to make my own ice tea but it always turned out so bitter. Perhaps I let the tea brew for too long? In any case, I will have to try my hand at making ‘real’ ice tea again.
Just “Stumbled Upon” your blog and found your sweet tea recipe. Very interesting. I invented my own version of this a while back and it’s not all that different. I make a gallon at a time, but had no idea I was really making southern sweet tea. LOL!
Put 1 c. turbinado sugar in pitcher. Add half gallon hot water from water cooler. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add 3-4 Red Rose tea bags. Let steep for 15-20 minutes.
Fill rest of gallon with cold water, stir and refrigerate. I don’t use ice, just drink it cold from frig so it’s probably as strong as yours with ice. I use a pitcher with a lid so it stays fresh for the few days it takes to finish.
We grew up having Kool-Aid with dinner. Yuck. Tea would have been much better.
Now to try your Pecan Pie Muffins. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this Christy! Tea seems like such a simple, staple drink to have around, but I just wasn’t sure how to make a delicious iced tea!
I used your recipe, but substituted a couple mint tea bags and it came out great!
Your recipe was great as usual!
Interesting sweet tea article. I do want to point something out though concerning the South and the sugar used that we can see in the picture. If you’re going to talk about the South and sweet tea you should be using Dixie Crystals not Domino sugar!
Mark
Get-togethers at my Nanny’s house when I was growing up included my two grandparents, their 5 kids and spouses, 11 grandkids, and a couple of great-grandkids (all in a two bedroom, 1 bath house!) I remember Nanny making her sweet tea in a Harvest Gold enamel pot. After she’d mixed it all up, she’d hook a Corning Ware coffee cup (remember the one with the “open” handle that wasn’t connected at the bottom?) over the edge of the pot. We’d fill our glasses, jelly jars, or Mason jars (with that many people, you thanked God for whatever container you could find!) with ice PaPaw brought in (it was the round kind, the best I’ve ever tasted) … and pour the sweet elixir over it. I’ve never had tea taste so good since. Close, but hers was the sweetest.
P.S. - I don’t know if you count Texas as part of the “real” South, but we use Imperial Sugar (from Sugar Land, Texas) in our cooking!
Loved your article about sweet tea and I also LOVE sweet tea. The four folks at my house go through at least a gallon a day. We no longer use sugar either, but once you get used to the sweetner it is just as good.
As an army wife, I have traveled a lot and lived in 8 states. I now have a button that says Alabama is my home no matter where I lay my head. I will return there some day and let me tell you I hope it’s soon! (by the by, I lived in Hunstville)
I am stuck in yankeeville and it stinks! No one has heard of sweet tea here. I had a neighbor actually say, it is so funny how you guys…(that would be ya’ll)…always have tea with your meals in the south. Ugh. There’s no accounting for class.
Keep on keepin’ on! I love your site and I have your apple butter recipe in the crock pot right now!
A Southern Insurgent Stuck in Yankeeville
You know I am the dumb one that bought the stupid tea maker when a pot works just fine!! LOL
I made sweet tea for the 1st time in ages this morning. We’ve been lazy and buying the pre-made Milo’s tea. We use Lipton tea. If I ever go back to California I know I will embarrass myself like one of my cousins did by ordering sweet tea at a restaurant. The things you take for granted like not having to spend 20 minutes and have the sugar shaker making sweet tea.
As a southern girl sweet tea is very popular in our family. It’s the one thing that I never get tired of drinking. Plus you can adjust the amount of sugar so it’s better than soda. It goes great with any meal lunch or dinner.
You know, I just don’t know why folks who don’t live in the South get out of bed every day! No sweet tea, no biscuits, cornbread or chicken fried steak, either. I mean, bless their li’l ol’ hearts - they are just clueless - until they come down here!! Folks up north think were just dumb and sweaty, but they sure like to stay around and eat! I can’t believe how many people think Cracker Barrell is country home cooking. My dear late Grandmother would say “well, they ain’t never nothin, poor thangs!”
I just love your blog & recipes! I learned how to make sweet tea in bulk using a coffee maker when I went to work waitressing at the little local Dairy Queen at age 16. Coffee maker still my preferred method of making tea … I tend to let it boil over on the stove.
A dinner w/o sweet tea is like Christmas w/o the tree. We recently started making our tea with loose tea - made in a coffeepot.
Loved the story about the milk.
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Southern Plate recipes and stories by Christy Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.southernplate.com.
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