I get asked a lot why I set all my stories in the South, to which I say: there is one in Northern Idaho! Actually, the answer is: because the American South is awesome. The culture, the food, the atmosphere, the weather, the people – all awesome.
So, to celebrate the awesomeness of the South (and to help me curb the coldness of the North), I have decided to start Southern Fried Saturdays: a blog series where I celebrate all the wonderful things about the American South.
And what better way to start the series than by celebrating a little bit of South I get to have up here in Montana – sweet tea (seriously, there is a glass on the table next to me right now).
Sweet tea is more than just a drink down south – it is a tradition, with quite a bit of history. It can be found at any restaurant and in most homes at any given time. If you order iced tea in a restaurant, you will get sweet tea, so you need to specify if you want unsweetened (if you are crazy like that).
Now, getting the perfect sweet tea is an art. You can’t just take some iced tea and dump a lot of sugar in it. You know what you get then? Unsweetened iced tea with a bunch of sugary sludge at the bottom of the glass. Sweet tea needs to have the sugar mixed in while it is still hot, hot, hot. Yeah, there is that much sugar. So, without further ado:
Southern Sweet Tea
- Most southerns swear by Luzianne tea*, but Lipton is nearly as good.
- Boil a couple quarts of water; add tea bags (3-4 family sized or 8-10 single serving); turn the temp down, but keep at a soft boil.
- Let the tea boil for 3-5 minutes. When it is a deep mahogany color, you are ready to go.
- Put about a cup of sugar in a gallon pitcher. Yes, a full cup**. Add the hot tea and stir it up to dissolve the sugar.
- Fill the pitcher to the top with cold water and refrigerate.
- Serve over ice (in a mason jar
) with lemon or a mint sprig (or both). Not with raspberry.
Sometimes, your sweet tea will get cloudy. There is nothing wrong with it, but it takes away from the presentation a bit. There are ways to avoid this.
Crystal Clear Sweet Tea
- Use room temperature water instead of cold to fill the pitcher.
- Let the tea cool on the counter for several hours before putting it in the refrigerator.
- Don’t add ice cubes to hot tea (many people use ice instead of water to fill the pitcher); only add ice to the glasses when you drink it.
- If the tea becomes cloudy overnight, you can add a cup of boiling water to clear it up, but this will dilute the tea, so only do it if your tea is very strong.
If your tea is too bitter, add a pinch of baking soda to the water when you add the tea bags. This will help soften that bitter taste (some people swear that the baking soda helps keep it clear as well, but I don’t know).
And there you have it – southern sweet tea. I think I will go get another glass now.
*Due to religious beliefs, I don’t actually drink black tea. BUT, I have found a great herbal alternative that I use instead. It isn’t quite the same, but it is close.
**I know a cup of sugar seems like a lot to some northerners, but that is what good sweet tea takes (and I have heard of some people putting much more-but that is overkill).
