What is Southern Sweet Tea?

[gaelic grace]

It also has to be made fresh every morning- of course it has to because the whole pitcher has been consumed! My favorite restaurant tea is McAllister's. I stop in just about everyday to get mine to go!

 

[Piecey]

Luzianne Ice tea bags make the BEST sweet tea!! On our way home to Massachusetts from WDW we stopped in NC to eat. We had the best tea ever there.


It was so good I tried to find the tea bags at home. I learned that you can't get them in the North!!!

I ordered some online direct from the manufacturer. We are starting to run low and have to order more.

We also had our first hush puppies at that restraurant too, they were yummy! Wish we could get them here up North too. If I lived down south I think my cholestorol would be out of sight. We were served Ice Cream scoops of butter with each meal!!

I totally agree! DH and I LOVE sweet tea.

Also, our grocery store just started carrying powder mixes for hush puppies~ The kind where you just add water, stir, form and bake.
DH is in heaven, now. We can have hushpuppies anytime we want!
Now I might need to go make some and some sweet tea, too..

 

[bumbershoot]

Yeah... that. If you like regular iced tea I think you probably WON'T like sweet tea.

Eh, I like it all. Tea at Chinese restaurants, sweet tea when I lived in SC, unsweetened iced tea in Seattle, it's all good. This morning I had some hot tea with half and half and it was lovely.

because tea, naturally has high levels of fluoride (and aluminum)... Especially when brewed with fluoridated tap water (which could also have added aluminum) these combine into an aluminum-fluoride compound, and it can be at nearly toxic levels.

Jinkies! Wonder why tea has fluoride (which I avoid) and aluminum in it? Is it b/c of the soil in big tea growing places? Can one buy from different areas to avoid it? Sadly the water in my city is fluoridated so it's hard to avoid that.



Re: lemon in the tea...in my almost 4 years in Spartanburg SC I'm not sure I ever was offered lemon, not even at a Waffle House. Could no one have mentioned it b/c it's not part of true southern sweet tea? (might be absolutely positively beyond wrong on that, but I just don't remember it...I swear I'm not a northerner being troll-like...I'm totally neutral, having been born in CA...we just won't mention my mom's family from upstate NY, LOL)

 

[slk537]

Thank you all! I have read on so many threads about people being surprised that WDW doesn't serve sweet tea and I could never figure out why they didn't just add sugar to the unsweetened tea (which I agree is nasty)...

I totally get the sugar when hot thing - that does seem like common sense to me too. The big pile of undissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass reminds me of my brother's cereal bowls when we were kids.

Now I think I'm going to hijack my own thread - but what on earth is Cheerwine???

 

[Suzie Zoo]

Mine still tastes like tea. If it just tasted like sugar I'd pass on it.

I don't like sugar in iced tea at all.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

How come no one has mentioned the touch of lemon to make it classic Southern Sweet tea?

Because we don't put lemon in our sweet tea. I am a "true Southerner" (North Carolina native) and I would never put lemon in my tea. My mother never used it nor did either of my grandmothers.

 

[Angelhalo]

How come no one has mentioned the touch of lemon to make it classic Southern Sweet tea?

Ewwwww NO LEMON!!!!!

 

[lucyanna girl]

Sweet tea is what Southerners start drinking when we stop drinking milk from a baby bottle.

Penny

 

[Angelhalo]

Thank you all! I have read on so many threads about people being surprised that WDW doesn't serve sweet tea and I could never figure out why they didn't just add sugar to the unsweetened tea (which I agree is nasty)...

I totally get the sugar when hot thing - that does seem like common sense to me too. The big pile of undissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass reminds me of my brother's cereal bowls when we were kids.

Now I think I'm going to hijack my own thread - but what on earth is Cheerwine???

Mmmmm Cheerwine is a NC soda....it's kind of like a cross between coke, cherry coke, and Dr. Pepper. Its hard to explain.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Sweet tea is what Southerners start drinking when we stop drinking milk from a baby bottle.

Penny

Exactly! That's why we're so addicted to the stuff!

 

[slk537]

Mmmmm Cheerwine is a NC soda....it's kind of like a cross between coke, cherry coke, and Dr. Pepper. Its hard to explain.

Oh thanks!! That sounds like something my DH would absolutely love...

 

[Pin Wizard]

You can also brew SUN TEA. Just let it sit in the sun in a clear gallon pitcher and add sugar to your liking and it is soooooo good.

my pitcher of sweet tea is either with LIPTON OR TETLEY tea bags, brew it and while it is hot, add half to 3/4 cup of sugar and dissolve quickly while stirring and adding water. pour over a big glass of ice and HEAVEN. gotta love the sweet tea from the south.

serve with fried chicken, fried green maters, mashed taters and cornbread and YOU ARE SET!

My aunt in TX always makes Sun tea. It's not tea to her unless it's made that way. Best tea I've ever had!

 

[DVCLiz]

Because we don't put lemon in our sweet tea. I am a "true Southerner" (North Carolina native) and I would never put lemon in my tea. My mother never used it nor did either of my grandmothers.

But my mother, a native Virginian who learned to make Southern sweet tea from her mother, also a native Virginian, taught THIS native North Carolinian to add the juice of two lemons to her tea, so that is how I have always made it, and how I have taught both of MY daughters to make it!!

 

[CarolinaBlue]

But my mother, a native Virginian who learned to make Southern sweet tea from her mother, also a native Virginian, taught THIS native North Carolinian to add the juice of two lemons to her tea, so that is how I have always made it, and how I have taught both of MY daughters to make it!!

Well, go figure! I don't really know anyone who puts lemon in their sweet tea.

Maybe it's because my family came from South Carolina.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I do not do lemon in my tea. If I wanted a lemon flavored drink, I'd make lemonade not tea.

 

[sha_lyn]

yes always lemon with the tea, but a fresh wedge, not added to the tea when made. I bet my grandmother went through a dozen lemons a week just for the family's sweet tea.

 

[DVCLiz]

Mmm, half tea and half lemonade - now there's a delicious summertime drink!!! I believe they are called Arnold Palmers....

 

[Angelhalo]

Well, go figure! I don't really know anyone who puts lemon in their sweet tea.

Maybe it's because my family came from South Carolina.

hmmmm beats me too. No one in any of my family or extended southern family has ever used lemon either. Its seen as somewhat of an abomination.

 

[What the Heck]

Because we don't put lemon in our sweet tea. I am a "true Southerner" (North Carolina native) and I would never put lemon in my tea. My mother never used it nor did either of my grandmothers.

You dont' know what you are missing. My family is southern to long before the war between the states, and we have always put in just a touch of lemon in the tea. It is amazing. Like someone else said, it's liquid crack!

 

[DVCLiz]

hmmmm beats me too. No one in any of my family or extended southern family has ever used lemon either. Its seen as somewhat of an abomination.

You don't know what you're missing!!

I guess it must be one of those things like barbecue - the same recipe can be delicious to one person and disgusting to another....