There are a lot of ways to make iced tea, or sweet tea as we call it. In fact, by using some of the herbal and fruit blends you can make a healthier option for your kool aid kids.  The Acai berry tea that I reviewed yesterday is a good example, but there are thousands more.

Teavana

Keep in mind that with Teavana you can ask them to blend several teas for a totally individual experience.

• Blueberry bliss rooibos
• Rooibos Peach
• Caribbean Breeze fruit tea blend
• Tarocco Ruby Orange Herbal Tea
• Strawberry Kiwi
• Pacific Sunrise Rooibus

Adagio

• Afrikaans wild rooibus mint
• Mango Passion Iced Tea
• Any of the fruit flavored teas

Try mixing your tea with fruit juices for a variety of refreshing flavors! If possible let the tea come to room temperature before adding ice or refrigerating. Cooling it too fast can shock the tea and cause it to be bitter. I mean, seriously, if someone gave you a sauna and then dumped you in ice wouldn’t you be shocked? Have some compassion.

image:marye audet

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I did not grow in up the south. We moved to Texas when I was about 10 or 11, but by the time I was 16 I recognized that sweet tea was an institution that was taken as seriously as football in this area.  Not everyone could make it right. My mom, for example, bless her Midwestern heart, bought presweetened instant tea with lemon.  God rest her soul.

No, tea was an art form, perfected by generations of women that talked like Paula Deen, and knew that sweet tea was the answer to everything life threw at their families.  Open any refrigerator door in the South in the early 1970s and there would be a pitcher (probably tupperware) of sweet tea looking back at you.  Center shelf.

We created out Farrah Fawcett hair styles with a blow dryer, round brush, hair spray, and a big glass of sweet tea.  We chatted around the dinner table in our avocado and orange kitchens over pitchers of sweet tea.  In fact, the day that Nixon resigned I watched with a glass of sweet tea in hand.  There was protocol, tradition, and several pounds of Domino sugar in that tea.

What wine is to the French and Italians, what vodka is to the Russians, and what beer is to the Germans, sweet tea is to any southerner worth their hushpuppies.

C’mon, you know it is true. Sunday afternoon? Wyatts cafeteria? Fried catfish? Sweet tea!

There is only one way to make sweet tea.  The sugar can’t be added last.  You have to bring the water and the sugar to a simmer until the sugar dissolves.  Then you steep your tea.  Then you let it cool at room temperature. Then, and only then can you refrigerate it.

There will be no silliness like adding sugar to all ready prepared unsweetened tea. Just pour that stuff on your roses.

Make yourself a big pitcher of sweet tea, pour it over ice, and drink it out of a mason jar.  That’s some real southern libations, y’all.

If you need more instructions than that…well, you are obviously from the north…but here they are How to Make Tea, Hot or Sweet. Scroll to the  bottom of the page.

image:maryeaudet

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I like watching Paula Deen.  Actually, I should say that I enjoyed watching her the one time I saw her on cable.

When the kids all chipped in and sent Marc and I on a romantic getaway over night they got us a hotel that had cable…so….HGTV and Food Network were part of the itinerary.  I head read Paula Deen often but not watched her and she just reminds me of so many of the southern women in our age group (ahem) that I know. 

Anyway, I really like her because she is funny and unpretentious.  But she makes tea with Luzianne. 

I suppose that she just doesn’t know any better.  Now, if you are making sweet tea with bags, by all means use Luzianne.  It is a tradition.  It will give it the perfect reddish color.  But if you want great sweet tea you need to use a loose leaf tea.  There is just no comparison in flavor and complexity.

And you have just got to serve it in a Bubba glass. Preferably with a chipped rim.

Now, some people like flavored sweet tea and some want the plain, old fashioned type.  Either way you can get some great teas to use.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.

I suggest, if you are making loose leaf sweet tea for the first time, trying Adagio’s Yunnan Jig.   It makes a complex, slightly spicy sweet tea and the flavor holds up well to the sugar, lemon, and/or mint.  It has a pretty color as well.

If you want more of an adventure and want to try a flavored sweet tea, try Adagio Melon.   Especially good with chunks of frozen melon rather than ice cubes!

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I can’t claim any one state as home really.  We moved a lot when I was growing up, Michigan to Texas to Pennsylvania to New Jersey to Texas to Florida to Texas….and it didn’t get any better when I joined the Army..Nor did it settle down when I met Marc and married him because although I was out of the military he was in the Marines.

I am told I don’t have much of an accent that anyone can pinpoint and  I don’t have a lot of things that I do that make people point at me and say, “AHA! Texas..AHA! Jersey!”

There is one thing about southern women, real southern women, that I admire a lot. I don’t see it so much in the young women, nor the women  my own age, however in the generation just before me I do see it.  Graciousness.  Something that goes beyond manners and seems ingrained in them.  My spiritual mom abounds with graciousness.  She is able to correct you so sweetly it takes days to realize that you have been corrected. I am quite sure that if a thief broke into her house she would offer him  a glass of sweet tea and a cookie.

That is what got me started on this train of thought today.  I was scanning the news and saw this headline: Robbery Attempt Ends When Victim Offeres Iced Tea .

See, it was a Japanese lady but I bet she was from SOUTHERN Japan.

I  think you can change the world with a glass of sweet tea and a soft voice.

When I am out in public I hear women screeching at their kids, screeching at their husbands, screeching at each other, and I do mean screeching.  Their language is rough and vulgar, jokes are coarse, even the t-shirts have questionable comments displayed across the chest.

And see, they  don’t seem to drink sweet tea.  They drink tea with nutrasweet, tea with splenda, tea with the other stuff, or tea unsweetened but not sweet tea.

Maybe we just need more sugar.

Image:Morguefile.com 

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