Memories steeped in sweet tea

The State ^ | Jan. 30, 2002 | Jay C. Grelen

[aomagrat]

Sweet tea, as one of the characters in the movie ''Steel Magnolias'' noted, is the house wine of the South.

It is what we drank when we cooled our houses with attic fans. As a teen-age hay hauler, I'd drink a jug a day.

When I sit around telling stories, that's what I drink, winter or summer.

I am the uncaped crusader for the preservation of the tradition, which is in trouble. Young people don't know how to make tea, and bottled liquid they call tea is sprouting like kudzu in stores.

Here is my tea pedigree:

I have consumed sweet tea at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House in Savannah, Ga., and at Crooks Corner in Chapel Hill, N.C., where you sweeten your tea with a concoction of mint and sugar water. I have drunk sweet tea with George Wallace.

My sweet-tea crusade developed in a roundabout way in 1993 after I spent a day picking Silver Queen corn in south Alabama. I, sweaty and dirty, went to a catfish joint and ordered a glass of tea to go. The cashier brought a full pitcher and set me in a rocking chair on the porch. I felt obliged to drink the entire pitcher.

I wrote about that woman's kind heart and proposed that sweet tea is much more than a drink. It's the memories of our grandmothers and Sunday lunch. It's a symbol of our hospitality. I invited readers to share a sweet tea memory. Readers rhapsodized.

We learned the importance of tea. My bosses at the Mobile, Ala., newspaper allowed me to sponsor a contest in which a panel selected the best sweet tea. The New York Times published a story about my crusade, which was followed by a story in Saveur, a fancy New York magazine. Then, Southern Living published a small story in which the writer proclaimed me a ``sweet-tea evangelist.''

In 1999, I took the crusade to Oklahoma. The battle there has been lost. To put Oklahomans in perspective, one day I was in a cafe in Hobart. After determining that sweet tea wasn't on the menu, I was happy to find that pinto beans were.

''You have any rice to put under those beans?'' I asked the waitress. She looked at me like I'd ordered a scoop of topsoil.

I have learned that the sugar you use matters. (You can't beat Dixie Crystals.) I use tea from a company in Mobile, which perfected a blend that is as clear after a night in the refrigerator as it is the moment you make it.

[Mahone]

Well the only thing I disagree with you about is the fridge part, it clouds the tea! And as a true son of the South, and afficianado of all types of hot tea, I can verify that in our household the ONLY tea we use for iced tea is good ole Luzianne!

Even though we live way far north now, I still have a standing order with the Cajun Grocery online to send us our MUST HAVE LUZIANNE!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Sometimes mine gets cloudy, sometimes not. It seems to depend on the temp it reaches when brweing, not certain. And Luzianne is the stuff!

[HairOfTheDog]

Even here in cloudy Washington State, we have a few days per year where we can make "Sun Tea" outside, then ice it down...

And I like mine with lemon, but no sugar.

[BlackbirdSST]

went to a catfish joint and ordered a glass of tea to go. Brought to mind a "catfish joint" I frequented as a youth, Villa Rica, Georgia. All you can eat corn fed farm catfish and the best cornbread and sweet tea around. Nothing like a mouth watering memory. Blackbird.

[wimpycat]

Atlantic beach, yeah, I know where the other Atlantic Beach is too.

No, no, NO! I'm talking about Atlantic, North Carolina, not Atlantic Beach, North or South Carolina. Atlantic is where US Hwy 70 ends, or begins, depending on how you look at it. It's approx. 30-40 miles east of Beaufort, North Carolina and it's not on the beach, it's on the Core Sound. The vast majority of residents are white.

[wimpycat]

Ha! I don't think I've ever heard that phrase outside the family - except for Jerry Clower or whoever came up with the phrase to begin with!

Jerry Clower also spoke of "cathead" biscuits, about the size and shape of a cat's head. Lord, I wish I could taste another one of my Grandma's lard biscuits! Mmmmm.....mmmmmmm!

[wimpycat]

I can verify that in our household the ONLY tea we use for iced tea is good ole Luzianne!

Here, here!

[wimpycat]

Again, it is NOT FANCY - just bounteous seafood - fried or broiled - with the best sweet tea in Raleigh. (IMHO) In North Raleigh - the place with the little house in front of it used to be Don Murray's BBQ - you say it's now Lancaster's?

I'll have to check out Cap'n Stanley's sometime. Coming from a family of commercial fishermen, I don't need to go to a restaurant to get good seafood, but I'll take the "expert" (my dad) out there to check it out sometime.

You are correct--Don Murray's is now Lancaster's.

[Orbiter]

I moved from Houston to Minnesota years ago and the first public place I dined was at Nora's in Minneapolis. Being a southerner used to southern norms I ordered iced-tea along with diner (unsweetened, please). I promptly drank the first glassful and politely asked the waitress on her second pass with the entrees for a refill. After consuming that midway through the meal, I tried desparately to get the waitresses' attention but came to the relalization after many more minutes had passed that I was being ignored. Apparently, this women placed more value in iced tea as a commodity to be hoarded rather than accepting its enormous benefit to a restaurant's bottom line due to the margins associated with iced tea's low cost of production.

How ignorant. And rude.

I eventually got out of my seat and tracked her down across the room asking her sweetly, "May I have a refill?" With great reluctance I was ultimately granted a third (gasp!) refill, but she made it known that, "Refills are extra!" and promptly disappeared into the depths of the kitchen

Well fiddle-dee-dee.

I finished my meal and as I made my way to the cashier, Miss-Tea's-Too-Valuable-To-Squander-On-Paying-Customers, noticing, no doubt, from her righteous lair that I'd neglected to leave a tip on the table came charging to the pay station with a condecending, You-May-Have-Forgotten-A-Little-Sonmething,-Pal look about her.

I ignored her and paid the bill sans what now seemed like such an oh so precious tip. To this day, when I dine out my planned tip is 20%. The help can expect me to begin mentally paring that generous amount for things like inattentiveness, a bothched order, etc. And not refilling my tea glass when empty.

[Mr. K]

I dont know about that- last weekend I ran short of pancake mix, and my little angels wanted pancakes, so I added some corn meal and some raisins and they adored it!

[Howlin]

Honest? Five minutes from the time you put the teabags in?

[Howlin]

I had a really good friend from Fremont; McDaniel.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

Sweet tea momory: Besides drinking it since I was born, my most unique memory of sweet tea was when I was in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government supplied us with bottled water. So, I would take 10 or 12 of the large bottles of water, drop a few tea bags in them, pour in some sugar, and place them in the sun. Soon there was sweet sun tea! I would sell it to the grunts.

[T-Bird45]

I am so glad to see somebody else has a tip yardstick like mine. The lower my tea glass gets, the lesser chance of a good tip.

As to sweet vs. unsweet: here in central OK, most tea is served unsweet except for some catfish and BBQ joints. However, as you move south and east in the state, the likelihood of being offered sweet tea increases. So, I wouldn't say that Oklahoma is lost to the "true South" just yet.

[NoCurrentFreeperByThatName]

Hey don't knock those canned pintos, if you fix them up right they can be pretty decent.

That is true. They have to be Luck's pintos, though.

[AppyPappy]

Yup. Soaking the bags makes them bitter and the liquid is cloudy. You can dunk them as much as you like. That releases more of the tea from the bags. If you are really serious, use loose tea and strain it through a coffee filter. That ensures all the leaves get used completely.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

For suntea or boiled on the stovetop? Sometimes I get cloudy tea, but not if the sun gets it hot enough or when I make it stovetop.

[Intimidator]

I used to make it the old fashioned way with the steep jug and all but now I've got a Mr Coffee tea maker. I just fill the water to the line, add 3 family size tea bags of whatever brand you like and add 1 1/2 cups of sugar(more than that and its too syrupy tasting). It heats the water and steeps for me, then I just add ice to the 2nd fill line and add a little lemon. Makes excellent tea.

[Amelia]

Lord, I wish I could taste another one of my Grandma's lard biscuits! Mmmmm.....mmmmmmm!

Isn't that the truth? And some of her fried chicken!

[FreedominJesusChrist]

I happen to like Raspberry Iced Tea. But honestly, you Southerners have a totally different menu than us in the North. When my brother was in the navy, I would go down there to hang out with him every once in a while. I couldn't stand all of the fried food and BBQ. It was so unhealthy.