Sweet Tea! House wine of the South! | GlitznGrits.com

May 1, 2013

Sweet Tea! House wine of the South!

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"In the South a front porch without a swing is like tea without sugar, incomplete"

Let's start this post with a little history, shall we. Y'all bear with me. This is one of the only times I get to use that fancy piece of paper SFASU gave me. The Sugar Act of 1764: Among other things taxed sugar. The Boston Tea Party happened December 16, 1773. The Son's of Liberty (An American Patriot Group) refused to give back taxed tea and instead threw it into the harbor. This was all in distaste of the Tea Act of 1773 and the East India Company. This was just a serious of events that led to the ultimately led to The American Revolution

If you haven't learned by now, that I'm obsessed with sweet tea, then there is a problem. Everyone knows that you are not allowed to, "Bless My Heart" tell me, "Oh Hell No" or take away my sweet tea unless I say otherwise. Any of those without my permission are fighting words around this blog. My go to is a half and half. That would be half sweet tea, half lemonade. Yes, it matters which half is put in first. Yes, this makes me more Texan than Southern. Deal with it. I normally opt for  an Arnold Palmer because I am to lazy to make fresh tea. That being said: Ancestors died so we could enjoy "The Nector of the God's". It is NOT OK for y'all to be drinking it wrong. I will never understand the Brits and why they put milk in their tea. We fought a war over sugar (among other things) FREAKIN' SUGAR and they chose to put milk in their tea. Nonsense I tell you. NONSENSE. 

Unsweet tea with sugar added is not the same thing. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I go to a restaurant and they try and hand me sugar. It is not the same. There is a special place in hell for people who pretend adding sugar to unsweet tea makes it sweet tea. There is also a special place in hell for people who know the lane is ending but wait until the very end to get over. Since I am a professional sweet tea consosuer. (Seriously, my body is not 70% water, it is 70% sweet tea) I'll give you my tried to true sweet tea recipe. It puts the sweet in sweet tea.

Ingredients:
3 cups water
pinch of baking soda
2 family sized tea bags 
2 cups of sugar
7 cups of cold water
Directions:
 Bring 3 cups of water to a boil; add tea bags. Boil for a min then remove from the heat. Cover and steep from 10 minutes.
2. Remove the tea bags. Add the sugar and stir baby stir.
3. Place the contents in a nice size pitcher. Add the seven cups of cold water and stir baby stir.
4. Lastly add the pinch of baking soda and you are good to go. I perfer mine in a good ol' Ball Mason Jar.
I say the sweeter the better. If you know who said the title of my post and where it's from we can be friends. If not you must be a Yankee!
Check day 2 of 31 in the win column.

25 comments

  1. I am gonna try this, my husband loves sweet tea and the closest that I can get to it is to buy the premixed Lipton. Thank you for the share
    Living F.A.B.ulously on Purpose

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  2. I can't understand the milk in the tea thing either. Your recipe sounds nice. I'm going to try it :)

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  3. Hi! I'm a new follower. I read your About Me section and it was a done deal. I'm obsessed! I will be trying this today. Always wanted to make homemade sweet tea!

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  4. Thanks for the visit, but hold the sweat tea pretty please. What I don't get is, no one orders a cup of coffee that already has cream or sugar in it, so why is there the assumption people want sugar in their tea? First time I order ice tea in NC, years ago...took a big gulp and about spit clear across the diner. To this day, makes my teeth hurt just thinking how sweet that tea was. I had never had anyone sweeten my tea without asking before...lol, what a shock that was. I don't put sugar on or in anything. A pound of sugar in my house would last about 10 years, lol. Adorable pictures of the little one by the way with the cute pink bow!
    May Challenge Oozing Out My Ears

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  5. This was really interesting- I'm from Canada and we only have sweetened iced tea, there's no such thing as unsweetened iced tea. I have visited the States many times, most often the northern states, and always get a rude awakening when I order iced tea in restaurants and it comes unsweetened. However... I'm not sure we take "sweet" iced tea to the same level as you do in the south ;)

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  6. I totally could have written this post! My husband is from Oregon, and he just doesn't get it. And he totally puts milk in his tea. I've tried to show him the ways, but alas...this is just something we will always be at odds about. That's ok, more sweet tea for me.

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  7. I love a good Arnold Palmer too... but I didn't really know how to make sweet tea. :) Now I do. Growing up in Michigan we didn't have a whole lot of sweet tea. My grandma always made sun tea, but not sweetened. I know, I know. ;)

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  8. I'm from Indiana so I've seen the whole range of sweet tea weirdness. Totally agree that adding sugar later is not the same as sweet tea. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?
    My grandma is British and even though she immigrated when she was in her 20s she still has hot tea multiple times a day. (That woman is so cute!) She adds cream and sugar so that is how I learned to drink hot tea.
    Never added milk to sweet, iced tea though. Do people do that?

    http://shaktidove.blogspot.com/

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  9. Upstate NY not so much for the sweet tea more beer and wings up here.

    Thanks for stopping by

    Came by from
    http://talesofthereborncrafter.blogspot.com

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  10. I used to get a sweet tea from McDonald's almost every other day (the day they came out with the $1 large drinks was like, the best day of my life), but then something tragic happened to my body and now sugary drinks make me sick to my stomach. I had to quit the stuff. But mark my words, the next time I am in the South, I am getting some authentic southern sweet tea!

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  11. I'm from Mississippi, and the ONLY way you get iced tea is sweetened. They would give you the stink-eye if you asked for it unsweetened. These days, I can't handle that much sugar, so we sweeten ours with Splenda. It's so refreshing--viva la sweet tea!

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  12. I love sweet tea!!! This looks like a great recipe, thanks so much for sharing!!

    Christy
    Sunny with a side of…
    PS. Found you through The May challenge link :)

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  13. Your about me is erroneous. Duck Dynasty is filmed in northern LA. I'd change that.

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  14. That looks Amazing :) will try it over the week end :)
    Come and see me and If you want we can follow each other as i like your blog :)

    www.olivains.com

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  15. We are just NOT sweet tea drinkers. We like ours plain. But I have enough friends from the south to know all about sweet tea! Enjoyed your post

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  16. Ahhhh love it! I am so making this for the bf this weekend to surprise him!

    Thanks!

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  17. "There is a special place in hell for people who pretend adding sugar to unsweet tea makes it sweet tea. "

    YES! I lived in MD and VA but was raised by a Carolinian woman and it's disgusting!

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  18. This is awesome, not because I like sweet tea (I actually really, really hate it...except for that one time I was in Savannah in July and thought I was going to DIE if I didn't have something cold to drink rightthatverysecond, and luckily Paula Deen's sweet tea was there to quench my thirst), but because my husband really likes it! We're moving back to Georgia in a few months, so I think I need to make this for him! (long comment not-so short!)

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  19. Visiting from That Friday Blog Hop. I'd like to invite you to my Friday Flash Blog, where you can share your best blog entry of the week! The party goes on ALL weekend at thejennyevolution.com. And who knows, you may just get featured next week.

    Jennifer
    thejennyevolution.com

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  20. This is hilarious and I love your writing voice! I love sweet tea and I keep saying that I need to make a pitcher for dinner but keep forgetting. I absolutely must try this recipe. I've never heard of putting baking soda in the tea!

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  21. That's the same way I make my sweet tea! My husband is from Los Angeles and he just doesn't get why I make it that way (he thinks a cup of hot tea with sugar in in is good enough!). I love my pitcher of sweet tea! The best sweet tea I've ever had was on vacation at Pigeon Forge Tn with my family years ago. It was so sugary that I'm sure it rotted my teeth the second I took a sip, but I didn't care. That's how I like it!

    Thank you for linking up at The Wednesday Roundup! I'm featuring your recipe on my Facebook page. :-)

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    Replies
    1. I've heard they make some good sweet tea. And share away

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