The Wine of the South

I recently read or heard, I can't remember which, that sweet tea is the "wine of the south." Tea certainly flowed in our Southern Baptist home. When I say tea, I mean ice tea (without the /d/), because in our house, that really went without saying, 2 meals a day 12 months a year. Hot tea was, and except for Chinese tea, pretty much still is, associated in my mind with colds and sore throats.

The first time I recall being regularly offered a choice of coffee or hot tea was when Del was in the Army, and I had to attend the "ladies" events. We wives were even given a little etiquette book that among other things, spelled out who would pour the tea and coffee for the first five or so minutes of the party. It was considered an honor, believe it or not. The wife of the highest ranking officer was given the honor of pouring one, and the wife of the second highest ranking officer poured the other. I wish I still had the book, because it really was a hoot, and because I don't recall whether tea out ranks coffee or coffee out ranks tea. After the first few minutes, others at the party took turns pouring. I always crossed my fingers that I would not be chosen, being left handed as I am. The tea party habit continued to some extent while we were at Washington and Lee in Lexington, Va., but not much after that.

Until I started hanging around with the Williams family, I don't think I was aware that there are two strong schools of thought about what one means when one says "tea." In my family, it meant unsweetened tea, with sugar available for those who preferred it and lemon if we had company. Daddy put sugar in his, but neither Mother or I did. I can't remember about Bubba. I assumed that everybody made it that way, but have learned recently that some of my childhood friends in Emporia grew up with sweet tea.

Mrs. Williams made sweet tea. My memory is that she always used the same pitcher and had a special large spoon she used to measure 3 heaping spoons of sugar into the hot tea. The family had quite a shock one night when I made the tea with 3 of the big spoons of salt insead of sugar. Keeping salt in a canister that matched all the others was not something I had ever seen before, never mind that it was clearly labeled.

I thought her tea was pretty sweet until I met the Georgia relatives' tea. One aunt made it so sweet that I swear I could feel grains between my teeth.

I don't remember the preferences of other family members on either side at this point, but I make it plain, and David and I always drink unsweet - I with lemon and he without. Del drinks it unsweet with lemon at home, because "it isn't the same when you stir sugar into cold tea", and happily drinks sweet with lemon when we are out. Tracy doesn't drink tea, but her mother makes sweet tea most of the time, I think.

Del will drink tea anywhere, but I am an ice tea snob and firmly believe that with almost no exceptions, Chic-fila being one, restaurants above the Mason Dixon Line just can't make ice tea fit to drink. An excellent reason to stick to wine, if you ask me.

Ice Tea Recipe

6-8 tea bags (Mother usually used Luzianne or Lipton)
4 cups hot water
4 cups cold water

Bring 4 cups of water to boil, add tea bags, remove from heat
Let steep 10 minutes only, remove bags
Pour cold water into pitcher, so pitcher won't break
Pour in the hot tea solution
Serve over ice cubes

Sweet tea
(a guess, based on the size of Mrs. Williams' big spoon)

6-8 tea bags
4 cups hot water
4 cups cold water

Bring 4 cups water to boil.
Add tea bags, remove from heat
Let steep 10 minutes, remove bags
Add 3/4 to 1 cup sugar and stir until sugar dissolves.
Pour cold water into pitcher. AAdd hot mixture.
Serve over ice cubes.

Sun tea

It got to be quite the thing to make sun tea when I was a teenager. Mother used to put a covered pitcher out on the picnic table where the tea would steep to desired color. While none of us ever got sick from drinking it, the food people now tell us that sun tea is risky because tea leaves may carry bacteria that would not be killed by this method. It really is a wonder we all lived to grow up, don't you think?

Hot tea

I just dunk a bag into a cup of hot water. Friend Sandy, a tea drinker, has experienced my attempt to make a pot of hot tea. My heart was in the right place, but, bless my heart, that's all you could say about it.