Sweet tea...WTF?

[amitten]

Okay, I live in Texas and people here order it in restaurants.

Are people unable to sweeten their own damn tea? Is sweet coffee next?

I don't get it.

[Chan790]

1. Sweet Coffee.

Already exists. So does the Rhody treat...coffee milk. Try coffee milk. It's incredible.

[yellowdogintexas]

2. see here's the thing. Once the tea is cold, the sugar won't dissolve well

and artificial sweeteners are just not for everyone.

the trick is to make strong hot tea, sweeten it then pour over ice, or dilute it then pour over ice.

I make damn fine tea. I was taught by the master: my grandmother

[stuntcat]

3. yes,

Sugar in cold tea can never taste like tea that was made all at once! Maybe I'll make some this weekend, it's supposed to be like 100 degrees :wow:

[yellowdogintexas]

9. don't forget the lemon or lime! That is the perfect iced tea..sweet with

lemon.

Many places here offer lime for iced tea as well as lemon, Mexican influence I believe, but it is lovely.


edited for a spelling error

[applegrove]

33. Sounds good. I should try it sometime now that I have gotten off coffee.

[MedleyMisty]

4. Sweet tea is as basic as water here.

I love it. A lot. I've never seen a mint julep and I don't even know what a mint julep is really, but if there is a stereotype about the South and sweet tea it's actually true.

And it doesn't taste the same at all when you put sugar in it after brewing it. Plus then a lot of the sugar that you put in just ends up at the bottom of the glass.

[JVS]

20. Mint Julep story

I was at the bar the night of the KY derby and I tried to order a mint julep. The barmaid said they don't make it because they don't have crished ice, but suggested a Mojito. Her supervisor overheard, and came over saying that I could have a mojito with bourbon substituted for rum. I went with that. It was tasty.

[realisticphish]

5. sweet tea is disgusting

if i want sugar water, i'll go lick the hummingbird feeder

[TZ]

7. ....

I'd pay real money to see a picture of that...:rofl:

[frickaline]

8. lol I agree. Can't stand sugar in my tea.

Why do the sugar addicts have to take yet another drink option away from me! :wtf:

[yellowdogintexas]

13. it hasn't been taken away, just order unsweetened. Most places that

have sweet tea have both. Many places do not offer sweetened tea at all. You just have to ask.

BWA HA HA HA HA this is the South creeping up on the rest of the nation, you know.

See, it used to be you couldn't get a decent glass of iced tea after Labor Day pretty much anywhere north of DC, much less a choice of sweet vs unsweet. Now you can actually get sweet tea if you want it outside the "Old Confederacy"


As far as I know, the only places you still have to specify unsweetened tea to be sure you get it would be Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama and Mississippi. When I lived in Nashville in the 1970's, only a few places offered sweet tea. I traveled to Georgia and the tea was brought to the table sweet.

Unless you were in someone's home ...my grandmother, aunts, mother etc would NEVER serve unsweetened tea.

[frickaline]

14. Actually I thought this was a Thai custom

They have it here in Massachusetts in all Thai places. And they don't usually have unsweetened. :( Maybe that's only the Thai version.

[yellowdogintexas]

19. Thai tea is a whole other universe, quite good in its own right . Try Vietnamese Coffee

for yet another lovely twist on a normally mundane beverage. Love Vietnamese Coffee and I usually don't want any sugar anywhere near my coffee

[frickaline]

21. lol

I made the mistake of thinking I'd like Thai tea once. Never again! :puke:

I might have to be drunk to work up the nerve to order coffee with sugar, but I think I'd like it better than tea with sugar.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. It's the South's revenge for the proliferation of iced coffee.

Iced coffee was a Northern thing (especially in the Northeast.)

[realisticphish]

34. don't like coffee either

:shrug:

So there ;)

[JVS]

17. AMEN. Tea and Coffee are supposed to be somewhat bitter. If you want sweet, drink pop.

[Critters2]

36. Finally. An issue about which JVS and I can agree.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

[TZ]

42. Sometimes its nice to have something without carbonation though.n/t

[CRF450]

37. I dont care much about tea, but its defanetly better without the sugar!

[Saphire]

6. Here in San Antonio, a gallon of Bill Miller's sweet tea is a gallon of heaven.

[MrCoffee]

10. Sweet tea, it's what the gods drink when they don't really want another cup of coffee.

[GOPisEvil]

11. There's also something the Cajuns call "Swamp Water".

1/2 tea, 1/2 lemonade. Holy crap it's good. :9

[yellowdogintexas]

18. oh yeah, I have also heard it called Iced Tea Punch and it is GOOD

brew your nice strong tea with your loose tea or tea bags.

add small can of lemonade concentrate, stir well
(of course you could make up home made lemonade from scratch but that is extra work)
then add additional water as needed to get the strength of tea you want, allowing for what the ice will do to it.

It isn't as clear and pretty as regular tea but boy it is delicious. Great on a very hot day.

also good with limeade concentrate.

a friend of mine used to make it back in Kentucky. Don't know if she just decided to throw the lemonade in the tea one day and her brothers liked it so much she kept doing it (we were in high school at the time) or what but I always loved eating at their house if she made the tea.


Another thing that is quite good, and lovely for Christmas or any other party with a red color scheme:

Brew your good strong tea (about 4 cups of really strong tea) and add 1 cup of sugar to the hot tea, stir to dissolve.
Add 2 cups of unsweetened cranberry juice. Then add water to make 1/2 gallon. Float lemon and lime slices on top.

This is really good. You can tinker with this to taste. I got this recipe from a giant tea bag of all places. Beautiful in a clear pitcher; looks like Sangria! Tastes like heaven. Even my grandmother the tea Nazi loved this

[jus_the_facts]

28. C'mon Dave....Swamp Water is.........

PLUS....



EQUALS....




:rofl:

:hi:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

35. I've had that. It is actually really, really good.

I didn't know Cajuns called it "swamp water," though. My friends and I just called it "demented" and "good."

:D

[Lyric]

12. Most places offer sweet and unsweet tea.

Although I have always taken issue with the word "unsweetened", which implies that the sweetness was there before, but is now gone. "Non-sweetened" would be more correct.

:hide:

[CRF450]

38. And most of the time, they will still give ya sweet tea **fuckers I ordered unsweet!!**

My dad actually said that to a waitress, it was rude I know, but I couldn't help but laugh:rofl:

[raccoon]

16. You're not a native Texan, are you? If you were, you'd know that

sweet tea brewed up and made sweet and tea you have to add sugar/sweetener to when it gets to the table just AREN'T THE SAME THING.

Why do you have a problem with sweet tea? :silly:

[yellowdogintexas]

22. that would be native Southerner, actually ....sweet tea is not just a Texas thing

The farther South you go, the sweeter the tea and the higher the likelihood that you will be brought sweet tea as the assumption is that is what you want.

I found the line of demarcation between the sweet tea assumption vs unsweet tea assumption ran from north Georgia across the northern borders of Alabama and Mississippi. This would be back in the 1970's and early 1980's when I lived in Nashville; I never traveled in the Carolinas so can't speak for that area in regards to tea sweetening.

I DO remember that when the Danner Food restaurants (Shoney's, Captain D's and others) started offering sweet tea in their restaurants around 1977 or so it was a big deal and I was living in Nashville. When I was on the road and thirsty I started hunting for Captain D's to get the sweet tea in the drive thru

and not every place knows how to make it either. I got sweet tea at a Wendy's in Nashville one day to fortify me to get to M

To be made correctly, the tea base has to be very strong, to account for what the ice does to the tea. This is true whether you are going to sweeten it or not.

I like it both ways, lemon or lime added

[raccoon]

41. Tell me about it, I'm from SC. :-) And I miss my sweet tea when I can't get it. nt

[johnnie]

23. What is this sweet tea you speak of?

Up here in the north we have never heard of such a thing. Are you saying that in the south they actually sweeten their tea and serve it cold? WTF? That is just plum crazy!

We yankees hear of things like this that are exclusively southern, but most of it just sounds like urban legend to us. There is a rumor that southerners cook meat over an open fire and they call it barbie coo or baba-q or something like that. There has even been talk of people down there frying their chicken! Northerners just eat all our meat raw or when we feel like doing some "down home" cooking we boil everything.

There is something else that has been talked about that is only in the south and we yanks have never seen, but I think it is bullshit. They say that in the south there is this thing that is round and you can roll it around. Some southerner put it on these big machines and they actually DRIVE them around. The round thing is called a weel and the machine is called an automobile. Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Living in the north sucks! We don't have anything. x(

[Schema Thing]

24. I know. what is going on?

I'm a Texan too; before you know it, you're going to order tea, and they are going to give you sweet tea as the default - ick!

[jus_the_facts]

25. Unsweetened hot tea.....

...I totally get it...it's disgusting...tea must be brewed extremely strong and sweetened while it's hot to melt the sugar...then poured over ice...it's a form of art actually...if done wrong...it's garbage. :yoiks:

[yellowdogintexas]

27. I like my hot tea lightly sweetened..like 2 sugar cubes per teapot

I like my coffee with cream, no sugar

I prefer sweet iced tea w/lots of lemon but I drink it w/o sugar due to not wanting to waste WW points on something that isn't really critical. If the tea is good and well made it doesn't have to be sweet for me to enjoy it.

[jus_the_facts]

29. I use three family size Tetley Tea Bags....added to a quart of HOT water....

....let steep until it's lukewarm...at least an hour and a half...remove tea bags...add a cup of sugar..edited to add stir until sugar is completely dissolved..then add enough cold water to fill a gallon pitcher or jug...serve over a large tumbler of ice...keep adding ice as it melts too...thus reducing it's sweetness and strength until it's gone...seriously...it takes lots of practice to make really good tea! :9

[cabbage08]

26. I like my tea (hot or iced) without sugar

[khashka]

30. I'll explain

Once it's cold the sugar doesn't dissolve well. So you end up using more and with a sludge of sugar at the bottom of the glass. If sugar is added while it's warm it melts - you use less sugar and don't have the residue.

Khash.

[SPKrazy]

31. Its gross

people want their tea sweet

[zingaro]

32. Sweet tea is the vilest, foulest substance on earth.

I love tea. I hate sweetener in tea. And any sort of sweetened tea is enough to make me shudder. Ick.

[sarge43]

39. Sugar in tea is like bourbon and water

Ruins two good things.

[Lex]

40. Pre-sweetened beverages are so scary!

:wtf:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

43. I personally don't get unsweetened tea....unless you are a diabetic.

It is darn near impossible to dissolve sugar in iced tea. What you end up with is unsweatened tea with granules of sugar at the bottom.

Or people that insist their tea remained unsweetened altogether. What's up with that? It's about as appetizing as drinking a glass of dirty pond water.

[Fleshdancer]

44. It's way too sweet for me

I just order the unsweetened tea and add one tsp of sugar to it.

[hedgehog]

45. I'm a Northerner to the bone; can't take the heat, the sun or the humidity.

When it gets above 85 degrees, I live on sweet tea!

[LynneSin]

46. Yeah, I don't get it - sugary drinks makes me even thirstier

but to each their own I suppose!

[TZ]

48. Well

then thats a good thing...if you get too thirsty you might have to spend that extra cash you set aside to pay all those tolls....:hide:

(sorry- I seem to be channeling madinmaryland this morning...;-) )

[B3Nut]

47. Nectar of the gods!

I grew up in Roanoke VA, so I know from sweet tea. Sometimes the Cracker Barrels up north here have it. (Yeah, not the most progressive restaurant, but sometimes I just gotta have it...guilty pleasures and all that....)

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Rambis]

49. I made it on Saturday for an event

I had to get somebody that knew WTF it tasted like to try it to see if I had done it correctly.
My math was good that day I guess because they said it tasted great!

[Midlodemocrat]

50. Sweet tea is Unamerican.

Yeah, I went there.

[TZ]

51. Coming from a boxed wine drinker....

That doesn't mean much....:P
Franzia anyone...:rofl: