Sweet tea - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sweet tea is a style of iced tea

Iced tea

Iced tea is a form of cold tea, often served in a glass with ice. It may or may not be sweetened. Iced tea is also a popular packaged drink. It can be mixed with flavored syrup, with common flavors including lemon, peach, raspberry, lime, passion fruit, and cherry...

commonly consumed in the Southern United States

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

. Sweet tea is made by adding sugar to bags of

Tea bag

A tea bag is a small, porous sealed bag containing tea leaves and used for brewing tea. Tea bags are commonly made of paper, silk or plastic. The bag contains the tea leaves while the tea is brewed, making it easier to dispose of the leaves, and performs the same function as a tea infuser...

black tea

Black tea

Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties.All four varieties are made from leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the...

brewing in hot water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

while the mixture is still hot, which allows for supersaturation

Supersaturation

The term supersaturation refers to a solution that contains more of the dissolved material than could be dissolved by the solvent under normal circumstances...

of the solution, enabling the tea to hold more dissolved sweetener than under colder temperatures, short of recrystallization. Sweet tea can also be made with a simple syrup and is sometimes tempered with baking soda to eliminate bitterness by reducing the taste of the tea's tannins. The tea is served ice-cold and plain but may also be flavoured traditionally with lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

or mint

Mentha

Mentha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae . The species are not clearly distinct and estimates of the number of species varies from 13 to 18. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally...

.

Sweet tea is typically brewed with a lower carbohydrate and calorie content than most fruit juices and sugary sodas, but it is not unusual to occasionally find sweet tea with a sugar level as high as 22 brix

Brix

Degrees Brix is the sugar content of an aqueous solution.One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by weight . If the solution contains dissolved solids other than pure sucrose, then the °Bx is only approximate the...

(percent weight sucrose

Sucrose

Sucrose is the organic compound commonly known as table sugar and sometimes called saccharose. A white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste, it is best known for its role in human nutrition. The molecule is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula...

in water), twice that of Coca Cola. An important part of the tradition of the South, it is often consumed daily as a staple drink.

History

In the early 1900s, sweet tea was an item of luxury used an as exhibition of wealth due to the expensive nature of tea, ice, and sugar. Ice was possibly the most valued of the ingredients since it had to be shipped from afar at a time when access to cool drinking water was already a relative luxury. In modern times it can be made in large quantities quickly and inexpensively.

The oldest known recipe for sweet ice tea was published in 1879 in a community cookbook

Cookbook

A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...

called Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree, who was born in Texas. The recipe

Recipe

A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...

called for green tea

Green tea

Green tea is made solely from the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea originates from China and has become associated with many cultures throughout Asia. It has recently become more widespread in the West, where black tea is traditionally...

since most sweet tea consumed during this period was green tea. However, during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the major sources of green tea were cut off from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

(due to anti-Japanese sentiment

Anti-Japanese sentiment

Anti-Japanese sentiment involves hatred, grievance, distrust, dehumanization, intimidation, fear, hostility, and/or general dislike of the Japanese people and Japanese diaspora as ethnic or national group, Japan, Japanese culture, and/or anything Japanese. Sometimes the terms Japanophobia and...

at the time), leaving them with tea almost exclusively from British-controlled India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

which produced black tea

Black tea

. Americans came out of the war drinking predominantly black tea. Sweet tea was once as consumed as a punch mixed with hard liquour with flavourings of mint and cream, with mint julep

Mint Julep

The mint julep is a mixed alcoholic drink, or cocktail, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States.- Preparation :A mint julep is traditionally made with four ingredients: mint leaf, bourbon, sugar, and water. Traditionally, spearmint is the mint of choiceused in Southern states, and...

being a close version of the punch drink with its similar ingredients.

In 2003, supposedly as an April Fool's joke, the Georgia House introduced a bill making it a "...misdemeanor

Misdemeanor

A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...

of a high and aggravated nature" to sell iced tea in a restaurant that did not also offer sweet iced tea on the menu. The bill never went to a vote.

Serving

Many restaurants have dispensers that dispense hot or warm sweet tea, and customers pour it over a full cup of ice to make iced tea. This especially sweet variation of tea enjoys most of its popularity in the Southern United States, though bottled iced teas labeled "Southern Style" or "Extra-sweet Southern Style" appear in refrigerated cases throughout the country. Sweet tea is often flavored with mint

Mentha

leaves in a popular variant of sweet tea known as sun tea, which is brewed by leaving loose tea or tea bags in water in a jar or pitcher placed in a sunny area for several hours.

Most restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s in the region, including fast-food and other national chains, offer a customer the choice of sweet tea or unsweetened iced tea (usually referred to as "sweet tea" and "unsweet tea", respectively). It is a signature drink of the region to the point where the Southern use of the word "tea" is largely used to refer specifically to cold sweet tea and not to hot or unsweetened varieties.
In non-Southern States, many restaurants do not offer sweet tea as defined above. Typically, these establishments offer flavored teas along with unsweet tea.

History

Serving

See also