Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking: Sweet Tea…Champagne of the South
Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking
Sweet Tea…Champagne of the South
This original painting, “Out on Folly”, is by Jennifer Smith Rogers, courtesy of Smith Killian Fine Arts of Charleston.
Here in the South where good manners are still considered an important part of everyday life, we can say just about anything about anybody as long as we follow the comment with, ”Well, bless her heart.”
If you’re in South Carolina and you purchase your sweet tea in a can – well, bless your heart. It’s a sure sign you’re not from here. The North and the South are not divided so much by the Mason Dixon line as we are by the sweet tea line. Sweet tea is as basic to our way of life as our magnolia trees.
South Carolinians love their iced tea and are pretty much fanatical about it. Why, I’ve known folks to judge a restaurant as desirable or not based upon the way they make their sweet tea. A barbecue place without sweet tea doesn’t even qualify as authentic anything – sweet tea, white bread and slaw – that’s the key to a good barbecue place.
A cold glass of iced tea is the first thing we offer a guest in our home. It’s how we make friends, family and neighbors feel welcome. I believe it was Prohibition that marked the start of the iced tea era, when we did away with most of the alcohol. Think about the 1930’s when ice delivery came about and a nice cold glass of tea became as common on the South Carolina table as white linen.
Now just because we love iced tea doesn’t mean we know how to make it. I’ve been to many restaurants where they serve up a liquid that is barely amber in color with a few fast melting ice cubes and, worst of all, a thin circle of lemon perched on the rim of the glass. Just try to squeeze that little lemon circle. It’s an impossible task. I just want to impress upon those north of the Mason Dixon line and west of El Paso, that making great iced tea is a simple thing.
Here’s a simple formula:
Take 6 small tea bags and a pot of water. Bring the water to a boil but just barely; turn off the stove and let it steep for several hours. Add a pinch of baking soda to keep it from turning cloudy. Squeeze the tea bags to extract all the goodness, pour the tea in a cold pitcher and add enough water to make 2 quarts.
To sweeten the tea, make a syrup by bringing 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a boil and turn off the stove. Stir until sugar dissolves. Pour this into the pitcher of tea and add lemon and a touch of mint, if desired. Serve over ice and enjoy.
Yields: 2 quarts
Pat Branning, the former women’s editor for WSB, Atlanta, is food editor for The Beaufort Tribune. She and her husband, Cloide, work together to help the underserved and uninsured in health care through a nonprofit organization called Wellness4America. Her new book of Lowcountry recipes, “Shrimp, Collards and Grits, recipes from the creeks and gardens of the South Carolina Lowcountry”, is available at bookstores in Beaufort and on Hilton Head. The website is www.mycarolinacooking.com.
Click here for more information about Pat Branning’s new cookbook.
Related posts:
- Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking: It’s just peachy in South Carolina
- Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking: Sides of the season
- Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking: Red, White and Blueberry
- Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking: From farm to feast
- Pat Branning’s Carolina Cooking: Summertime Southern Peas
