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Sweet Tea

One of the biggest differences between me and Maureen Henry - Rockland Home Staging is that she doesn't get southern cooking!

The girl has never ate grits. She told me that she ate collard greens for the first time and threw them out! Can you believe that?

Southerners make the best iced tea you'll find. I think it is because we put love into what we do or because we have GREAT WATER!

So here it is my sweet tea recipe...

3 Family Size Tea Bags
2 Cups Of Cold Water
1 Cup of Sugar

Place the two cups water in a pot and add the tea bags. Bring to a boil, do not continue boiling. Remove from heat and let steep. Pour warm tea into empty pitcher. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Fill remaining pitcher with cold water.

Posted by Marci Toliver, Anderson SC, Spartanburg,Greenville SC, Home Staging on 08/18/2007 07:07 PM

Comments (22)

greenville home staging, anderson home staging, spartanburg home staging

Originally posted at: Greenville Home Staging: Sweet Tea

22 Comments on Sweet Tea

AUG

2007

Breadnut- someone at active rain knows I love bread!

Sounds like perfect Sweet Tea to me.

Marci - I love tea especially the hot kind, I drink several cups daily. Maureen is not the only one, I did not know what grit was until I was at a restaurant with some friends in New York and they were ordering it for breakfast and I decided to try it but did not like it. I have since given it a try, and will now have a tiny amount of cheese grits.

Marci, Maureen probably got old, bitter, tough supermarket collards! Not at all the same thing as young, tender, straight out of the garden collards!

My recipe for sweet tea is similar to yours, except that I put the sugar in the cold water and let it dissolve as the water heats. Sweet tea - indispensable in our Southern summers!

OK - I see it is pick on the NYer day. Here is the real skinny I tried the Greens in honor of Marci at an new smokehouse that opened here. It was really bitter, but I have no frame of reference.

As far as the tea, I have one question to start - what is a family size tea bag? Never heard of it. I think when they make ice tea here they boil the water first then add the tea bags. I would never have thought to add the sugar or the tea before the water boils. I will give it a try. Can I make it with regular Tetley tea bags. I don't have them either - I only have Irish tea at my house. It is Lyons Irish Tea. Maybe that will work.

Really I like Ice coffee better.

Here's the recipe:

Get in your car
Drive to Dunkin Donuts
Order an Ice Coffee
(Don't get any of the flavored ones - they are too sweet)
Drink it up - yum.

Wait - did I read that right 1cup sugar to 2cups water???????

Well that explains a lot.

Leslie_ I knew you would understand!

Jennifer_ there's nothing like Sweet Tea!!! Hot tea is good but Iced Tea is the best drink in America! lol!

Tricia- When I go to NY- I'm going to show them how we do things with a SOUTHERN FLAIR!

Maureen- what kind of collards did you eat- store brand or did someone cook them and if they were cooked were the cooks southerners?

Marci - I don't know what kind it was, it was green. The waitress said that people come from all over just to get them and people order extra to take home. Apparently just not my cup of tea. ( I crack myself up )

BTW thanks for the link love!!!

Maureen, you crack me up too! I will have to cook for you! We actually add more water depending on how sweet you really want it!

AUG

2007

Don't feel bad Maureen. I don't like grits either. You can use regular size tea bags - you might need about 4 of them if you are making a picther of sweet tea. Me personally I like extra sweet tea so I'd have about 2 or 3 cups of sugar in mine. Lipton's acutally makes tea bags for cold brewing, so you don't have to boil water. The only problem is getting that sugar to dissolve.

Now, i'm not from the south, and neither is my mother.... but my husband loves my greens, particularly the turnip and mustards cooked together with diced turnips of course. Marci.... that's sweettea for ya! I'm a tea girl too.... and grits???? Husbo wants 'em every day! Maureen would eat MY grits!

LOL

Tanya - I'm gonna try it. I'll call it Irish Sweet Tea.

Tanya, come on now! I will make you some grits tomorrow for brekfast.

Diane-Im glad that you like ICE TEA!

Maureen- Please dont call it Irish Tea!

OK FINE!!! I'll have to go out and get some regular tea bags then. OR when I'm at the store maybe I should just get a packet of Crystal Light Iced Tea and call it a day. ;)

AUG

2007

You are not going to believe this. One of the crazy rug rats that lives with me was climbing on the counter and knocked the kettle off the stove and it shattered into a million pieces. I've had to put the whole sweet tea operation on hold.

Maureen, Hope nobody got hurt. You can still make the tea just boil the water in a pot.

Hi Maureen: Family sized teabags are bigger than regular tea bags. One family sized tea bag is the size of two regular tea bags.

Marci: I am looking forward to getting to the land of grits and eating them more often! Also, fried okra, hushpuppies and fresh buttermilk biscuits. Mmmmm.

I make sweet iced tea the way you make it and then I have another recipe that a friend reverse engineered from Fearrington Village's tea (Chapel Hill, NC).

3 family sized tea bags
2 mandarin orange spice tea bags
2 red zinger tea bags

Put all of the teabags in a small pot with the lid on. Boil and remove from heat once it reaches a boil. Steep for 10 minutes or so.

Pour hot tea on top of as much sugar as you want (at least 1/2 cup) in a large pitcher.

Fill the pitcher with water on top of the tea base.

I like to serve this iced tea to company.

Cheers,

Veronica

Select Home Staging

Denver, Colorado

www.selecthomestaging.com

AUG

2007

I Love Grits! My family is from Birminham Alabama that could be why.

AUG

2007

I live in MN, but spend time in the South and love Sweet tea, grits, and Sonny's BBQ ribs - oh yah. Now I can make my own tea - thanks sweetie.

AUG

2007

I just read Paula Deens book and I want to move down south just for the food. I am jealous..

Phyllis Pafumi

SEP

2007

Marci, I'm a yankee living in the south- we grew up drinking iced coffee (Maureen Henry style) and when we go back home and ask for sweet tea, the waitresses cock their head to the side and tell us the sugar is on the table! I LOVE GRITS by the way!

JAN

2008

I loooove sweet tea, so I am looking forward to making this recipe. So do my husband and my son.

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