Southerners, of course, have a taste for sugar that is demonstrably stronger than what you find up North. We like our pecan pie and pralines sweet enough to make the dentist cringe. All of the major soda companies—the Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Dr Pepper—started in the South. Bourbon, that sweetest of whiskies, is from Kentucky. A mint julep, that classic Southern cocktail, is basically a whiskey'd up sweet tea, with mint, ice, simple syrup, and booze. Share
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sweet Tea
Southerners, of course, have a taste for sugar that is demonstrably stronger than what you find up North. We like our pecan pie and pralines sweet enough to make the dentist cringe. All of the major soda companies—the Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Dr Pepper—started in the South. Bourbon, that sweetest of whiskies, is from Kentucky. A mint julep, that classic Southern cocktail, is basically a whiskey'd up sweet tea, with mint, ice, simple syrup, and booze. Share
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4 comments:
I love Mint Juleps, or I used to when I was younger.
This past April we visited Berkeley Plantation(blogged) along the James River in Virginia. They claim to be the first to have made whiskey bourbon in the U.S., distilled in 1621, by George Thorpe. I thought that was interesting. I think whiskey bourbon is different from bourbon though.
My mother's side of the family is southern (all from Georgia, except for my grandmother who was born in Alabama). I grew up on sweet tea and I LOVE it. I have to only indulge occasionally, though. Thanks to my love of sweets, I was very heavy. I've lost a lot of weight and I want to keep it off. I keep my sweet tea indulgence to about once a month!
We didn't drink much sweet tea in New Orleans -- I don't know if it was just my family's personal preference (parents diabetic) or if it was just not widely available there as it is everywhere else in the South. I suspect it is the latter. New Orleans tends to be an island unto itself in the Southern Biblebelt-- in terms of religion as well as in culinary tastes.
But when I lived in Dallas I was introduced to southern iced tea. I initially found it was way too sweet for my tastes, and I'd specially order tea without sugar -- for which I would often get blank, unbelieving stares from the waiters! My "special" un-sweetened tea would not arrive, usually, until I was finished or nearly finished my lunch. I eventually got weary of the long lunchtime waits, so by the time I left Dallas, I had learned to finally just order the "regular" super-sweet iced tea. I even got to really enjoy it, so that by the time we moved to North Carolina from the Washington, DC area several years later, it was a wonderful treat to be reintroduced to the southern lunchtime essential once again, naturally available everywhere -- even at the fast food restaurants!
Having grown up in Alabama, making a huge jar of sweet for the day was a morning ritual. Once while stirring the sugar into a large jug of hot tea, the ladle hit the side of the jar and made a hole from which the tea gushed onto the kitchen floor. We hurriedly wiped it up and went on our way. Later, everyone was wondering why their heels kept sticking to the floor.
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