flipSweet Iced Tea
Sweet Iced Tea
Why this dish? The national drink of the American South from the late 19th century onward, sweet iced tea was on every Carolina table in warm weather. For an inventor obsessed with cold and preservation, the great pitcher beaded with condensation was the refreshing evidence of summer — and yet another playground for crushed ice.
A strongly brewed black tea, heavily sweetened while hot, then drowned in ice cubes. Golden, clear, barely bitter beneath the sweetness, with a squeeze of lemon.
In our muggy Carolina summers, nothing beat the big pitcher set on the veranda table. The secret, I'll confide, is to sweeten the tea while it's still boiling hot: the sugar dissolves entirely, never settling in grains at the bottom of the glass. Then you pour it over a mountain of crushed ice — the very ice I spent my youth making — and cut a wedge of lemon. Serve it so cold the glass beads up, and you'll be blessed until evening.
- •Oriental black tea — several spoonfuls (infusion)
- •Sugar — generously (sweetness)
- •Spring water — a large pitcher (base)
- •Lemon — 1 (acidity)
- •Mint leaves (optional) — a few (freshness)
- •Crushed ice — in abundance (cold)
Sweet Iced Tea
A strongly brewed black tea, heavily sweetened while hot, then drowned in ice cubes. Golden, clear, barely bitter beneath the sweetness, with a squeeze of lemon.
Why this dish? The national drink of the American South from the late 19th century onward, sweet iced tea was on every Carolina table in warm weather. For an inventor obsessed with cold and preservation, the great pitcher beaded with condensation was the refreshing evidence of summer — and yet another playground for crushed ice.
In our muggy Carolina summers, nothing beat the big pitcher set on the veranda table. The secret, I'll confide, is to sweeten the tea while it's still boiling hot: the sugar dissolves entirely, never settling in grains at the bottom of the glass. Then you pour it over a mountain of crushed ice — the very ice I spent my youth making — and cut a wedge of lemon. Serve it so cold the glass beads up, and you'll be blessed until evening.
Ingredients (period version)
- Oriental black tea — several spoonfuls (infusion)
- Sugar — generously (sweetness)
- Spring water — a large pitcher (base)
- Lemon — 1 (acidity)
- Mint leaves (optional) — a few (freshness)
- Crushed ice — in abundance (cold)
Ingredients
- Black tea (Ceylon or Assam) — 4 tea bags or 4 tsp (infusion)
- Water — 1.5 L (base)
- Sugar — 80-120 g (to taste) (sweetness)
- Lemon — 1, cut into wedges (acidity)
- Ice cubes / crushed ice — plenty (iced service)
- Fresh mint — a few sprigs (garnish)
Method
- Bring 500 ml water to a simmer, remove from heat and steep the tea for 5 minutes (no longer, to avoid bitterness).
- Remove the tea, immediately dissolve the sugar in the hot infusion.
- Dilute with 1 L cold water, stir.
- Fill glasses with ice, pour the tea, add a lemon wedge and a mint sprig.
- Serve immediately, very cold.
How it was made : Iced tea spread after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, but the sweetened version already appeared in Southern cookbooks (Housekeeping in Old Virginia, 1879). It was made in large quantities in glass pitchers, stored in an “icebox” (ice-block refrigerator) before the arrival of the electric refrigerator.
The contemporary twist : Slide a few peach slices into the pitcher to echo Beulah's ice cream: a “homemade peach” iced tea with no industrial syrup.
Sources : Marion Cabell Tyree, Housekeeping in Old Virginia, 1879 · John Egerton, Southern Food, Knopf, 1987
Beulah Henry · Charactorium
