I have decided that I need to talk about sweet tea. Now, those of you from the south, you can skip this, because you already know it. You live it every day.
For the rest of you, especially those of you who happen to work in restaurants or might be a waitress or something... Sweet Tea is Southern Ambrosia, Nectar of the Gods. When someone asks you if you have sweet tea, and you say "No, but you can sweeten it." You just lost half your tip. Also, you are wrong. Utterly, completely wrong. Ok, yes you technically CAN sweeten it, but it sucks. Unless the right amount of sugar is added while the tea is fresh brewed and hot, it's not gonna be good. Learn it. Love it. Live it.
Also, please understand that when you call yourselves a "Southern" place, such as Red Hot and Blue does, you are saying, "We have Sweet Tea," which they don't. (At least not the one close to me.) To call yourselves a Southern Eatery and not have Sweet Tea is a fallacy, a misrepresentation, a damn lie!
As for the right amount of sugar, well... 2 cups per gallon is what my mama taught me. I have since cut back on that a bit, generally to a cup and a half. It's still plenty sweet but won't make me a diabetic as early.
For those of you who just don't understand this obsession with Sweet Tea, all I can say is, "It's a Southern Thing, you wouldn't understand." And sadly, you probably never will. It doesn't mean I can't be your friend, it just means I won't be coming to your house for dinner. :)
Y'all come back now, ya hear?
2 comments:
yanno, i moved down here to South Carolina from Ohio, and sweet tea is like CRACK down here. and waitresses are dealers. every time we go out, they push that stuff on you. lol. "you MUST have some sweet tea! you're in the south now, darlin'!"
but you're right. i will never get it. i'm just a transplanted northerner. :)
This made me laugh. I left the south long ago. Relatives from the south visited and ordered tea when we went out to eat. Oh.. the look on their faces when a cup with saucer and HOT tea was set by their plates was something! I should have remembered to warn them...
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