As we steep ourselves in the rich traditions of the South, our latest episode unfurls the storied past and vibrant present of sweet tea. Let us take you back to the sun-soaked '70s in California, where sun tea was all the rage, and forward through time to the Southern porches where sweet tea is more than a drink—it's a way of life. We'll unwrap how something as simple as the availability of ice and refrigeration changed the game for this amber nectar, transforming it into a regional symbol of hospitality and comfort.
With the tinkling of ice cubes in glasses as our backdrop, we're spilling family secrets on brewing that perfect pitcher. From the art of simple syrup to the precise tea-to-water ratio, we cover it all, ensuring your next sweet tea is as clear and inviting as a Southern sky. But we don't stop there; we also wander through the aromatic lanes of Earl Grey and the gentle slopes of green tea, discussing their unique characteristics and benefits. So pull up a chair and join us for a chat that's as warm and inviting as the drink we're honoring—you just might find yourself inspired to share your own tea traditions with us.
As we steep ourselves in the rich traditions of the South, our latest episode unfurls the storied past and vibrant present of sweet tea. Let us take you back to the sun-soaked '70s in California, where sun tea was all the rage, and forward through time to the Southern porches where sweet tea is more than a drink—it's a way of life. We'll unwrap how something as simple as the availability of ice and refrigeration changed the game for this amber nectar, transforming it into a regional symbol of hospitality and comfort.
With the tinkling of ice cubes in glasses as our backdrop, we're spilling family secrets on brewing that perfect pitcher. From the art of simple syrup to the precise tea-to-water ratio, we cover it all, ensuring your next sweet tea is as clear and inviting as a Southern sky. But we don't stop there; we also wander through the aromatic lanes of Earl Grey and the gentle slopes of green tea, discussing their unique characteristics and benefits. So pull up a chair and join us for a chat that's as warm and inviting as the drink we're honoring—you just might find yourself inspired to share your own tea traditions with us.
Welcome to Sweet Tea and Tacos. I'm Dave and I'm Jen, and today we're talking about tea. Sweet tea or not sweet tea, that is the question, and if you're from the South, that's a big question.
Jen:
It is a huge question and there can be a lot of debate over it and we're going to try to not go there so much. But we do want to talk about how we do it and just kind of our perspective on things.
Dave:
So of course, growing up in California, I don't remember sweet tea being a thing. You know we had unsweet tea. You know. I definitely remember. You know my mom made sun tea and I remember that was the kind of a 70, we were talking about how that was kind of a 70s thing.
Jen:
Yeah, my family made sun tea as well. So yeah, I guess it was just real trendy. Yeah, but, but then you found out some stuff about Well yeah, I mean I was thinking about, hey, why don't people do that anymore? You know, yeah, but anyway, it turns out that I guess it can open the door for bacteria to grow you know that method of brewing so we're not recommending it. But yeah it was. It was a big trend in the 70s. And it's kind of interesting that both of our families did that a lot.
Dave:
Yeah, it was easy to get overbrewed, you know, I think you could leave it and forget about it.
Jen:
You have to just do like you know, one or two hours at the most.
Dave:
Yeah.
Jen:
But if you don't know what it is, you start with some kind of glass container so that the sunlight can shine through and put cold water and a few tea bags doesn't matter what kind you know green tea, black tea, whatever, but we always did black tea and you just set it in a sunny spot and let the sun go to work on it.
Dave:
And I was kind of wondering. You know, I remember taking a long time and you were saying it didn't take very long. So I was wondering if maybe that was attributable to the weather you know, I mean wasn't as hot there and so it was mostly sun rays versus maybe if you did it here in June and July, august, boy, it would probably make real quick.
Jen:
Yeah, that tea got. It did get fairly hot.
Dave:
Yeah.
Jen:
Yeah, but that's what I remember most about my childhood as far as how we made tea. It was nine times. That's in sun tea.
Dave:
Gotcha. Like I said, I don't remember sweet tea until we moved back here, and any you would have it at somebody's house or, you know, maybe a restaurant, and you were saying how it really wasn't it wasn't all that prevalent.
Jen:
Like it is now, no, not at all. Sweet tea, wasn't? You know? You'd go to a nice restaurant, you'd order tea. It was, it was always unsweet and you would just have to sweeten it at the table, which you know. It's kind of a pain, honestly.
Dave:
But you know, now, versus nowadays where it's so much more prevalent, pretty sweetened, absolutely. But then we talked about how you know teaspoons, right, you know those obviously were created to solve the problem of stirring in the sugar in your tea. So there had to be enough time and enough people doing that right, sweetening individual glasses of tea that somebody said, oh, let me create this thing.
Jen:
Right, like I guess I don't know. If it was, it'd be interesting to know why. Maybe the restaurants didn't want to fool with it or whatever the case was. But I guess you know they got so many requests that it's just it's so much better, pretty sweet yeah.
Jen:
And I remember I went, you know, a couple of summers ago our son was up in New England right at a kind of a leadership camp type thing and I flew up there for the end bit that the parents were invited to and we went to a restaurant and I just kind of asked. I was like, hey, you don't? You don't happen to have sweet tea, do you? And they were like, and I had lived up in that area after college and I remember the struggle and I was just like, oh shoot, so ended up ordering a soda or something, Right?
Dave:
Yeah, and that's kind of. I've gotten to the point where and I don't mind unsweet tea, having grown up with it you can't drink it at all.
Jen:
Yeah, I mean, it's just not my thing, you know yeah, but I don't mind it.
Dave:
I've gotten to the point where I don't even order hardly sweet tea at a restaurant anymore. I'm just super craving it, but a lot of reasons because it's been bad or whatever. And I don't mind unsweet tea. I mean some of it's wanting to have a little less sugar, but then also, you know, if I'm gonna have it, I want it to be really, really good you know, yeah, and so yours was really really good. The method you all use and that you taught me when we got married.
Jen:
Yeah, the method kind of grew with. I mean, obviously my mom taught me other ways to set Senti Right.
Dave:
But yeah, but you think about sweet tea being a very southern thing. But it was interesting that some of our preparation research, it really didn't start out that way, you know, and it was sweetened. You know, in other areas of the country we're drinking it pre-sweetened and iced and that type of thing. And then it really kind of got big when ice tea did. Anyway, when ice finally started making it to the south, it was more prevalent in the north before that.
Jen:
Because of the climate and all that, because the climate is a little easier to access to Right. And then, once refrigeration came around, you could do ice cubes and all that.
Dave:
Yeah, and it would be easier when they could transport the big things of ice. So yeah, so not always a southern thing, but the south has kind of claimed it, I think.
Jen:
I think so.
Dave:
Yeah, because there is not much better than a glass of sweet tea and some mint and sitting on the back porch.
Jen:
Absolutely, I would have to agree.
Dave:
And I think that you know we both drink hot tea and we've been to England and we've enjoyed hot tea. I think sugar brings out just like a salt would.
Jen:
And in a dish.
Dave:
It brings out certain flavors. So like I can drink hot tea without sugar, but I also enjoy it with sugar and milk because it changes the flavor profile. So you know, in the tea we drink now and ice tea is mostly what- Well, it's pretty traditional to do orange pico.
Jen:
It's the variety, yeah.
Dave:
That's kind of what you get in those ice tea design for ice tea or whatever they are, or maybe dry tea, yeah.
Jen:
Like especially, you know, those big old family sus tea bags and things like that. So that kind of segues into how we brew it you want to talk about that.
Dave:
So, yeah, the method that we use, that you taught me, I guess came from throughout your family, but I think works really well and, like anything else that's liquid based if it's a soup or if it's a tea or whatever you got to start out with good water.
Jen:
Yes, Absolutely yeah, we get. We have a water service, a water delivery service. You know it's on the big kind of cooler, but it's spring water.
Dave:
Right and just. You want a neutral water. You know tap waters can be, have different twangs to them that you don't realize.
Jen:
Yeah, or maybe have some chemicals and things that have you know from the processing, but yeah, just a real good quality water because that's going to come through.
Dave:
Right, so we boil it and we use one of those glass, tempered glass, measuring containers for a fork cup, and what you're going to end up making is a tea concentrate. So, and what we found is, if you look on the boxes of tea, brew times anywhere from two to five minutes. That's a pretty big range of time. It is, and to avoid into kind of I don't know to keep from over brewing.
Dave:
To keep from over brewing, thank you. We like the shorter brew time. So kind of what you guys did and what we've continued is use a little extra tea.
Jen:
Right.
Dave:
And then brew a shorter amount of time and we feel like that. Of course there's no scientific backing him this, but that it doesn't get it as a stringent because you're not brewing it long to get that in that part of it.
Jen:
Right it's a nice strong tea flavor, but it doesn't get bitter or, like you say, a stringent, and so I mean really I wouldn't brew it. We've talked about this. Don't go past three minutes. Two is probably ideal and it seems short like oh gosh, but really, if it's yeah.
Dave:
So you put this in there, it's gonna get the job. Water, absolutely four cups, and then tea.
Jen:
Two minutes, pull the bags and then the sweet spot and that's for us, that's for our family is three quarters of a cup of sugar you know, and it makes probably all told as far as the container we end up putting it in it's about a gallon less, maybe a little bit less than a gallon, but yeah and then you put it in there yeah, we usually do a ceramic pitcher right now oh, am I jumping ahead?
Dave:
yeah, you got to stir that sugar in the hot. That's right water and that's the key. I think yeah, because as you stir it, when you first put it in there, it's gonna be a little cloudy as you stir it.
Dave:
It takes 30 seconds or so, maybe a little more and get it all dissolved, but it it dissolves and it becomes a like a simple syrup and you'll see it as you're stirring, all of the sugar will dissolve and it'll take on kind of a shininess and to me that's. That's right there. The key step is fully dissolved in that sugar, absolutely and we can use a simple syrup if you want. I mean you could make one ahead and if you're in a hipster restaurant, they'll serve a little. So unsweet tea with simple syrup a hipster restaurant.
Dave:
Yeah, but, uh, deconstruct everything, but yeah, it's essentially what you're doing and I think that really suspends the sugar it gets. Yeah, it's called a solution solution.
Jen:
Thank you, yes, thanks to our daughter in middle school her science this past year. There you go, the science of sweet tea.
Dave:
Um, but yeah, and I think that keeps it from being cloudy. You know, you get rid of any low cloudiness. And then, like you said, we have a ceramic pitcher, we put some room temperature or cold water and there begins spring water.
Jen:
Yeah.
Dave:
And pour that into the pitcher. The tea solution into the pitcher? Yeah, and then there's your pitcher of tea.
Jen:
Yeah, that's your final product.
Dave:
Yeah, go in the fridge Product, and then you pour over ice when you're serving it.
Jen:
But yeah, you don't want to put it maybe in the fridge too quick, right, because you were saying that that tends to lead to some of the cloudiness because that's what a little bit of what I came across was, when they're talking about problems with tea and maybe cloudiness was cooling it off really fast, right. And typically we're making tea right before we're sitting down to a meal.
Jen:
So it's going to sit on our table for a little bit and then cool down, and then, by the time we're finished eating, we just put the remainder of the pitcher back in the fridge and you're big on that tea not sitting out.
Jen:
Yeah, I mean I certainly would never let it sit out overnight. I mean I guess it depends on where you live. Our climate in the summer is hot, hot, hot, so it can spoil and get kind of funky. I mean people will say that iced tea or sweet tea can sour, and you don't want that to happen.
Dave:
Right Now. So that's pretty much. It's pretty simple, but to me it comes out so good and it's so much better than a lot of the commercial tea at a restaurant, or certainly one some of you buy. Now there are some really good ones you can buy in grocery.
Jen:
I mean, there's some really awful bottled teas, but there's some good quality ones these days, like there's one from the next state over. That's phenomenal and we have sort of gotten into buying that yeah.
Dave:
We do about half and half these days.
Jen:
It's just more of a time saver yeah.
Dave:
So there you go, and you've got a couple extra things in the tea. Sometimes, though, Sometimes, yeah.
Jen:
So OK, you can go with lemon wedges, and that was never kind of something that I was really into. And then when you and I started dating and were early married and all, and maybe I would forget or they wouldn't ask or whatever, in a restaurant, do you want lemon? And it would come with it on there. Then I would always give it to you.
Dave:
And I'd always love it with lemon wedges.
Jen:
Because you like it a lot.
Dave:
But I do. I do like that interplay between the sharpness of the lemon juice and the sweetness. It's just kind of a different thing.
Jen:
Yeah, and I mean they do that with hot tea, right, but to me the best is mint. And you certainly wouldn't want to do mint and lemon. It'd be one or the other.
Dave:
And not just any mint, though.
Jen:
That's right. It's got to be spearmint, not peppermint Peppermint for the holidays, but it's spearmint and it's actually pretty easy to grow yeah it is, you can grow it in the yard. It likes sunny places.
Dave:
Yeah, full sun, give it a little water and that's a great place. If you've not really grown it, it's just a great one to start with.
Jen:
It is, but you can also do it in the pot. Yeah, something in a pot If you are in an apartment or you have a small porch area or whatever. Just wait. I mean, in fact we've got some in a pot right now.
Dave:
Yeah, it's a door. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Jen:
We've been using it all the time lately.
Dave:
And just have that nice fresh tea with some mint and porter ice in here. It's so good and you just you know it gets that sound as it cracks the ice. Yeah.
Jen:
And kind of like you would, with maybe a mojito or something like that. You know you just kind of want to crush, crush.
Dave:
Yeah, mush up the tea a little bit, pull up the leaves. Just so that those oils can come out are really, really flavorful yeah mash them up, put them in the bottom cup, put some ice in there and then add some porter. I love that sound, as you pour the warm tea over the ice cubes and cracks and yeah. So not much better than some great sweet tea and mint on the back porch in the southern afternoon or evening, and I think that's why we've adopted it so much.
Jen:
Maybe, yeah, and it's not all bad for you. It's certainly, I think, better for you than sodas, sodas. Sodas, there's antioxidants and things, different types of stuff. We mentioned the orange pico, but you can go with green tea. You can do a green iced tea.
Dave:
Which we've done a bunch.
Jen:
We have, and it's.
Dave:
Earl Grey Very good.
Jen:
Yep, we've used Earl Grey, which is one of my favorites for hot tea.
Dave:
And if you're not familiar with Earl Grey, Earl Grey is an English dark tea, black tea.
Jen:
But it's got bergamot, which is a citrus fruit. It's like a citrus fruit from the Mediterranean area.
Dave:
So it's kind of like a lemon and a lime cross, I'm not sure, exactly Some other things, but it's good flavor. You know not getting into that mango passion fruit tea or peach tea or any of that Just a little different flavor, and again the green. The green is really good. So if you like getting some health benefits from the green tea, but don't always want to drink hot or don't like hot tea, or maybe you don't want quite as much caffeine.
Jen:
Or less caffeine in green tea.
Dave:
So that's yeah, that's another good thing to try it out.
Jen:
Yeah, absolutely.
Dave:
So that's Sweet Tea and Takas for this week. Leave us a review on your podcast feed of choice and that helps reach other people. Send us a question, send us a. If you have a story about sweet tea in your life or grown up or whatever, or maybe a method you use, you know, let us know.
Jen:
Yeah, we'd love to hear from you.
Dave:
Visit us on Facebook or our website and there you go, have some sweet tea. I think I may make some huh. Sounds good to me All right, bye, bye-bye.