Baptist Chardonnay...

There's a great feature in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today on sweet tea. If you can, it's worth picking up a copy of the paper, because not only is there a great history of this beverage, but lots of sweet tea recipes (of course some of them have alcohol--you are in the South, y'all...) and--of particular fun for me--a wee little article on the literary history of sweet tea in the South. A yummy read all around. I would highly recommend checking out the recipe for Magnolia Grill's Sweet tea-Brined Pork Chops which looks especially yummy.

One of my personal pet peeves when it comes to iced tea is that nasty unsweetened iced tea plopped down in front of you with a little holder of sugar packets, Splenda and Sweet-n-Low. Any idiot knows that it is IMPOSSIBLE to properly dissolve sugar granules in a cold glass of tea--they all just swirl to the bottom and clump there in a sullen little heap. The result? A completely unsweetened glass of tea until you get to the last swallow, which is just a few drops of tea and a mouthful of grainy sugar. Oh, yum. Of course, on the other side of the spectrum is that proper sweet tea is served in most places in the South, but it is so sweet you can feel it candying the enamel on your teeth. There is very little difference between it and pancake syrup. Now for many Southerners, this is not a problem, but a bonus. Me, I prefer a little nuance with my sweet tea; a melding of sweet flavor and tea flavor. A balance.

One great solution I read about in the AJC article is found at Watershed in Decatur, GA--the restaurant at the very top of my "I Must Eat Here Before I Die" list. The restaurant serves their tea unsweetened, BUT they serve it alongside a chilled mini-carafe of mint-infused sugar syrup--how ingenious is that? I love that idea. I may steal it for my home parties.

Meanwhile, here's my recipe for sweet tea. It's evolved over the years from my original version of sweet tea, which I learned from my East Coast mother. That version involved a gallon of water, 4 regular-sized tea bags and 1/4 cup of sugar. The result was somewhat reminiscent of barely sweet dishwater. My Georgia-born-and-bred husband was NOT amused. To save our then-brand-new marriage, I quickly learned a proper version of sweet tea that please most palates--at least Southern palates, anyway:

Fill a pot with 3-4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add 5 family-sized Luzianne brand tea bags (you can use other brands, but Luzianne really is the best.) At the same time, dump in 1 cup of granulated sugar, and stir it around a little bit to get the brewing started and dissolve the sugar. Let it sit for a good long while--about the amount of time it takes to feed, clean up, change and corral 2 children under three into their beds for a nap--maybe a little less if your children are true hellions. Pour the resulting strong, sweet tea syrup into a 3-4 quart pitcher and fill it up the rest of the way with cold water (add a bit of ice if you need to speed the chilling process to have it ready by dinner). Chill until there is a filmy layer of condensation glistening on your pitcher. Serve over ice--straight for many Southerners, but I prefer a good splash of fresh-squeezed lemon juice in mine.

And there you have it. Drink up, y'all.