Iced Tea vs. Sweet Tea

[Pard]

Some people may not have even realized that there is a "war" between iced tea and sweet tea, but there is. Chances are, if you are not aware of this "war" you are from the west and are not really a Northerner or a Southerner.

A little background. Iced tea is a tea that is cooled and then served straight-up, usually you drink it as it is or you sweeten it with sugar or lemon.

Sweet tea is a form of iced tea that is sweetened before the beverage is cooled, so you can put loads of sugar into it and still have it dissolve. Sometimes you are served sweet tea as two glasses, one has regular iced tea (usually stronger concentration than normal) and the other glass has super-concentrated sugar water and then you pour them into one another.

If you order your iced teas sweetened, by all technical definitions you are drinking sweet tea (unless you know that they add the sugar after it is cold).

---

So, the question is: Iced Tea or Sweet Tea?

I cannot stand sweet tea. Why?

Firstly, sweet tea is sweetened while the tea is still hot, so it becomes super-concentrated and is TOO sweet for its own good.

Secondly, when you add this much sugar you destroy the complex flavor tea has. To build on this, when you sweeten your cold tea the proper way, that is to say with lemons, you further enhance the complex flavor of tea.

Thirdly, tea should always been sweetened by the drinker.

Fourthly, there is something to say for the texture of undissolved sugar and you cannot find this in any sweet teas.

Now I am a Northerner through and through. But I am a classic Northerner, not one of this yuppy liberal Northerners that plague the land with their McDonald's and Duncan Donut's iced teas. Iced tea MUST be made with real tea and not with a lipton package. Arizona's are NOT real iced teas, and green tea is NOT the proper tea to make iced tea, black is. We got rid of green tea during World War 2, and there is no reason to go back to it now.

 

[Bent Radar]

I like unsweetened tea, but I prefer it lightly sweetened.

The problem is that what most people consider sweet tea is drastically over-sweetened.

 

[Mike]

Neither! Diet Coke every single time; just for the taste of it, just for the WOW of it... More and more Diet Coke, and then more!

:robinhood Vile river water! If only river water is offered at a restaurant, plain iced tea with a whole lot of lemons.

 

[handy]

Oh my! Well, y'all, I was born in Arizona and grew up in California, but my mother, my mother's mother and the dear sweet lady that I'm named after, Dora Watson Fields Barrett, my great-grandmother were from Oklahoma, where Sweet Tea reigns supreme. It would be a rebellion against my heritage to allow the bitter sludge that passes for unsweetened tea to pass my lips.

I do understand though, and forgive, the ignorance shown in the above posts, because it's very hard to get proper Sweet Tea if one is north of the Mason-Dixon line or west of Texas or Oklahoma. Too many restaurants serve a beverage that is a combination of Lipton and high-fructose corn syrup. Real Sweet Tea is boiled with black tea and is only sweetened with pure cane or beet sugar, not corn syrup. Making up proper Sweet Tea is an art best learned at one's mother's knee.

As for you, Mike, my heart is burdened, burdened I tell you. Here we are, brother and sister in the same church and yet you seem to prefer Diet Coke :verysick to the fresh, crisp taste of . 2

 

[Mike]

As for you, Mike, my heart is burdened, burdened I tell you. Here we are, brother and sister in the same church and yet you seem to prefer Diet Coke :verysick to the fresh, crisp taste of . 2

:verysick

 

[westtexas]

Y'all are kidding, right? Tea comes in more than one flavor??? I thought all that our Lord ever created was sweet tea. You mean there other kinds? Really???????? Naw, it can't be.

Westtexas

 

[jasoncran]

Y'all are kidding, right? Tea comes in more than one flavor??? I thought all that our Lord ever created was sweet tea. You mean there other kinds? Really???????? Naw, it can't be.

Westtexas

no he didnt create them, they elvolved from a proto tea conconction. and i like sweet tea.

 

[Vic C.]

I dissolve my sugar in a small bit of warn water, then add it to my cold, iced down tea. Sometimes I add fresh mint and lemon verbana as I'm brewing the tea.

 

[Nick]

Iced Tea, but Mountain Dew all the way!

 

[jasoncran]

Iced Tea, but Mountain Dew all the way!

i have used that stuff to kill cockroaches

 

[Mike]

Iced Tea, but Mountain Dew all the way!

At least MD doesn't try to defraud the REAL cola, so in that respect it's harmless in its 1% market share.
:verysick

I don't know how people drink sweet-tea. It's like diluting a cup of sugar in a glass of an innocent glass of tea. :gah Iced tea, no sugar, extra REAL lemons.

 

[veteran]

I'm from the South, and we call it either sweet tea or just ice tea, not "iced tea", but "ice tea". We don't sound the 'd' in 'iced'. It just means ice cold tea in a tall glass vs. hot tea in a coffee or tea cup.

And it's usually only made one way, dissolving the sugar in the tea while it's still hot. Most restuarants in the South serve it sweetened hot or unsweetened. I've never seen another glass of sugar water served to dillute it with. At home we'd add a lemon slice about half the time.

That stuff in the can (like Lipton, etc.) is a joke.

It's simple to make with one key to the process, don't let the tea come to a boil on the stove. Right up to a boil, but not boiling. Put the sugar in the jug, pour in the hot tea off the stove (watch it, it's hot), and stir it and the sugar, then add cold water to taste and stir. If the tea boils on the stove, it'll turn dark (too concentrated, like the stuff in cans).

I've noticed a couple of companies making real southern ice tea and selling it in the grocery stores here in the South. One of them is the real thing, the other's just another Lipton clone.

How about corn bread?

Most southerners don't put sugar in their cornbread. That's a tradition that started up north, and it's called 'Johnny Cake'. I suspect the name 'Johnny Cake' came from what the northerners called Confederate soldiers, like 'Johnny Reb'. First time I bit into a piece of cornbread my sister-in-law (from Ohio) made, I got a surprise. It had sugar in it. I didn't like it.

The secret:
Got to have an iron skillet, well seasoned with oil. We use Crisco shortening. Put about a tablespoon of Crisco in an iron skillet in a pre-heated oven (at least 450 degrees F.) and get it good and hot first. Then pull the skillet out and pour in the cornbread mix and put it in the oven. The batter will pop and sizzle when you pour it in. That's what gives that great crunchy cornbread bottom crust. That Crisco in the skillet will also help release the cornbread when you flip the skillet upside down onto a platter. Some folks use real mayonaze instead of eggs in the batter. Cut it in triangle wedges, slice open and throw the butter to it. Nothing like it.

Another thing, in the South we use the word 'coke' for all soda types. If I say I want a coke, it don't necessarily mean I want a Coca-Cola or Coke. Some northerners get confused when we ask, "What kind of cokes do you have?"

 

[jasoncran]

nothing like home southern ice tea and also doens any like sun tea.

to make sun tea, take water pour into glass jar. and add the tea bag, close lid and place on the roof of the house or what not or anywhere the sun will beat down on it. leave set for 24hrs and drink.

 

[veteran]

Yeah, sun tea is great too!

 

[Caroline H]

Sometimes you are served sweet tea as two glasses, one has regular iced tea (usually stronger concentration than normal) and the other glass has super-concentrated sugar water and then you pour them into one another.

Ok, what??? No wonder you guys don't like it... you don't know how to drink it!

Firstly, sweet tea is sweetened while the tea is still hot, so it becomes super-concentrated and is TOO sweet for its own good.

Secondly, when you add this much sugar you destroy the complex flavor tea has.

Firstly, it depends on how much sugar one puts in one's tea when making it. Secondly, it depends on how much sugar one puts in one's tea when making it.

It's simple to make with one key to the process, don't let the tea come to a boil on the stove. Right up to a boil, but not boiling. Put the sugar in the jug, pour in the hot tea off the stove (watch it, it's hot), and stir it and the sugar, then add cold water to taste and stir. If the tea boils on the stove, it'll turn dark (too concentrated, like the stuff in cans).

I'm sorry, did you say not to let the tea come to a boil?? Try this next time: Boil water, remove water from heat, THEN add tea bags and let steep however long you like it... then add sugar and dissolve, then pour into a gallon jug, then fill with water and refrigerate. Done,... none of this boiling tea business.

:robinhood Vile river water! If only river water is offered at a restaurant, plain iced tea with a whole lot of lemons.

BLASPHEMY!!! If the Lord were on this earth He would drink PEPSI!! I'm going to pray for you Mike

Oklahoma, where Sweet Tea reigns supreme.

Dora, you may have some good sweet tea heritage in your family, and I agree with you that it's best to learn it from your mama, but ... honestly... Sweet tea reigns supreme in GEORGIA, not Oklahoma.


NOW!! I say all of this to make my real point. If you're not drinking your tea hot with a bit of sugar and milk, you're wasting your time! And I'm not talking about taking a teabag and putting it in a cup and adding boiling water either, that's ridiculous. I'm talking about a bag of PG Tips in a teapot. Now that's where real tea drinkers get serious.

 

[jasoncran]

caroline this is america not england, that's the english way of tea.
well since went there , must muslim and asiatic countries like tea(green tea or chia). real men drink those teas.

 

[Blazin Bones]

must muslim and asiatic countries like tea(green tea or chia). real men drink those teas.

Jason does not know what he is saying... he is clearly Depepsidrated.

Here you go, my friend.

 

[jasoncran]

must muslim and asiatic countries like tea(green tea or chia). real men drink those teas.

Jason does not know what he is saying... he is clearly Depepsidrated.

Here you go, my friend.

lol, i have pepsi in my fridge and at work.

but she mentioned green tea, and i could make it afghani style have tim bouncing off walls.

 

[Blazin Bones]

Jason, you are hallucinating without proper Pepsi intake. No one mentioned anything about green tea except for you. I know better than to try and substitue Green tea for Pepsi.

Please just drink the Pepsi. you'll feel much better.

 

[Caroline H]

must muslim and asiatic countries like tea(green tea or chia). real men drink those teas.

Jason does not know what he is saying... he is clearly Depepsidrated.

Here you go, my friend.

lol, i have pepsi in my fridge and at work.

but she mentioned green tea, and i could make it afghani style have tim bouncing off walls.

Green tea?? What are you talkin' bout man?? :biglol Green tea is for infants, grown-ups drink black tea. I never mentioned such a thing