tea

[redbird]

Via yonmei, a Friday Five I actually have something to say about.


1. Are you a tea drinker?
Yes.

2. Which do you prefer: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Black Tea, or Green Tea?
English breakfast is a black tea. I prefer Ceylon Breakfast, pure Assam, Irish breakfast, or PG tips, but English breakfast is fine. So are some flavored teas, like vanilla, cinnamon, or mango. I'm not an Earl Grey drinker.

3. What is your favorite herbal tea?
By default, Bigelow's orange-and-spice

4. Do you take ice in your cold tea?
Usually, but I tend to put ice in a lot of cold drinks.

5. Have you ever had Sweet Tea?
If I understand the question correctly, no. Never even heard of it. If this means, do I put sugar in my tea, yes I do, and milk as well, when drinking black (Indian-style) teas. Not in oolongs. Edited based on Minnehaha's info: Sure. I usually sweeten my iced tea.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Sweet Tea" is a Southern staple. It doesn't surprise me that a New Yorker has never heard of it.

B

[redbird]

Okay, but what is it?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Sweetened ice-tea (no one ever claimed it was interesting.

Random sweet tea recipe from Google:

http://www.grits.com/tea.htm

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Here's another recipe:

http://www.foodtv.com/recipes/re-c1/0,6255,17870,00.html

Who knew there were so many weird variants...

B

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Ah, but sweet tea is not tea that has been brewed and then sweetened after it is chilled. Sweet tea is sweetened as it is made. Tea to which you've added sugar afterwards is sweetened tea. Or sweetened unsweet tea, to be perfectly didactic.

It's a pretty good litmus test for the Southernness (geographically or from cultural imports) of a place. Does it serve sweet tea? Or do they look at you blankly and say, "Uh, yeah," and bring you a sugar packet?

On to the survey!

1. yes
2. darjeeling (noting your assam and irish breakfast preferences for next tea time; how do you like scottish breakfast?)
3. the new white & honeysuckle tea I just got (does that count as herbal?)
4. i don't drink cold tea; i drink iced tea. so yes.
5. there is only sweet tea. And it is blessed among the mighty. For lo it satisfies the thirst, and cools the tongue. Sweetens the disposition. And improves the charitability of the drinker. grrrr. (That's the grumble of a dissatisfied tea drinker outside her native guzzle zone.)

[redbird]

I completely forgot Darjeeling (which is even in my LJ interests list). Duh.

I don't know if I've had Scottish breakfast tea. Research is in order.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I drank some of your Darjeeling yesterday, when I was wondering if caffeine might help my head. I'm still not terribly fond of it.

Irish Breakfast is so much nicer than English Breakfast that it isn't funny, I don't know what Jackson of Piccadilly are thinking. When I worked in London I used to go into their shop and buy tea and get given free samples of all sorts of weird things, but I never tried their Irish Breakfast until I was in Montreal.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Ah, but sweet tea is not tea that has been brewed and then sweetened after it is chilled.

Thank you. I was gonna say. Only probably more vehemently.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

As was I. Proper sweet tea is one thing I miss from the South. Another is Waffle House.

Honeysuckle tea?

[dmk.livejournal.com]

What brand is the honeysuckle tea? How much does it taste like honeysuckle? I was a honeysuckle nectar addict as a child!

Re: Honeysuckle tea?

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. Vines heavy with nodding yellow & white heads. Warm scented night breezes. Competing with the bees for the nectary tops. Aaaaah.

What I have I stumbled on by accident, looking for white tea, after being served a most amazing cup thereof up at treacle_well's. Down in DC, in Dupont Circle, at the tiny kitchen/housewares store near Kramerbooks (it's barely wide enough to walk through single file, and has an astounding selection of goodies), I found Honeysuckle White tea -- white tea with "natural honeysuckle flavoring". Like liquid flowers. Mmmmmm.

Re: Honeysuckle tea?

[redbird]

Can I bring cattitude over to visit you? He's a big honeysuckle fan. (I'd like to try it myself, but less eagerly, I suspect.)

Re: Honeysuckle tea?

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Drop by anytime. Or, if you have a hard time getting him into the neighborhood, drop by yourself and pick up a teabag. :-).

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Sweet tea is sweetened as it is made.

Can you say more about this? It sounds like the Proper Steps are(roughly) 1) make the tea; 2) sweeten the tea; 3) chill the tea.

What is different about the finished product if it is sweetened after it is chilled? How could you tell it from tea that was sweetened before it was chilled? I haven't made iced tea to test this, but I do not think I could tell, from tasting the finished product, at which point in its making it was sweetened.

K. [wants the straight dope from a bona fide sweet tea drinker]

The Straight Dope From a Bona Fide Sweet Tea Drinker

[(Anonymous)]

As taught to me by my granny in Lee County, Georgia:

1) Get yourself a large pitcher to make the tea in
2) Place an appropriate amount of table sugar in the bottom
3) boil some water
4) pour a bit of the water in the pitcher
5) stir with a long handled wooden spoon to make a sort of sugar slurry
6) add an appropriate number of Lipton tea bags
7) add the rest of the boiling water
8) stir until mixed
9) let cool and steep, usually for several hours
10) refrigerate

* It is worth noting that 'appropriate amount' changes based on locality within the South, preferences of the tea drinkers, and the availability of clear glass for the container and ample sunshine, at which point you are making 'sun tea', another Southern favorite.