Pour Some Sugar on Me

Sweet tea. An entire post on sweet tea. Not just because it's Southern, but because it's a million and five degrees here, and I craved it today for the first time since last football season. So, like a good little Southerner, I went to Southern Living's website to find out what I could about this sweet summer drink.

(via)

History of Sweet Iced Tea (via)
It’s easy to understand how sweet iced tea came about in the South. First, the summers always have been hot. Second, ice boxes and the rise of refrigeration made it easy to make the tea cold. Third, rationing of sugar during World War II encouraged creative and thrifty Southern cooks to add sugar to the tea while hot, so it took less sugar to make the tea sweet. The super- saturated elixir soon became a Southern staple and the undisputed drink with barbecue and fried chicken, and at fish fries, family reunions, and church suppers. That’s because Southern gatherings are usually big, and large quantities can be made quickly and inexpensively.

Perhaps it’s fitting that South Carolina was the first place in the United States where tea was grown and the only place where it was ever produced commercially. And, the oldest sweet tea recipe in print can be traced to a community cookbook published in 1879 titled Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree

It also just so happens that I live in a city that houses a restaurant with the best sweet tea known to man: Milo's! Seriously. They sell this stuff in grocery stores. They also have a Splenda version if you don't want to consume the empty calories of the original. But if you do get a chance, at least take a sip of the original. I promise that you won't be disappointed.

And since it's me, and well, I'm me, they also make a sweet tea vodka. I'm pretty sure they sell this country wide now, but make sure you mix it with Minute Maid's Light Lemonade and make a spiked Arnold Palmer. Delicious!

And yes...I just did an entire post on sweet tea. Cravings are terrible!!