Sweet Tea - Mint Julep - photo B. C. Hill
House Wine of the South
On a recent road trip through the south, in a vintage truck with out air conditioning, my son, Matt, and I were longing for southern sweet tea.
According to the May issue of Southern Living, “Sweet tea is the house wine of the South.”
The basic recipe is simple. The fun is to go off the highway to find those rare, one of a kind, places that make true southern fare from scratch.
Southern Living Sweet Tea
Ingredients
3 cups water
2 large, family size, tea bags
3/4 cup sugar
7 cups cold water
Method
Bring 3 cups water to boil in a large saucepan.
Add tea bags.
Boil one minute, remove from heat.
Cover and steep 10 minutes.
Discard tea bags.
Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Poor into a 1-gal. container.
Add 7 cups cold water.
Serve over ice.
Now the fun begins. You can make tasty variations by adding favorite flavors. We devoured mugs full of sweet tea made with half lemonade, known as an Arnold Palmer, on our journey. This paired well with the smokey barbecue pit stops that we discovered on the back roads of the Carolinas.
Blackberry, ginger and honey, and lemon-blueberry are other additions to try at home on a warm summer afternoon.
I arrived home before Derby Day, and prepared this version for my neighbors.
Mint Julep Sweet Tea
Ingredients
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1 lemon sliced
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 cups cold sweetened tea
1 cup bourbon
Crushed ice
Garnish: fresh mint leaves
It is fortunate that the Derby race is short, because this one can sneak up.
