Home > Wendy Does Waco > Archives > 2008 > July > 09
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
God, family and good sweet tea
I was 12 the first time I ever tasted sweet tea. I was in the single wide trailer of a friend name Christy on the edge of Greer, SC.
I had had tea before, sure. My dad would set the jar of sun tea out on the patio table in SA, and like some science project I would marvel at how, just sitting there, the liquid would become this aromatic amber mixture that my parents liked to drink with lemon.
Christy’s tea, on a barefoot, dusty, hot Carolina day, sounded like a good idea. And it looked like tea. But I nearly spewed it across the room when I began to gulp down the sugar/water concoction. Christy’s tea was roughly six degrees of separation from the tea part.
As my Carolina education continued, I grew to love sweet tea. (I also earned the nickname “Red” from Christy’s family, learned where to sit in the main room so that the air from the AC unit hit you and added both grits and greens to my diet)
Back in the 80s, I had a hard time finding sweet tea at Texas restaurants( I had no idea how to make it like Southern folk and still don’t). Luckily, times have changed, and it’s much easier to find that red/gold nectar. And some days, like yesterday, good sweet tea is like a grandma’s hand on your back — it doesn’t fix everything, but it can infuse a bad day with an ounce of comfort.
McAlister’s is a good choice, everybody knows that. And Bush’s tea is the closest to Christy’s. Bottled Sweet Leaf is good in a pinch. Weirdly enough, my fav is the sweet tea at Rosa’s with a big slice of lime in it. Actually, I’m trying to ween off the sugar, so these days, I tend to go half sweet, half un, and no one ever seems to have a problem when I order it that way.
The tropical iced tea at Simply Good at The Shops is a good un and the iced green tea (un) at Starbucks is another favorite. Any tea stops I’m missing???
