Kitchen

[Carmie]

I have traveled a lot in this great country and I prefer iced tea all year around. Sweet Tea is a term I have only heard  in the southern  states.

We call it iced tea in PA if we wanted it with sugar. If we don't want sugar premixed, we ask for unsweetened tea.

[ECBG]

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@Carolina925 wrote:

It sounds strange to me when people refer to "sweet tea". I'm southern and never have I heard this term before recently. Yes, it's such a little thing but sounds wonky to me. I've noticed in the past couple of years that, when I ask for iced tea, I'm usually asked if I want "sweet tea". No, I don't want sweet tea; when they bring it out, it's always with a tea spoon and a container with all kinds of sweetener alongside. I must be the only person alive who doesn't take sugar in their tea...does that make me special?

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@Carolina925 

I am in the south and often go to lunch with a girlfriend.  About half of them ask for unsweetened tea.  Some just lemon and water.

I have had some good tea (sweetened) and some not.  Some I have had had no flavor of the tea, just the sugar.  Bazaar!

It is only in the last 25 years (here) that you ordered sweet tea and most tea was served sweet.

[DiAnne]

I drink iced tea with just a squeeze of fresh lemon.  I also drink coffee black.

[CJC]

My S Carolina dentist says sweet tea has wrecked havoc on his patients' teeth, especially the teeth of children and young adults. I practically gagged the first time I tasted it, like drinking a cup of sugar with a little liquid mixed in. The old traditional southern diet is one reason obesity and health issues are so prevalent down here. 

[Reever]

My doctor informed me that sweet tea has as much sugar as soda and I was ordered to remove it from my diet. I now drink flavored seltzers in lieu of the sweet tea. I have never been a fan of unsweetened teas. Many on the boards have diabetes beware that iced tea is an unsuspecting bad drink to have if you have high sugar.

[beach-mom]

I grew up in the south and my mom made Luzianne "sweet" tea. We called it "tea." Living in Texas as an adult, I called it "tea." Mom would keep a glass of that, or the iced coffee she liked, in the refrigerator and sip on it all day.

Shortly after we moved up here, I met a friend from England who introduced me to tea rooms. DD and I love to go. And when I taught in Japan I learned the ritual of the tea ceremony.

 I still love Luzianne. I gave up soda about 3 years ago (I had been addicted to Diet Coke), but I could never give up my tea!  

[Melzie]

I think proper is a relative term and it boils down (pardon the pun) to personal or regional preferences or options available.  I have friends from Scotland who would not think of having tea without milk in it.  Not an option for me though.  :-)   

[SurferWife]

I was born & bred on sweet tea (proud Texan here)!  To this day, I always keep a gallon of sweet tea in my ice box.  I don't make it as sweet as Mama used to make it; I cut the sugar in half and it is still sweet enough.

[KatieB]

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@zitawins wrote:

It's because you are Southern! In the North, when we ask for iced tea, that's what we get. I have a friend from South Carolina and she says the same thing you do. She introduced all of us to her "sweet tea" and we were surprised. She also said that when she first moved up here, no one knew what she meant when she asked for creamy potatoes. WE call them mashed potatoes.

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@zitawins  Nope.  I am from NC and have always lived in NC.  We have always said 'iced tea', and most of the time just tea (it's always with ice, never hot) and never said 'sweet tea'.  And would never drink unsweetened tea, so the 'sweet' part is always there whether you said it or not.  I don't know who came up with this 'sweet tea' name. 

[candys mine]

Being a Northerner it's always been called Iced tea.  When ordering an Iced tea the question from the waitstaff is Sweetened or Unsweetened.  Always Un for me. I used to like to squeeze a lemon wedge into the tea then add the wedge.  I stopped adding the wedge when I read the peels were not always the cleanest.  I choose not to recognize that the knife has to cut through the peel to make the wedge.