Sweet tea is a form of iced tea in which sugar or some other form of sweetener is added to the hot water before, while, or after brewing the tea but before the beverage is cooled or chilled and served. Adding sweetener to hot water allows for supersaturation of the solution, enabling the tea to hold more dissolved sweetener than under colder temperatures. Many restaurants have dispensers that dispense hot or warm sweet tea, and customers pour it over a full cup of ice to make iced tea. This especially sweet variation of tea enjoys most of its popularity in the Southern United States, though bottled iced teas labeled "Southern Style" or "Extra-sweet Southern Style" appear in refrigerated cases throughout the country. Sweet tea is often flavored with mint leaves in a popular variant of sweet tea known as sun tea, which is brewed by leaving loose tea or tea bags in water for several hours.
Most restaurants in the region, including fast-food and other national chains, offer a customer the choice of sweet tea or unsweetened iced tea (Usually referred to as "tea" and "unsweet tea", respectively.). It is a signature drink of the region to the point where the Southern use of the word "tea" is largely used to refer specifically to cold sweet tea and not to hot or unsweetened varieties. In 2003, supposedly as an April Fool's joke, the Georgia House introduced a bill making it a misdemeanor to sell iced tea in a restaurant that did not also offer sweet iced tea on the menu. The bill never went to a vote.
An important part of the tradition of sweet tea in the South is the fact that it can be made in large quantities quickly and inexpensively. It is usually consumed daily as a staple drink.
The oldest known recipe for sweet ice tea was published in 1879 in a community cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree, who was born in Texas. The recipe called for green tea. In fact, most sweet tea consumed during this period was green tea. However, during World War II, the major sources of green tea were cut off from the United States, leaving them with tea almost exclusively from British-controlled India which produced black tea. Americans came out of the war drinking predominantly black tea.[2]
In 2008 Firefly Distillery based in South Carolina released Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, which has become quite popular in the American South along with some other areas of the United States.
The Sweet Tea Queens are a group of women based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA, dedicated to the pursuit of fun. The Boss Sweet Tea Queen, Carolyn, leads a group of about ten area women. They all wear matching costumes and accessories, consisting of a green sequin "beauty queen" dress, tiara, boots, sunglasses and accessories. The queens come from all walks of life; a number of them are notable business and organizational leaders.
The Sweet Tea Queens are a chapter of the Sweet Potato Queens [1], which is based in Jackson, Mississippi. Each chapter assumes its own theme and designs its own costumes. Some of the chapters participate in parades and fundraisers in their local communities. The Sweet Potato Queens concept has been explained and made popular by a series of books by Jill Conner Browne of Jackson, who came up with the idea in 1982. It involves a belief in a sisterhood that promotes self esteem and positive thinking, appealing to mostly middle-aged middle-class women. In 2005, almost ten thousand women dressed up in costumes and came to Jackson for their St Patrick's Day parade, proceeds from which benefited a children's hospital in the area.
The Sweet Tea Queens are a very active chapter that has repeatedly appeared at festivals and events to raise funds for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. The Sweet Tea Queens have their own professional float to ferry them through local parades, featuring the queens dancing to music that emanates from an on-board sound system. When they appear on behalf of charity organizations at fundraising events, they often staff a booth or run a contest. In addition, the queens often make appearances at area malls. Among the parades on the queens' regular schedule are the Cowpens, South Carolina Mighty Moo parade, the Gaffney, South Carolina Peach Festival, Hendersonville, North Carolina's King Apple parade, and a number of upstate South Carolina Christmas parades.
In addition to the group of queens, several of the STQ's husbands and boyfriends are associated with the chapter by attending meetings and assisting with other chapter functions.
Having been compared to other groups like the Red Hat Society and the YaYa Sisterhood, the Sweet Tea Queens see themselves as "belles gone bad." In their "regular lives," they are teachers, nurses and business leaders. But when they put on the green sequins, these mothers and wives become disco-dancing "showgirls" for a few hours and have more fun than many do in a lifetime.
They have appeared in feature articles in the Spartanburg Herald Journal, South Carolina Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Belle magazine and others. They have also been guests on WSPA-FM's morning show a number of times as well as being featured in Episode eight of Charter Cable's Talk Of The Town show.