Before I Knew Better.....

Sweet southern iced tea......grew up on the stuff. Although, I was never very fond of it. I remember my Great Grandma's tea and my Grandma's tea. Both were so sweet you could hardly taste the tea. LOL. My mom's tea was sweet but not quite as much. But the thing I remember even more than all that sugar is the bitter taste left behind with every swig and gulp. I think between the sugar and the bitter taste I was nearly ruined forever from liking tea. Fortunately, I know better now. 😏

I had no clue that the tea I gee up on was over steeped. All I knew was that to make tea you had to use lots of tea bags and steep it in boiled water at least 20 minutes or so. The longer the better. And the more sugar the better. That's the southern way you know. ;-) I think all the sugar was added to try and mask the bitterness from over steeping.

Then there was the "Hand" tea. Yes, we had our own little way of brewing our tea in the Hand household. Everyone thought we were nuts but they sure loved it. You see, I'd always forget about the water boiling so had to come up with a way to brew it and not burn down the house. Unlike me, my husband loved sweet iced tea. So I decided to put my tea bags in the brew basket of the coffee pot and brew it just like a pit of coffee. Worked line a charm. Best part, I didn't have to add so much sugar because it wasn't as bitter. But it still was t my favorite beverage. Little did I know, the tea bag teas weren't the best quality.

I still preferred my coffee and espresso drinks.

And now, well let's just say I know how to make a cup of tea the right way using the right kind of tea. And I must say, I'm a tea convert slightly on the obsessed side. LOL.

Just a side note. The image shown at the top of this page can be found at https://wanelo.com/shop/southern-sweet-tea. It is wall art available for purchase. I am not affiliated with the site or seller in any way. I just found it and loved the image but also give credit where credit is due. :-)