#birthplaceofsweettea #summervillesouthcarolina #sweettea

Another great Travel Vlog about Summerville, SC and the Birthplace of Sweet Tea. It’s one of our favorite year-round thirst quenchers and corporate America including McDonald’s restaurants have made Sweet Tea popular to everyone. We visited the mural and spent some time exploring Summerville. Even country music superstars like #taylorswift and #billycurrington have hit songs about Sweet Tea.

Here are some tips for making Sweet Tea: – Use tea specially blended for iced tea. Southern sweet tea is an iced tea, meaning that it is tea made to be served over ice. Some brands that are preferred for iced tea are Red Diamond, Luzianne, Lipton and Tetley.

Look for markings on the package to say that it is specially made for iced tea.

– Don’t burn your tea. Here’s what that means. You should bring your water to boil, remove it from the heat and then add your tea bags. This prevents the tea from burning and becoming bitter.

– Steeping matters. Allow your tea to steep for 15 minutes.

– Add a little baking soda. This can be controversial. But, hear me out. The baking soda prevents the tea from becoming cloudy and bitter. If you know that you will be drinking a gallon of tea in one day, you can skip the baking soda. If you think you’ll have some leftover to refrigerate, then definitely try it with the baking soda. It makes all the difference.

Here’s one of DM’s favorite Sweet Tea Recipes:

Step-by-Step Instructions

Boil. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a medium saucepan or a tea kettle over medium heat.

Steep. Remove from the heat and drop the tea bags into the water. Allow the tea bags to steep for 15 minutes.

Sweeten. As your tea is steeping, add your sugar to your pitcher. Remove the tea bags from the saucepan or kettle and press them against the side of the saucepan or kettle to press out as much of the tea as possible before discarding them. Pour half of the tea into the pitcher over the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then pour in the remaining tea. Stir in the baking soda and then fill the pitcher the rest of the way with fresh, cold water. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator.

World’s Largest Sweet Tea Stop by anytime day or night and visit Mason- The World’s Largest Sweet Tea. Mason lives in historic Downtown Summerville next to Town Hall, 200 South Main Street, Summerville, SC. Follow the signs to find him! Mason stands over 15 feet tall and can hold up to 2,524 gallons of Sweet Tea- The Champagne of the South.

The Town of Summerville made it’s way into the record book by setting the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest (Sweet) Iced Tea on National Iced Tea Day, also known as June 10, 2016. So what does it take to brew 2,524 gallons of sweet tea? The recording holding tea was brewed using SCE&G Natural Gas, 210 pounds of local tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation, 1,700 pounds of Dixie Crystals- the sugar of the south and a lot of local support.

Dr. Charles Shepard and his Pinehurst Tea Plantation, which was in production in Summerville between 1888 and 1915, was the first successful American tea plantation. There is the oft-repeated legend that iced tea was invented at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. But Southerners from Summerville quote a newspaper article from 1890 that enumerates the provisions for a Confederate veterans’ reunion, which include, in addition to staggering quantities of beef, ham, and bread, “880 gallons of iced tea to wash it down.”

“Let’s look back at the facts. The tea plant made its U.S. landing in Summerville. Summerville was also the site of the first commercial tea plantation, as well as the government’s tea farm. Let’s not forget the article documenting the confederate reunion. I’m going to do it. In regards to Summerville’s role in the great Southern drink of tea, ice, and sugar, I’m going to step out on a pretty thick limb and say it. Come on and say it with me, Summerville is the birthplace of sweet tea.”

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