Photo: Enigmachck1; Flickr.

Donna Kirk

The other day, while I sat on the porch researching a new food article, my sister shot some e-mails back and forth with a friend in the South. I could hear her laughing from the next room. To me she seemed struck with a nostalgia about North Carolina almost poetic now that she lives in New England.

I nonchalantly called in, asking what was so funny. She called back:  “Nothing, just a southern drink.”  I sat up a little straighter. “Oh? A drink?”  “Yeah,” she said, “it’s called Sweet Tea.”

I paused. Then asked what “sweet tea” was? She grew wistful as she told me the basic ingredients. For my part, I felt a bit let down.

“Well…isn’t that just iced tea?”

She cocked her head and looked at me, concerned. “Sweet tea is many things. Is it iced tea? Yes.” I nodded. “But…at the same time,  no.” I wagged my head, my eyebrows furrowing. She turned to go inside and came back clutching something she had penned that day. “Just listen.” And she began to read.

The language flowed like water cruising down lush mountains and alongside green pastures, rolling south to old porches, churches, southern bells, sweltering gardens. I listened. What else could I do? My sister was reading an ode! In the midst of her descriptions (I could sense gothic town halls, farm laborers, blue collars, soldiers, luncheons, poverty, struggle, politics, folklore, the imbalance of wealth–you know, ‘Gone With The Wind’), there was a celebration of a drink in mason jars frosted with beads of moisture that could connect everyone, regardless of politics.

Turns out, sweet tea is…iced tea…sort of.

According to my sister, sweet tea is an EXPERIENCE. Everyone’s grandmother has her own recipe. Some add mint. Others, frozen fruit. Some keep it simple, rustic and bare; others make it so sweet they can boil it down and use it as pancake syrup. It’s something mythical, if not noble, in nature–how each recipe is different. But, they say that when the magic of the drink hits, you are never the same. My sister says, “It’s more than a drink, it’s a metaphor for life.”

Woh.

After she disappeared inside, I sat back in the chair on my porch, then leaned forward and starting clicking on the keyboard. I discovered that June is actually National Sweet Tea/Iced Tea Month. Get out! In a smart, fun article published out of Tennessee, Jennifer Biggs discusses the histories and phenomenon of tea, iced or hot, while offering some recipes for making your own sweet tea.

Who knows. Maybe this summer is the summer of sweet tea? Maybe I can try different recipes and, gulp, discover one of my own? And maybe my sister is a little wiser, more mysterious than I knew?

Shhhhh…