Spilling the tea on the Lowcountry’s favorite drink
S.C.’s love affair with sweet tea is indisputable. It’s true– besides its omnipresent status as the house beverage of nearly every restaurant in the region, evidence of our devotion to the sugary refreshment is palpable:
- Firefly’s Sweet Tea Vodka is distilled here on Wadmalaw Island
- Mason, the World’s Largest Sweet Tea, calls Summerville home
- Tea is our official State Hospitality Beverage in South Carolina
- Charleston Tea Plantation is the only commercial tea plantation in North America
Mason, the World’s Largest Sweet Tea
Image provided by the Town of Summerville
While there are certain cities beyond the Mason-Dixon line that claim to have thrown the original Tea Party (Boston), + others that allege to have invented sweet tea (Chicago), we’re here to set things straight– the Lowcountry rightfully deserves credit for both. Sort of.
The proof is in the pitcher
The Charleston Tea Parties
These days, the combination of tea, ice, + sugar has become known as the Holy Trinity of the South– but we weren’t always such dedicated fans. That’s due to Parliament’s 1773 passage of the Tea Act, which essentially monopolized tea sales in the American colonies– a move which, you guessed it, angered American merchants.
So, on Dec. 3, 1773– 13 days before that famous Tea Party in Boston– a group of Charlestonians refused to purchase a shipment of tea that arrived at the Harbor. Instead, they seized it + locked it away in the Exchange building.
But here in CHS, we know how to have our tea + dump it, too. One year later, another ship arrived with imports of tea. This time– it was all dumped into the Cooper River. Sip on that, Parliament.
Will the real inventor of sweet tea please stand up?
Trick question– because sweet tea is best enjoyed sitting down. Preferably on a porch.
Most historians will agree that the first place in the United States to achieve long-term tea production was in Summerville, at Dr. Charles Shepard’s Pinehurst Tea Plantation. After that, though, the truth about sweet tea’s origin gets a little murky.
The first known published sweet tea recipe was in an 1879 cookbook by Marion Cabell Tyree called “Housekeeping in Old Virginia.” However, it calls for green tea, not black.
Then, there’s the popular anecdote claiming iced tea was invented at the 1904 World’s Fair in Chicago. But two things are wrong with this story: 1. It isn’t true, as evidenced partially by the aforementioned recipe, published decades before the event, and 2. Even if it were true, the story does still not account for sweet tea.
Additionally, there really aren’t any historical accounts that explain the exact origin of sweet tea as we know it today: black tea, sweetened while hot, + poured over ice.
Can’t turn water into wine? Turn it into sweet tea.
While we don’t know for certain where sweet tea came from (though, for all intents + purposes, we’ll say Summerville), there’s one interesting theory about how it became so popular in the South: Baptists.
Some theorize that, because Southern Baptists are teetotalers (meaning they can’t drink alcohol), they instead tend to indulge in sugary beverages. In other words– since they’re not getting sugar from alcohol consumption– they’re putting it in their tea. Hallelujah sweet tea!
Like most Southerners, I used to prefer sweet tea– but after learning more about the dangers of consuming too much sugar (and learning that most servings of sweet tea contain more sugar than the American Heart Association’s recommended daily limit), I decided my calories were better spent elsewhere.
Now, I stick to enjoying a glass of unsweetened, ice tea (which naturally contains caffeine, but zero calories, + no added sugar) with a lemon, or– if I really need a sugary fix– I’ll lessen the blow by ordering a tea that’s half sweet, half unsweet.
Do you prefer your tea sweet or unsweet? Keep an eye for a poll on our Facebook page later today.
– Jen
